From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, has identified lackadaisical management of Nigeria’s diversity as one of the major reasons Nigeria has failed to reach its potential since the country got its independence over 61 years ago.
In a short interview with journalists at the just concluded Toyin Falola Interview Series, held on various social media platforms.
Jega stated that the failure of the successive governments in the country to hand the diversity well has degenerated into disturbing security challenges in the country.
‘One of the major challenges that have brought us as a country to where we are is the poor management of our diversity. We have not utilised the benefits of having a federal system of government to be able to better manage this diversity,’ Jega stated.
‘The bottom line is the character and disposition of those who find themselves in leadership positions. If we continue to allow a political electoral recruitment process that brings into the federal and local levels people who do not think or act beyond their parochial confines, then the challenges will continue.
‘The fundamental starting point is to recognise that we are a diverse country. But we are all citizens of this country and our duties, rights and obligations are defined constitutionally; and also that everybody deserves the protection of the right to religion and other citizenship rights of residence.
‘One of the major aggravating factors is the lack of interest, capacity or political will by those in positions of leadership to emphasize the protection and defence of citizenship rights. If rights are protected, we will minimize fears and suspicions, and then get to relate with each other as citizens.
‘It has to do with the way our leaders appreciate the need for association, unity in diversity, and put it into practice. Those in leadership positions have deliberately refused to get out of their ethnoreligious cocoons when it comes to matters of governance, which are supposed to be holistic and broadly inclusive.’
Jega stated further that one of the major factors, which accounted for the country’s “failure to achieve our aspirations at independence has to do with the squandering of opportunities. The Federation of Nigeria was a colonial construct. In constructing this federal arrangement, the British, to a large extent, used divide and rule tactics, exploiting the ethnoreligious diversity of the country.
‘Regrettably, our leaders at independence saw themselves, rather than working together to build a nation, as leaders of smaller constituencies. That probably explained the absence of an aggressive pursuit of nation-building and national unity. Our leaders at independence were each busy trying to develop their regions. The tensions and politics associated with that led to the encroachment of the military and long periods of military interregnum that we have had.
‘The military rulers we had, in their strategies to remain in power, continued with the strategies of divide and rule against ethnic and religious grounds. Their primitive accumulation of wealth in terms of vandalisation of state resources and looting commenced and continued to grow and expand disproportionately.
‘Niger is a country that is rich and has great potential but it has been busy mismanaging the diversity whether under the initial independence period or military rule. Since the transition to the so-called democracy, things have become worse since 1999. The mobilisation of ethnicity and religion has reached its height. We have seen so many crises and conflicts.
‘We are currently in a situation where almost on a daily basis we are seeing the growing lack of capacity of the state through the governance process to even carry out the basic functions of the state, which is the protection of lives and properties and securing the citizens. It is a very unfortunate thing that has happened.
‘The way and manner in which countries like Malaysia and Singapore have led themselves to prosperity are in stark contrast to what we have been doing here in Nigeria. There is no need to be agonizing over these issues. The key challenge is how to begin to change this negative trajectory of development and reposition Nigeria in a very positive direction. It may be difficult but it is not impossible if we apply our minds to it and develop the necessary consensus to be able to do that.
‘In all of those countries, the key to their developments is the capacity to develop elite consensus; to be able to develop national priorities and pursue them, whether it is in managing diversity or in socio-economic development.’
Speaking on INEC’s role in deepening internal democracy in political parties, the former INEC boss insisted that ‘what INEC does or does not do is all a function of the legal framework under which it operates. What we are seeing is that these dominant parties, particularly the parties in power are trying to introduce the legislative provisions that will make it possible for INEC to moderate the role of money in politics.
‘We paid a lot of attention to electronic transmission of election results to the more recent issue of direct primary. We have forgotten that they have raised the threshold of how much a candidate can spend to become a president, senator or governor. If you say the provisions of the 2010 electoral act (as amended) are unrealistic, then what they are providing is actually targeted at disadvantaging people who have no money or parties or access to state resources as they do.
‘A president, according to the new arrangement, will need N2billion to be able to contest. Unless, a person has access to the state treasury, how can he contest? They are already creating obstacles to parties that are not as endowed as they. INEC may have difficulty in that. What they are trying to do is to turn democracy into a plutocracy: a government by the rich for the rich.’
Other members of the interview panel aside Professor Falola were Professor Omotoye Olorode, Kadaria Ahmed, Bishop Hassan Kukah, Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, among others.