The ninth public lecture in honour of the late human rights activist, Beko Ransome-Kuti, was held last Tuesday in Lagos. At the event, which attracted many human rights groups and activists, papers on the way forward for Nigeria were presented by eminent scholars. Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, recounts the presentations.
Dr. Bekolari Ransome-Kuti, born on August 20, 1940 in Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta (in the present Ogun State), was a Nigerian medical doctor known for his work as a human rights activist. His death on February 10, 2006 inspired an annual lecture in his memory.
This year’s edition, the 9th Beko Memorial Anniversary/Public Lecture, organised by Beko Memorial Committee, was held on Tuesday, February 10, at the Airport Hotel Ikeja, Lagos. It dwelt on the problems bedevilling Nigeria and the way forward.
Lectures
Professor Nkem Onyekpe of the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, at the event posited that one of the fundamental problems confronting Nigeria and, indeed, most other states in Africa has been the abysmal failure or inability of democracy to achieve regular statutory transition from one civilian government to another, through peaceful general elections within the bounds of the constitution and electoral laws of the state.
Onyekpe expressed his position in his lecture, ‘The 2015 General Elections: The Electorate and the Legitimacy of Electoral Outcome’.
The event, with the theme ‘Which Way Nigeria’, was attended by various civil rights groups and activists, including a National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) chieftain and former military governor of Lagos State, Rear Admiral Ndubusi Kanu (rtd.); President, International Foundation for the Advancement of Social and Cultural Rights (IFASCR), Col. Gabriel Ajayi (rtd.); Kayode Opeifa, who represented Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State; and NADECO Secretary, Ayo Opadokun.
While delivering his 12-page paper, Onyekpe said that without regular elections, it will be impossible to have enduring constitutional democratic order and a stable political system enjoyed by the ‘developed’ democracies.
He noted that previous elections had been associated with gross irregularities manifested in rigging, snatching of ballot boxes, stuffing of ballot boxes with marked ballot papers, intimidation and harassment of voters, violent disruption of voting, threats of killing, actual killing and maiming of voters among others.
He said: “From the inflammatory and inciting utterances of the leading political actors and their supporters, it is clear that the nation has not made progress in the development of democratic culture.”
Nigeria has the choice to choose between going into a developed democracy or remaining backward in the category of nations described by western political theorists and anthropologists as primitive societies and culture, he said.
Onyekpe berated those politicians that are beating drums of war rather than treading the path of peaceful elections, stressing that only a few politicians are in politics for service.
“With the possible exception of very few, the politicians are blind and so cannot see the plight of the people; they are deaf and so they cannot hear the cries of agony and anguish from the lower strata of society; they are dumb and so they cannot answer when the people speak. The blindness of the politicians, their deafness and their dumbness are not physical; they are intellectual, ideological, moral and ethical,” the don stressed.
He recounted that right from the First Republic, Nigeria had never experienced union government or government of national unity; rather what existed in the First Republic was a coalition government involving the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) and National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC). Also, there was the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) coalition in the Second Republic. These were necessitated by election outcome, in which the ruling parties did not produce comfortable parliamentary majority positions.
In another paper entitled ‘The Security Implications and INEC in the 2015 General Elections’ Ajayi, who was sentenced to death by the administration of late General Sani Abacha over a phantom coup, emphasised that the most immediate threats to Nigeria as a country are not bullets from Islamic militants but ballots.
Way forward
Proffering solutions to the problems, Onyekpe said to ensure credible elections in Nigeria, to overcome the problem of do-or-die struggle for power at all levels, and to position the nation on the path to political stability, economic development and social progress, political offices and positions must be made less attractive.
He suggested that legislative work must be on part-time basis, so that only gainfully employed and responsible people will be involved.
According to him, the political system should be restructured to reduce the power, responsibilities and fiscal resources of the central government where the struggle for power is fiercest.
Besides, equity and egalitarianism should be adopted as fundamental objectives and principles of the state; the electoral body must be truly independent and not one appointed by the ruling party at any given time; and appropriate legislative promulgation must be put in place to check and curb incumbency advantage.
According to Ajayi, “the need for adequate, impeccable and impeachable security arrangement is a necessity for the conduct of a truly free, fair and impartial elections. Failure to put in place the necessary security architecture will lead to disastrous consequences as had always happened in the past.”
He said that for the purpose of elections in Nigeria, there is the need to put in place integrated security infrastructure, adding that the police and the Department of State Services (DSS) are constitutionally mandated to secure peace, tranquility and internal security at all times, more so in times of national engagements.
The retired army chief affirmed that the deployment of the military for protection during elections has constitutional backing under the clause “Aid to Civil Power(Authority)”, expressing that it is neither wrong nor unconstitutional to deploy the military in support of the police for peaceful election. He said, however, that the security to be provided by the military should be restricted.
In his short comment, Kanu eulogised the virtues of the late Beko, urging lovers of peace and activists to continue from where the late activist stopped. He recounted the active days of NADECO and called for resuscitation and re-enactment of NADECO as was obtainable during the tyrannical administration of Abacha. Vocal NADECO, he noted, sensitised the world on the extra-judicial killings perpetrated by the Abacha administration.
In his message of solidarity, former Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) chairman, Lanre Arogundade, urged Nigerians to emulate the ideals of Beko and take their destinies in their own hands.
Also making a presentation entitled ‘The Role of the Mass Movement, Femi Obayori of the Department of Microbiology, Lagos State University (LASU), said there is need to recognise the power of the people in choosing their leaders.
Elaborating on the character of the 2015 electioneering process, Obayori pointed out that “the campaigns are not issue-based, the people are impassioned for the wrong reasons and the parties are peopled by the same personalities in class and persons”.
According to him, the present political process cannot bring meaningful change in the life of the people, adding that the campaigns are too expensive and unregulated.
What should be done?
Obayori posited that the most important thing is the issue of a mass movement that can address the challenges likely to arise from the 2015 general elections. He recalled that before the elections in 1993, the movement led by Beko stood aloof from politics, but the June 12 Movement was able to emerge to seize the gauntlet because there was already the Campaign for Democracy (CD) which readily filled the vacuum.
Rhetorically, he asked: “Would Beko have queued behind PDP or APC if he were to be among us today? Should we not support any of the smaller parties as part of the effort to build and entrench our ideology and principles, even if we are not sure of winning?
“We must task the parties, using the opportunity of six-week shift to address issues of economic downturn, political restructuring, expensive government and money-bag politics.”