Survey
By Reporters
Enugu, June 9, 2024 (NAN) As Nigeria marks her 25 years of democracy, some analysts in the South East have expressed mixed reactions to the progress made so far by current and successive governments in the country.
While some people expressed satisfaction with the progress made so far, others viewed differently saying that there was not much on ground to show for any improvement.
Prince Chris Azor, Chairman, Anambra Civil Society Network (ACSONet) said that Nigeria made significant progress in consolidating its democracy, with six successful presidential elections since the return to civilian rule in 1999.
According to him, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was supported to become president (1999-2007) from the Zone that produced Abiola.
“There was electoral reform which produced the new electoral Act, 2022.
“However, there are still challenges to overcome, such as ensuring free and fair elections, strengthening institutions, and addressing socio-economic issues, restructuring and national peace and coexistence,”.
Azor, who is also the President, International Peace and Civic Responsibility Centre (IPCRC), noted with dismay that the conduct of the 2023 general elections left much to be desired, with so much controversy and contestations.
“There’s need for total renewal in Nigeria for desired healing, cohesion and nation building,” the activist said.
Dr George Akubue, a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), said it was undisputed that education sector had experienced democracy dividends that helped to increase access to education in the country.
Akubue explained that the Federal Government’s Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) was a democracy dividend in education sector that helped to increase access and school enrollments as well as reduce illiteracy in the country in the past 25 years.
“Because of UBE, many children are able to have access to primary and secondary school as well as gain admission to higher institutions.
“This UBE also helped to increase enrollments in primary, secondary and higher institutions.
“For instance in the past five years, number of candidates writing Unified Tertiary Metrication Exam (UTME) has hit over 1.5 million because of establishments of more public and private tertiary institutions by government that increased access to education.
“If you check number of primary, secondary and higher institutions both public and private, you will discover serious increase in number that has resulted in more access and enrollments in schools.
“To me, this is a big democracy dividend in education,” he said.
The don however, urged government to increase funding of education sector in order to achieve better quality that would enable graduates produced in the country to compete favourably with their counterparts globally.
He advised government to pay good salaries to teachers at all levels of education as well as avert all forms of misunderstanding with labour unions in public universities that had constantly disrupted academic calendar and prolonged students graduation in the past.
The Speaker, Anambra State House of Assembly, Dr Somtochukwu Udeze, said that the gains of democracy over other forms of government could not be overemphasized.
He said that from 1999 till date, successive democratic governments had really tried in involving the led in their administrations unlike the military rule where only few individuals were given the opportunity to serve the military interest.
Udeze said, “Yes, that democracy has continued to yield dividends to Nigerians in many ways. We have witnessed in our democracy an improved rule of law and respect for humanity.
He said virtually all the sectors of the nation’s economy were reasonably thriving, no matter the pace.
However, he said that the country was yet to actualize full democracy and called on the key players to show more commitment and dedication to ensure that the people enjoyed full democracy.
“They should place the interest and well being of the masses above every other consideration and shun corruption of any kind.
Other respondents still view the issue differently saying that Nigerians are yet to enjoy dividends of democracy in 25 years.
A Human Rights Activist, Mr Vincent Ezekwueme, says the political class are yet to provide dividends of democracy to the populace in the last 25 years of democratic rule in Nigeria.
Ezekwueme, who is the Chairman of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) in Anambra, highlighted insecurity, hike in prices of goods and services, unemployment and the removal of fuel subsidy as some of the major challenges the masses were contending with.
He said: “You can see how prices of goods and services have skyrocketed, insecurity and unemployment among other ills and evils in the country is widespread.
“Most worrisome, with the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria, the masses are suffering, whereas the political class are being over paid in their salaries and allowances.”
On other sectors, the CLO chairman said that no sector had witnessed improvement, insisting that the country still suffered epileptic electricity supply across the country.
“To me, 25 years of democracy rule in Nigeria, the political class has failed us; they have failed to provide dividends of democracy to us, they are only interested in their own social economic welfare, they are certainly not for Nigerians,” he added.
Speaking on what should be done to enhance democracy in Nigeria, he emphasized the importance of conducting free and fair elections and urged leaders to make sure the votes of the electorate counted.
Chief Hycienth Ngwu, a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says that democracy dividends have not been delivered optimally to the people in the past 25 years of consistent democratic experience..
