By Ishaya Ibrahim
Nigeria’s democracy did not record any improvements in 2018, the latest report from The Economist Intelligence Unit has shown.
The Economist Intelligence Unit is the research and analysis division of The Economist Group, the sister company of The Economist newspaper.
The report shows Nigeria’s democracy remaining at the same spot it was in 2017 with a ranking 4.44 points on a scale of 0 to 10.
In Sub Saharan Africa which has 44 countries, Mauritius took the first spot and number 17 in the world. It was the only country rated as practising full democracy on the continent. It scored 8.22 out of 10 points.
Nigeria is categorised as a hybrid regime, which is the third out of four groupings of countries. The first is a full democracy, followed by flawed democracy, then hybrid regime and authoritarian regimes.
By hybrid regime, The Economist explains that: “Elections have substantial irregularities that often prevent them from being both free and fair.
Government pressure on opposition parties and candidates may be common. Serious weaknesses are more prevalent than in flawed democracies—in political culture, the functioning of government and political participation.
Corruption tends to be widespread and the rule of law is weak. Civil society is weak. Typically, there is harassment of and pressure on journalists, and the judiciary is not independent.”
The first grouping in the report is full democracies. Countries in this category enjoy basic political freedoms and civil liberties are respected. The functioning of government is satisfactory. Media are independent and diverse. There is an effective system of checks and balances. The judiciary is independent and judicial decisions are enforced.
In Sub Saharan Africa, only Mauritius enjoys the status of full democracy. Cabo Verde, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Ghana, Namibia and Senegal are grouped as a flawed democracy. Their ranking means that they have free and fair elections and, even if there are problems (such as infringements on media freedom), basic civil liberties are respected. What makes their democracies flawed, the researchers observed, is that there are significant weaknesses in other aspects of democracy, including problems in governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation.
The last category is authoritarian regimes, which almost half of all Sub Saharan African states fall into. The worst three are Chad, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Authoritarian regimes are states with outright dictatorships. Some formal institutions of democracy may exist, but these have little substance. Elections, if they do occur, are not free and fair. There is a disregard for abuses and infringements of civil liberties. Media are typically state-owned or controlled by groups connected to the ruling regime. There is repression of criticism of the government and pervasive censorship. There is no independent judiciary.
The report covers 165 countries, and Nigeria came to number 108 in the global ranking. The first 10 countries with healthy democracies are Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, Ireland, Finland, Australia and Switzerland.
The worst 10 regimes are Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Equatorial Guinea, Turkmenistan, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria and North Korea
