Media, Labour and the Consolidation of Nigeria’s Democracy

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State

By Issa Aremu
My profound appreciation goes to the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE for its extended invitation to a non-sate actor like me to this distinguished gathering of editors. It is a singular honour to share some thoughts on democracy with specific reference to the role of critical stakeholders like labour and the media in Nigeria.
Why Labour and Media Matter?
With all its limitations, 1999 constitution shares the assumptions that both labour and the media are two critical success factors for Nigeria’s constitutional order. The media for instance, is singled out by section 22 of the 1999 constitution as part of the fundamental objective and directive principles of the state policy. No institution is so much democratically challenged as the media by 1999 constitution! Section 22 reads: “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people”. The constitution imposes a duty on the media to monitor the critical aspects of governance with a view of guarding and advancing the frontiers of Nigerians’ liberties and freedoms.
Same constitution legitimises the right to freedom of association and assembly of trade unionists. Above all, section 23 lists core values of the country, the third of which is “dignity of labour”. Section 34 prohibits slavery and forced labour and acknowledges decent work. Labour assumes special importance to the extent that all critical labour issues such as “ trade unions, industrial relations; conditions, safety and welfare of labour; industrial disputes; prescribing a national minimum wage for the Federation or any part thereof; and industrial arbitration” are on Executive legislative list. This means that only National Assembly makes laws dealing with labour matters. Only Federal government has Ministry of Labour and Productivity.
Media and Labour are both democratic organizations founded and nurtured by their respective constitutions. Organized labour is represented by NLC while working Journalists/Editors are organised in the Guild and NUJ, among other organisations. They are led by periodically tenured elected officers just like elected public office holders in any democracy. As a tested democratic organisation, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in its 30 years of existence (using 1978 as a cut off year!) has held 9 delegates’ conferences, the last in Abuja in 2007. This democratic turnover is in spite of the military meddlesomeness in trade union affairs which records dissolutions of NLC executives in 1988 by IBB dictatorship and serial dissolution of NLC, NUPENG and PEGASSAN executives by Abacha dictatorship in the 90s and crude imposition of sole administrators.
Issues such as decent work agenda, good governance, development and solidarity with struggling peoples of the world from Palestinian to Zimbabwe, Liberia to Sudan (Darfur), globalisation, debt burden, privatisation et cetera (and not just elections!) dominate these conferences.
For a nation, in desperate search of issue-driven politics, organised labour has a lot to offer in good governance and electoral reforms in which votes take place and they are accordingly counted because as we can see that is what labour does always for the past decades. The conferences produce notable labour/ democratic actors like Hassan Sunmonu, Ali Ciroma, Pascal Bafyau, Adams Oshiomhole and Abdul Waheed Omar. Their elections represent order of preferences of voter workers and not some god-fathers or regional chieftains. For a nation, where a lot needs to be done to ensure that votes truly reflect preferences of electors, the rich democratic traditions of organised labour and media must be explored.
The role of the media and labour in the struggle for independence and sustainability of democracy has been well documented by chroniclers of Nigeria’s civil society.
At the global level Collin Powel, former America’s Secretary of State, at the Tell lecture in Abuja in May, recently underscores the indispensability of the press to American democratic process. According to him “One essential feature of a true democratic system is a free and open press. An open press that speaks for the people and always seeks truth. An open press that “comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.”
He recalls President Thomas Jefferson, (“who was very critical of the press and always mad at it) saying that: “If it were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I would not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
The point cannot be overstated therefore that, the performance of both labour and the media is critical to the process of democratic consolidation.
Worthy Venue
The choice of venue for this singular reflection is even as significant. Anambra, more than any state of the Federation provides enough materials for any meaningful discourse on democratic consolidation. With two phony “governors” in quick succession and one duly elected in a singular dispensation, (and until last week’s Supreme Court ruling still a subject of litigation) Anambra state is a useful guide to beginners in democratic accomplishment and consolidation.
Conceptual Framework
Paradoxically, my assigned topic inherently provides for some conceptual framework for meaningful discourse. Tasking us to reflect on consolidation of democracy assumes that we already have democracy in Nigeria and all we need to do is to consolidate it. I share the optimism of the Guild that indeed we have a democracy and the challenge is how to deepen it. In consolidating democracy, we must be prepared to remove scores of misconceptions about democracy and democracy in general.
