‘Nigeria is not running participatory democracy’

Many have argued that democracy is the best form of government because it provides opportunities for citizens to engage their leaders in the process of governance. It also ensures citizens’ inputs are factored into decision making. Akinsola Michael Johnson, the author of the book ‘Caught in a Trap’ in an interview with FRANK ELEANYA, shares some of his ideas for the ideal democracy and leadership Nigeria deserves.

What do you intend to achieve with this book?

To start with, this book is a gift to posterity. The second thing I want to achieve is that I want the people that will be privileged to have a copy of the book to know that some time, somebody referred to as Akinsola Michael Johnson was here and he said so many things on so many issues regarding Nigerian democracy and development.

Why the title ‘Caught in a Trap’; who is caught in a trap? 

Nigerians are the ones caught in a trap. There is an article in the book with the same title. I wrote it when the Goodluck Jonathan administration was about to exit power. The Minister of Power at that time made some comments that he does not want the incoming government to revisit privatisation. I said no. First, you are not the one to tell the incoming government whether to revisit your policy or not. Second, privatisation is not delivering. Privatisation was to improve efficiency. So if there is no efficiency and people are complaining and you are saying the government should do nothing about it, that means we are ‘caught in a trap’.

Tell us your thoughts on the Niger Delta

There is need for us to sit down and just look at issues genuinely. Because leaders from there are saying that if it continues like this and you continue to blow pipelines, what about the repercussions in that area? They are saying, let us look at issues cleverly and then find a way of amicably resolving them to live a better life. They are also saying that if the place continues to be polluted, they are going to suffer. You can see that the government is trying to resolve the issues but it appears there is no solution. Government is trying to engage but so many people are appearing as leaders, and government is asking who the genuine leaders are. Who do they really need to discuss with? The problem in Niger Delta has been there for a long time.

What are the most pressing issues in the region?

There are so many problems. The first and major one is derivation. They want a certain percent of derivation. They also want everything that is accruable from the sale of oil. The constitution does not permit that. Second, there is environmental issue. There is also the issue of neglect. The question that comes to mind then is, if it is really an issue of neglect, who is neglected? This is because there is not a time that you do not have a particular set of people governing the Niger Delta area. So are we saying that the leaders that have been emerging in the Niger Delta have done their best? Are we seeing the best of the leaders in the region? Can they really give an account of the funds they have been given in the past? When I was in the military, I served in the Niger Delta (Warri axis) up till 2014.

What type of democracy is Nigeria practising?

What we are running is not a participatory democracy. What we are running is representative democracy, where we choose some people to represent us at both the national assembly and the state house of assemblies. There is a difference between representing and participating. Participatory means everybody, but that will look like a mob rule. It was a challenge for Plato because he argued against and it was on this basis he recommended that nations that want to practice democracy should have constitutions. The real challenge is that those of us who are practicing the democracy are not going by the rules and this makes the whole thing very complex. The constitution needs to be reviewed but even the one that we have is not being obeyed. There is impunity all over. People have argued that nations that want to run democracy should first of all ensure they are developed before they go to democracy. But I have argued that if we have to wait for that, where will development come and when are we going to start democracy? You can also argue that if you want to develop first, then what type of government will you use to develop? I argued in the book that development and democracy should go hand-in-hand.

Often, when we discuss African leadership, the picture we paint is not so palatable. Is it not possible to find an African leader to model after?

First of all, we need to ask ourselves; how do leaders emerge in Nigeria? If you have not forgotten, for thirty-five years of our history, we had military rule. Military rule emerged through intrigues or a situation the nation finds itself. But when you talk about democracy now, which we have been practising for the past 19 years, we have been voting for our leaders by going to the police station. Leadership in itself is a little bit complex. And democracy also is complex. We can always look at the leaders and say ‘Oh is there any one?’ all of them are not totally bad, they have their positives and they have their negatives. But to me, the negatives outweigh the positives. Otherwise, we will not find ourselves in the position we are in today. It becomes a difficult thing to say this is the particular leader we want to use as a model for leadership in Nigeria. If you look at the Mo Ibrahim leadership award, since it was institutionalised, how many Nigerian leaders have won the prize? None. That tells you there is a problem in leadership.