Ngwu, former Publicity Secretary of APC in South-East, said that optimal delivery went beyond infrastructure development people see but also human capital development.
He said that human capital development encompassed high per capita income, security, food security and other basic necessities of life for Nigerians beyond the usual road infrastructure seen daily.
According to him, from the time we moved from military rule to current democratic experience, human capital and capacity development issues such as security and food security have been in the decline.
“There should be a balance of physical infrastructures we are seeing today that should match per capita income and security of life and food for all Nigerians,” he said.
Ngwu, also called for resource allocation harmonization to check social imbalance and exclusion, which had aggravated violence and crime in the society.
He, however, said that recent increase in electricity tariff, multiple taxes and levies from state and local governments had robbed and short-changed the people of the benefit they should enjoy from the gains of removal of fuel subsidy.
“There should be a gap or time lag to allow the fuel subsidy gains to sync with the people before these increases will be introduced and implemented,” he said.
He also tasked the government at all levels on farms and farmers security to ensure food security and abundant food, which would check the current high inflation on food stuff in the market.
“If insecurity in farms is not checked, it will lead to hunger, malnutrition and other negative health complications,” he said.
“The government should fashion out short and long term strategies to tackle and stabilize all these imbalances as well as check the negative economy and production deficiencies,” he added
Azor said that June 12, remains a significant watershed in Nigeria’s history! The day stands in commemoration of the presidential election, which was later annulled. The election was won “fair and square” by Moshood Abiola.
There have been attempts to ameliorate the fallouts of that regrettable epoch.
Mr Dan Eleazu, a Lawyer and Rights Activist, said the country had not achieved much democracy dividends in security in spite of the huge yearly budget allocations by the Federal Government in the past years
Eleazu said the security challenges in the country had shown and exposed inadequacy in equipment, arms and ammunition for security agencies to defend the country’s internal security challenges.
“It’s unfortunate that terrorists like Boko Haram, armed bandits, kidnappers, unknown gunmen and other criminal groups have held the country hostage for some years now.
“Some security experts have attributed inability of security agencies to confront these criminals squarely to lack of sophisticated arms and weapons.
“The present security challenges in the country to me show not much democracy dividends have been achieved in the past 25 years.
“It’s worrisome that terrorists, armed bandits, kidnappers, unknown gunmen and other criminal groups are having field day because they parade sophisticated weapons more than our security agencies.
“Even in broad daylight people are now kidnapped and kept in kidnappers den until millions of naria ransom demanded by the criminals are paid while others are killed because no ransom are paid.
“Farmers in some parts of the country now pay monthly levy to bandits and terrorists so as to allow them go to their farms, ” he said.
The rights activist explained that if the country had recorded much democracy dividends in security these criminals terrorising the country for many years could have been flushed out.
Mr Olu Omotayo, President, Civil Right Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN), says Nigeria failed to implement a bottom-up development approach using Local Government Area system within her 25-year democratic experience.
Omotayo, a constitutional lawyer, told NAN that the country had not got it right in the past 25 years of uninterrupted democratic experience even as the country celebrates June 12 as Democracy Day.
He said that the non-functional grassroots government had made democratic dividends not to reach vast majority of the people after 25 years adding that successive governors in each state had made this negativity possible.
“Local Government has not been recognized rightfully as the third tier of government but in advanced countries like the US, local government administration and function is taken very seriously since it is the closest government to the people.
“Over the years, the local government had been starved of funds; even during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, he tried to ensure that council areas worked but the governors frustrated his good intentions.
“Today, the state governors see council areas as appendages to their authority and will never allow it to be or function. This is why the people at the rural areas never benefit from dividends of democracy leading to mass exodus from council areas.
“With a well-funded and flourishing council area with due development and the people are relatively taken care of, I bet you, most people will be living in their council area and this current rural-to-urban drift will be checked”.
Corroborating, the Executive Director of Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF), Chief Augustine Chukwudum, said that for 25 years, the country had not tapped from the abundant arable land as well as abundant natural resources.
Chukwudum said that the nation’s civil leadership had failed to galvanise both financial and human resources to tap what God Almighty had graciously given to the country freely to better our lives.