Democracy Consolidation: Removing some Misconceptions
Democracy Rests On Constitutionalism
The first of such notorious misconceptions is the unhelpful assumption that the current dispensation is merely a civil rule (not a democracy) an assumption that has been rightly proved untenable by the Guild’s assigned topic on consolidation. Democracy and civil rule are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, civil rule is an expression of democracy. For a nation traumatised by decades of military dictatorship, it is understandable that we are permanently hunted by binary civil/versus/military rule divide. General Gowon himself a military chieftain rightly describes it: “...a dingdong affair between the military and the civilians or the politicians”. What makes a rule civil is not that it is civilian driven or so-called. What distinguishes dictatorship from democracy is constitutionalism which is trampled underfoot by the former but constitutes the bed rock of the latter.
We witness the significance of constitutionalism at the height of the protracted face-off between the House of Representatives led by Ghali Na Abah and the Executive led by General Olusegun Obasanjo in the first half of 2002. Unlike dictatorship, which plays the legendary ostrich, democracy exposes own problems and even dramatises them. The House of Representatives catalog what it sees as the shortcomings (or constitutional breaches) by the Obasanjo-led executive. In return, the Executive counters pointing to inaccuracies in the story (and even mischief) of the Representatives. In all, the citizenry is better informed about the state of the nation and different perspectives that can, in the future, inform our electoral choices even our votes hardly count. What with the amount of information overload about
The beauty of it all is that each arm in the referred conflict i.e. Executive and Legislature, freely makes reference to the constitution (despite its imperfections) from which they claim authority for their respective actions and inactions.
Democracy provides immunity for democratic actors even when they are critical of its mighty arm such as the Executive. We can only appreciate this great strength of the current process if only we remember that the only ‘crime’ of late patriot, General Shehu Yar’dua is the audacity to initiate a legitimate motion insisting that late Abacha hands over to democratically elected government at an earlier date of 1996. Late Yar’dua did not survive that motion as he was saddled with phantom plot to overthrow the dictator. In turn the cumulative stresses generated by that intolerant dictatorship eventually also consumed the dictator, Abacha himself.
Please we should not underestimate the significance of the current democratic process. It entrenches constitutionalism daily in place of impunity of the military era.
Let’s take a bigger leap to the democratic past. In the 1980s, Shagari-led NPN executive chose through phantom political intrigues to deport opposition chieftain, Alhaji Shugaba Abdulraham of the GNPP, to Chad. The impunity of that executive was promptly challenged by UPN-led opposition relying on constitutionalism and rule of law. Shugaba citizenship was promptly restored by the court. Again compare this to the criminal deportation of Professor Patrick Wilmot of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria by IBB dictatorship in 1988 and the crating of Umaru Dikko in 1984 and the helplessness of the victims to seek redress.
The point cannot be overstated: What differentiates dictatorship from democracy is the constitutional order that moderates the latter and the absence of it that entrenches the former. As Shugaba case dramatises, civilians could also prove totalitarian and even fascistic but constitution (with all its limitations) is the remedy and ultimate check in a democracy. Any wonder that all dictators and usurpers from Nzeogwu in 1966 to Abacha opted for constitutional kill first. The lesson for democratic forces like labour and the media is to defend the constitution and the rule of law regardless of their imperfections.
The Anambra saga, as long as it plays out also shows the potency of constitutional order worthy of celebration.
Anambra’s crisis has all the trappings of Uncle Bush’s adventure in Iraq. It actually erupts almost simultaneously as Iraq’s tragedy unfolds with some similar war terms: “family affair” or ‘friendly fires’. But all the usurpers are exposed by the rule of law. “Governor” Ngige’s illegal abduction, scandalously with collaboration of the police is exposed by the rule of law. He, the “governor” is exposed as impostor who did not win election.
The eventual declaration of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Peter Obi winner of 2003 gubernatorial election is certainly judgement without justice to the extent that usurpers go without punishment and electoral preferences of Anambra are so vilified with impunity. But what is clear is that the “rule of law” and democracy exposes these absurdities.