Do you think that the yardstick we use in measuring leadership could be a problem? When we judge them based on leadership successes from outside, is that really fair?

With democracy particularly – which I believe is the best form of government, it is complex. In a democracy, all the parties of the various groups cannot get equal share of what is available at the same time. A group may get something in the first two three years of a particular government, another group gets later on. There are competing needs, everybody wants something but the resources are not sufficient to go round. Moreover, we have not been preparing leaders for democracy. You must prepare your leaders who will emerge to run your democracy, just as someone said, ‘it takes a generation of committed leaders to make a nation great.’

Can you give an example of when to start preparing leaders in Nigeria?

We can start from the secondary school. Start mentoring people; start nurturing your youth towards leadership. Those who feel they have leadership quality can start. They can go back to their alma mater and alumni associations and keep on giving lectures and seminars on leadership. It is a way of nurturing your youth for leadership. Furthermore, if you want leaders to come into politics you better get them young. That was what Singapore did under Lee kuan Yew.

What would they be learning from a system that is already faulty?

The fact that a system is faulty does not mean that you do not have people who have something to pass over to the younger generation. There are people who have good leadership qualities in Nigeria. It is not everybody. They are very few.

What would you say to well-educated Nigerians who stay away from participating in elections?

Educated Nigerians must not shy away from politics. But the few ones we have should come out. Even if they do not join the political parties, there could be other means like building the younger ones.

I belong to an institution and I am a member of the logistics and transport committee of that institution. The chairman asked me why I am writing a book on democracy and development, I told him if we do not get democracy right, business will not thrive. If we are not doing well in ease of doing business, it is not that other nations hate you; it is because things are not right. You can run any form of democracy but let us have it right. If you run it well, things will improve. It is a matter of time.

How do we reconcile leaders with good intentions that end up failing?

There are several reasons why leaders fail. If a leader is in a political office, either elected or appointed and he allows his decisions to be modulated by politics, he will not succeed. If you look at issues squarely- identify what the problems are, do a thorough analysis, do thorough research and at the end of the day, come up with the policy. But if you bring in politics into your policy decision process, you will find there are other issues you will not be able to address. Another issue is that leaders are often not willing to look at their policies and reverse or change the policies. When you are running a policy for some time and it is not working, you may need to go back to the drawing table and change it. There is nothing wrong with changing policies. You cannot be insensitive to people’s complains.

Is it possible to have policies made without politics in the Nigeria of today?

The truth is that, in democracy, you must stick to your policy objectives to a reasonable extent. Granted it is politics we use during democracy, but you must look at the problem on ground and see how best to solve them.

Do you ever see a Nigerian leader resigning than compromising his objectives?

That may happen but I do not know when. It has happened in other countries too.

What are ideas on how to get the parties in Nigeria defining their ideologies and making the bedrock of their decisions?

The parties do have ideologies and they are written. There was a time I was surfing through the net and stumbled on the strategies proposition of the PDP at the time. They came up with some strategies they were going to use to solve our economic problems and so on. But the issue is once they get to the office, it is a different matter entirely. As a leader, you must have a mind of your own. It is very key. Do not forget the electorate; you made a promise to them. If you promise people you were going to do this, the question is how do you get that thing done? Even if you cannot do it at once, do it in phases. But when a leader does not have a mind of his own, it becomes a problem.

‘Caught in a Trap’, do you think we will ever leave this trap in view of 2019?

I am worried about 2019 because it is the same actors that are grouping and regrouping. They are the same. Some people are already saying they want to capture southwest. I think we should start sensitizing the people. They should know their so-called leaders- who are they? What are their antecedents? These are things that voters and citizens should be aware of.

How do we escape from this trap?

You can escape if those in government decide to do the needful.