“It is clear that countries that come to learn from us or take a little from our endowment to their countries always do well while we are only left to recount history such as when Malaysians came here, when Nigeria was helping South Africa.
“If it is going back in all sense and even to the regional government that will make us to see reasons and be fired up to rise, let us do it now.
“Honestly, we need real-time productivity using modern/mechanized agriculture and massive mining of our abundant natural resources beyond oil to reposition our economy for growth,” he said.
Dr Chris Eluemunoh, former Chief Press Secretary to former old Anambra governor,Chief Jim Nwobodo, described celebration of June 12 as democracy day in Nigeria as a “lip service”.
Eluemunoh said that the activities that led to declaration of June 12 as a democracy day had not achieved any tangible results because Nigeria was yet to be democratic in practice.
He said that if lessons were learnt in event of June 12, 1993, the country’s electoral process would be democratic in process and everyone would attest to it.
“A country which its electoral process is marred with irregularities, killings, mutilation, falsification, electoral box snatching cannot be declared as democratic,”.
Eluemunoh said that true democracy day in Nigeria should be May 29 when the Military handed power over to civilian, that is a much unique day for celebration not June 12.
He said, “what is democracy in jumbo take home of nations legislators,governors,ministers and other political appointees.
“The civil servants who work round the clock to maintain the economy, environment and social sectors of the nation’s growth and development wallow in abject poverty.
“What is democracy celebration in refusal to yield to reduction of governance for civil servants the engine House of the nation’s economy to have a living wage.
“Nothing like democracy day in Nigeria as long as the people cannot breathe a fresh air of good living while the politicians amasse public fund shamelessly,” he said.
Prof. Raphael Okigbo, a lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University says the agricultural sector has not received attention from the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Okigbo, a professor of Plant Pathology in the Faculty of Biological Sciences, said the ever increasing food prices was as a result of lack of deliberate effort to address the challenges in the sector.
He said that insecurity and high cost of transportation were the major bane of food insecurity in Nigeria.
Okigbo advised that the Federal Government should open the country’s borders to importation of healthy food items in the short run to increase their availability and push down prices.
According to him, we are not producing enough, our farmers both men and women, can no longer enter the forest to farm because of insecurity and I do not know what the government has been doing to address the problem.
“Again, cost of moving produce from the farm to where they are needed has more than quadrupled, this is another harmful effect of removal of petrol subsidy.
“All this explains the scarcity of food items and their high prices where you find them, so, I will say the government has not done well in agriculture,” he said.
On his part, Prof. Akaolisa Ezeagu of the Structural Engineering and Head, Civil Engineering Department, Nnamdi Azikiwe University said cost of building materials have slowed down activities in the construction industry.
Ezeagu said most of the construction projects which were awarded in the last one year had been suspended because the prices of cement and iron rods were major inputs had increased due to inflation.
He said housing and infrastructure development had been heavily retarded adding that only public sectors was able to carry out construction activities under the current economic situation without much challenge.
“The construction industry is suffering under the current economic situation, inflation has eroded capacity to execute projects.
“Normally, when a contract is awarded at a particular price of bag of cement, say, N4,500 with a completion time of six months and suddenly, cement rises to N8,000 or N8,500, it becomes impossible to deliver that project.
“So, the construction industry has not done well, many projects are suspended because of variation in terms but the states like Anambra are working to the best of their abilities,” he said.
A Real Estate expert, Mr Ugochukwu Okoronkwo, noted that in spite of government huge investment in housing, the country still have millions of housing deficit.
He acknowledged that government was trying its best but needed to provide infrastructure to enable private developers building houses at affordable prices for Nigerians.
He said, “one of the major issue we are having is financing and a regulatory framework so that real estate investment will be secured.
“Compulsory acquisition that gives the government the right to collect the property from an individual even though, the property has a perfected title was not fair at all.
“We need a regulatory framework that will ensure that there is security as citizen need to play a role through Public Private Partnership but it is not working because there is no law,” he said
Okoronkwo, who is the Managing Director, Set Reality Limited, Enugu, added that there were no affordable housing in Nigeria because of the cost of erecting a building.
“Average Nigerians cannot afford 30 per equity contribution for a N12 million to buy land and build two bedroom flat as building materials are very expensive,” he said. (NAN)
Reporters/MNA
Edited by Maureen Atuonwu