The landmark judgement that an aggrieved serving President cannot sue leadership papers for alleged smear until the President’s immunity is vacated further indicates that our democratic cup is half full and not half empty and we can only consolidate by filling the cup altogether. General Obasanjo as the Head of Sate in 1978 with military impunity dissolved the independently constituted NLC executives led by late Imodu and Wahab Goodluck. But President Obasanjo with similar intention is constrained by constitionalsm and compelled to seek amendment of Labour Law at the height of NLC campaign against obnoxious fuel price increases which of course was resisted in open arena of the national assembly. Under the notorious decree two military dictators jailed journalists and even perpetrated extra-judicial killings as in the case of the late Dele Giwa and late Bagauda Kato.
Democracy: Not How Long But How Well
Recalling Shugaba’s case brings to the fore the second mis- conception about our democracy. How valid is it to say ours is “nascent”. We are told it is not yet a ‘true’ democracy. But there is nothing like ‘false’ democracy. We are told our current dispensation is `nascent’. But Nigeria stars with democracy at independence. The recent media hype about 10 years of democracy legitimises this mis-conception, but mis-conception it is nonetheless. The greatest threat to electoral reform is the official rationalisation of our democratic deficits by reference to the so-called youthfulness of Nigeria’s democracy.
At the TELL Magazine International Conference on Ten Years of Democracy in Nigeria, Abuja — June 3, 2009, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria gave credit to this misconception. According to him, Nigeria has only a decade of “stable” democracy. “The advanced democracies have been at it for centuries, but many of them had to fight wars before signing on to the peace. Even South Africa that we are regularly compared with has been a democracy for over a hundred years. The only thing missing was popular participation by the black majority. It is indeed instructive to note that the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling party, is older than the Nigerian nation. ANC came into being in 1912, while Nigeria was born in 1914”.
Haba! Nothing could be more misleading! With official mindset like this our democratic cup is far from being filled. We must interrogate the official calendar of democracy in Nigeria which reads Democracy Day every 29th of May. It is grossly misleading to say Nigeria’s democracy is ten years old, using May 29th controversial date of 1999 as the new democratic bench mark. What happened to June 12th, of 1993 the notorious spectre that hunts precisely, it is the last day, the votes truly counted nationally? Why not November 16th 1960? Dr Nnamdi Azikwe was sworn-in as the first Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Federation in succession to Sir James Robertson that day. Why not October 1979, when democratic Second Republic under Shagari was proclaimed after a decade and half of military intervention?
Nigeria’s long walk to democracy goes beyond the last decade. To cheaply reduce democracy to some bad controversial events of the last ten years rather than seeing democracy as a historic process (the first Nigeria’s political party, Macaulay’s National Democratic Party (NDP) was formed in 1920!) is politically unhelpful. Better to draw on the century of democratic process than politically bogged down to some serial systemic corruption, election rigging and judicial anarchy of the last decade. Yours sincerely feels politically and democratically diminished to read that democratic South Africa (15 years old!) is older than Nigeria’s democracy (arbitrarily downsized into ten years!). It is simply one historic absurdity. Even the South Africans do not agree that apartheid era which criminally excludes the black majority is part of their democratic heritage as VP Jonathan distorts history. On the contrary, until the long period of military rule and the wasted decade of OBJ, South Africans actually perceive Nigeria’s democratic process as model worthy of emulation.
Apartheid regime (proclaimed in 1948) was 12 years old when Nigeria got independence in 1960 with democratic constitutional order. The likes of Mandela, Oliver Tambo sought for solidarity of other Africans including democratic Nigeria. As undergraduates in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in the early eighties, we were living witnesses to robust campaigns of visible democratic actors which paraded the great democratic names like Zik of Africa, Nnamdi Azikwe, (NPP), Chief Obafemi Awolowo, (UPN) Mallam Aminu Kano, (PRP) Shehu Shagari, (NPN), the late Waziri Ibrahim (GNPP) and Tunji Braithwaite. Those parties with all their limitations are issue-driven and ideologically motivated than the persons/terror-driven 50 lot parties of today. How on earth then do we celebrate democracy and ignore such rich democratic heritage? Rebranding without memory is a failed project. Today we lazily search for new Obamas. We even lament non-stop-over of President Barack Obama next July as if the 40 something years old American President was born before our democratic founding founders got independence in 1960. Nigeria hitherto is once democratic destination of sort. Democratic Nigeria under Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa hosted the conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers on 11th of January 1966 which expels Ian Smith’s Rhodesia for unilateral declaration of independence. Harold Wilson, British Prime Minister, the author of Wind of Change was there in Lagos. Balewa ably exhibits democratic credentials and moral authority which we sadly lack today.
Our democratic heritage indeed throws up more than enough democratic actors; at a time it is not fashionable to be democrats in Africa: ideological, patriotic and certainly less corrupt. The democratic collectables are as diverse as the diverse democratic callings of all activist Nigerians. They include Balarabe Musa, late Melford Okilo, Sam Mbakwe, Lateef Jakande, late Bala Muhammed, Jim Nwobodo, Abubakar Rimi, Suleiman Takuma, Muhammed Goni, Bola Ige, Bisi Onabanjo, Sam Ikoku, an intellectual and one time confidant of late Kwame Nkrumah. How many of the political actors in the recent dispensation capture democratic imagination like those second Republic actors? As recent as 1978, we were proud voters in the knowledge that the then FEDECO is more credible to make our votes count than today’s INEC! And that is when scores of South Africa’s undergraduate compatriots are miserable political refugees here in Nigeria (a great democratic frontline state which enlisted with Tanzania, Zambia and Cuba to fight for the liberation in Southern Africa) Indeed today’s celebrated South African democratic, non-racial and non-sexist constitution draws heavily on Nigeria’s 1979 constitution.
The point cannot be overstated: Nigeria has rich democratic heritage beyond the last decade. Communal accountability, openness and representation are the hallmarks of pre-colonial Nigeria. Democratic political parties and their civilian leaders (and not the army nor the Generals and later day militicians) fight for Nigeria’s independence. Nigeria’s nationalism is civilian and democratically driven. It was the Federal parliament that passed the first motion in 1962 that created the first state, Mid-West state (present Edo), a political sagacity difficult to achieve today.
Democracy Not At The Mercy of Its Enemies
Yes, we have had a decade of non-military gun-totting intervention. But democracy cannot be defined in relations to its non-interruption by anti-democratic forces. Democracy is not (and cannot) be at the mercy of its enemies. It is inherently virtuous to the extent people desire and fight for it, to the extent that it ensures freedom of expression, assembly and associations. In terms of constitutionalism, no country on earth is more “democratic” than Nigeria (from Constitutions in 1922, 1946, 1954, 1960 to 1979 and the current 1999 constitution). Nigeria had first elections of 1923 in which Macaulay’s party took all the three seats. Blacks then had no voting rights in USA. Martin Luther King’s dream was unthinkable making the point that America could not have produced a Herbert Macaulay which Nigeria did. The tragedy of Nigeria is that elections of 1923 under colonial oppressors were far freer than Ekiti re-run of 2009. So much then for the last decade!
The current dispensation has its fair share of “interruptions” however defined. What of Anambra saga and distorted calendar? What with sole administrators in Ekiti (October 2006) and Plateau (May 2004) the two being appointed Military Generals compared with the first Republic’s civilian sole administrator of the crisis ridden Western region, (Senator Dr. Majekodunmi)? But you cannot learn from the rich past that you ignore with impunity. Collin Powel’s lecture shows that America’s democratic heritage spans centuries that include “interruptions” such as slavery, civil war and civil rights era. Nigeria’s democratic heritage should be as inclusive.
No Alternative To Democracy; We Must Depeen Democracy
The third misconception is the false notion that that alternative to democracy is military rule. Nigeria’s history shows that military however “benevolent” or patronising is not an alternative to democratic process. Nigerians must therefore exorcise the spectre of military in our democratic discourse. Since the criminal military intervention of 1966, all military regimes know that they are nothing but aberrations. Indeed to legitimise self, every military usurper plays the democratic card of returning the country to democracy failing which they are imperilled. Gowon was overthrown on the account of betraying the democratic aspiration of the country. Following the assassination of Murtala, the legitimacy of Obasanjo-led junta rested on non-reversal of the civil rule time table announced by the Murtala, October 1979. Buhari /Idiagbon short-lived because of the regime’s brazen contempt for Nigerians’ democratic aspirations. Conversely the long torturous IBB regime gambled with democratic aspirations with endless experimental transition programmes that consumed the regime altogether. Abacha’s brutal regime could not ignore Nigeria’s quest for democracy judging from his albeit self serving transition which also consumed him.
The point here is that we must rather deepen democracy rather than nurturing unhelpful nostalgia for military as if it is an alternative. Military is not an alternative. Alternative to imperfect democracy is more and more democracy and not less: Demand for accountability and electoral reforms.
Every nation seems almost, as a curse, betrays its ideal. Perfection at the end belongs to God even as every serious nation still holds unto its ideal tenaciously. That hitherto politically divided Americans rose and voted an African American President shows that democracy harbours its inherent alternatives.
Let’s hold on to our democratic ideal as other great peoples and nations do even as we daily fall short of it as others also often do.
But, while pursuing our ideals, let us not betray them through incessant self-doubt, advertised smear and ‘criticisms’ that create the impression of stagnation, hopelessness that in turn take us far way from our ideal.
We are far from the political democratic ideal, judging from the painful reality of acrimonious pursuit of power as distinct from pursuit of programmes, entrenched corruption and absence of development agenda, shameless carpet-crossing, and the incredible intolerance especially at state and local level resulting in callous assassinations of some political actors. What about recent mutually destructive ‘religious’ and ‘communal’ crises and the attendant loss of lives and property?
Yet, if we bend backward beyond, we also see that we have witnessed robust contestations and cooperation that are the hallmarks of democracy, which must be encouraged. The new electoral reform process, recent judicial rulings that revered electoral robberies in Edo, Ondo, Rivers add to the tempo of optimism.
Let’s resist the blackmail of anti-democratic elements by not counting the days of democracy. We should rather tirelessly work for the realisation of the abundant gains of democratic process. If democracy fails, it is the citizens that fail either by being subservient to the blackmail of anti-democratic elements or accepting time limit on an unending process, by unwittingly belittling it as ‘nascent’.
Complement Political Democracy with Economic Democracy
Another misconception is political democracy without economic democracy. Both labour and the media must continue the great campaign for full implementation of Uwais report. But this must be complemented by demand for development, development and development. Political democracy is hollow without industry, employment and mass jobs. Indeed, the real threat to democracy is collapse of factories, destruction of middle class, mass consumption without production, power failure. We cannot build democracy on poverty alleviation or poverty reduction paradigm. On the contrary, we can only sustain democracy on wealth generation and re-industrialisation. It is simply untenable that a relatively poorer democratic Nigeria in the 60's delivered greater prosperity than a richer democratic Nigeria in the last ten years. So the problem is not with democracy but the contemporary democratic actors who lack the commitment and vision of the old. The challenge of economic democracy calls for more political democracy. As long as the votes don’t count, electoral outcomes deny true developers and impose electoral armed robbers in office, the result being further robbery of common wealth. The media and labour have the responsibility to ensure we replace the current corruption agenda with development agenda.
Time is of Essence
The last misconception is that time is on our side. The argument of the VP that we must gradually pursue democracy which many nations took centuries to allegedly achieve underscores our lack of sense of urgency and sense of history as shown already. The truth of the matter is that the political class represented by the likes of Jonathan is simply complacent. It’s time political class returned to duty. And this must start with simple governance gesture such as punctuality and sense of purpose for service delivery. The perpetual late coming to official functions by public officers’ underscores slack of seriousness by our leaders. Record shows that the late founding fathers are more time conscious which explains the record achievement of six years after independence record. We are yet to beat their record even with aeroplanes, internet, assorted chips and multiple and mobile phones which must serve as source of concern to us all.
The above tasks the democratic credentials of the media and labour. If they must fast track democratic consolidation, then labour and the media too must also be accountable, open and transparent in their dealings. After all, those who demand for equity must come with cleaner hands.
Being text of a paper presented by Comrade Issa Aremu, Mni, Vice President, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), at a Standing Committee meeting of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), held at Awka, Anambra State, on Friday, June19, 2009.