Tentative Qualitative Criteria for Measuring the Progress of Democracy and Good Governance in Africa. By :Oyeleye Oyediran

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1 Tentative Qualitative Criteria for Measuring the Progress of Democracy and Good Governance in Africa By :Oyeleye Oyediran 1998

2 1. Introduction For nearly a decade now, the clamor for democracy and good governance in Africa has remained strident. Efforts to actualize the values have followed multiple channels and progress has in some way remained unsteady: there have been startling successes and dramatic reversals. The example of South Africa, which in a sense came so late in the day, is one of success. The towering figure of the man some call the number one African, President Nelson Mandela, has given all Africans not only hope but great pride that all is not lost of our continent. On the other extreme are many others like Idi Amin of Uganda who will remain a total disgrace to Africa. Let me refer also to one of the most recent from my own country Nigeria, General Sani Abacha, who preferred to use governmental power to destroy than to dialogue; who, as being revealed every week by the present administration in Nigeria, punished the citizens over whom he ruled so that he could become richer. In one single negotiation revealed just last week, he and some of his closest advisers stole more than two billion dollars from the treasury. The two billion American dollar deal was part of a $2.5 billion debt owned Russian contractors who built Ajaokuta Steel Company by the Federal Government for many years. Abacha sent a team of his name to negotiate with the Russians by way of a debt buy-back. A company was floated which approached the Russians after raising the difference of $500 million. This amount was paid and on return to Nigeria these evil men processed, through the Federal Ministries of Finance and Power and Steel, payment of the remaining debt of $2 billion. They shared the huge sum between the two ministers and a member of the Abacha family. There are many others across the continent who have disgraced their countries, their people and the black race everywhere. In the main, however, the transitions to democracy and good governance in Africa have evolved through a variety of routes. These include, national conference, (perfected by the countries formerly under French rule), military disengagement of one type or the other. Other routes include transformation from single party to multi party system (the examples of Zambia and Malawi give some hope while the examples of Kenya and Togo are mere makebeliefs), armed struggle leading to a negotiated dismantling of apartheid in Sough Africa and also Namibia in a sense and, of course, post civil-war reconstruction (with Mozambique raising hope and Angola giving great concern). What precipitated all these developments are both internal and external to Africa. The domestic factors include the acute economic crisis in Africa and the consequent inability of the state to meet the basic needs of the people, the corruption growing by leaps and bounds every year, the incompetence and brutality of African leadership, the debasement of the military, the rise in sub-nationalism, the reinvigoration of civil society and many other reasons. In a recent publication Civil Society and the Development of Democracy, the author, Larry Diamond, raised an interesting issue. He said: In the burgeoning theoretical and empirical literature on democratisation few issues are more central and diffuse than the question of elite versus mass influence. Is it primarily elites who make, shape, and consolidate democracy? Or does the public matter? If so, how, when and to what degree? 1 This point in a way is a little digression. The major external percipients have included the imposition of Structural Adjustment Programmes, the pressures of Western nations, donor agencies and international financial institutions, the collapse of Soviet communism and the delegitimation of the centralised state structure and the universalisation of liberal democracy 2

3 and human rights concerns blowing like the late British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan s wind of change. Conceptual Checklist 2. Democracy In the 1989 edition of one of his most influential books, Democracy and Its Critics Robert A. Dahl states Democracy is only a part, though an important part, of the universe of values, goods, or desirable ends 2. Elsewhere in an earlier work Polyarchy, Dahl refers to a nation/country as democratic if it meets three essential conditions: meaningful and extensive competition among individuals and organized groups (especially political parties) for effective positions of government power, at regular intervals and excluding the use of force; a highly inclusive level of political participation in the selection of leaders and policies, at least through regular and fair elections, such that no major (adult) social group is excluded; and a level of civil and political liberties freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom to form and join organizations sufficient to ensure the integrity of political competition and participation 3. Not many will disagree with Lyman Tower Sargent who has listed the basic elements of democracy in the 1987 edition of his book Contemporary Political Ideologies to include: citizen involvement in political decision-making; some measure of equality among citizens; some degree of liberty or freedom granted to or retained by citizens; a system of representation; rule of law ; an electoral system which allows the citizen periodically to retain or remove their representative from office. As he puts it, The electoral system is as important within the democratic theory as a theory of representation because it makes the representative system work and is the primary way of ensuring some governmental responsiveness to the wishes of the people; and education A citizen is required to make choices among candidates and issues. In order to do that he or she must have the basic skill of reading, writing and arithmetic since the information provided is often communicated in print, numbers are used extensively, and it may be necessary for the citizen to communicate in writing A democracy of illiterates is very limited unless the culture actively encourages the dissemination of information and the discussion of issues 4. As we observed above while discussing Robert Dahl s position on these elements of democracy, the freedom enjoyed by citizens of a democracy must necessarily include that of association and thus to form and join political parties and other associations in the civil society; the freedom of conscience and the freedom of the press. 3. Governance In 1989, the World Bank described the current situation in Africa as a crisis of governance. 3

4 Since then the term governance has become widely used and, to a large extent, associated with the politics of development, and in particular with development in the post colonial world 5. Pagden concludes Governance can thus perhaps best be understood as a bid to create a new rhetoric of international and interpersonal social and political relations, which now include a wide range of variables which the older categories had failed to capture 6. This is not to suggest that the concept is totally new. It has only taken a new and widely acceptable connotation. As Gerry Stoker suggests, governance is ultimately concerned with creating the conditions for ordered rule and collective action. The outputs of governance are not therefore different from those of government. It is rather a matter of a difference in processes 7. Kooiman and Van Vilret have suggested that governance points to the creation of a structure or an order which cannot be externally imposed but is the result of the interaction of a multiplicity of governing and each other influencing actors 8. All these suggest that good governance is required to establish mutual trust between the people and their government and to build an enabling environment for sustainable development. As the World Bank put it, good governance is characterized by the following features: accountability of government officials including politicians and civil servants; transparency in governmental procedures; predictability in governmental behaviour and expectation of rational decisions; openness in government transactions; the rule of law and an independent judiciary; free flow of information and freedom of the press; respect for human rights; decentralization of power, structure and decision-making Measuring Progress in Democracy and Good Governance After almost thirty years of brutal dictatorial rule, it is perhaps natural that progress towards democracy and good governance in Africa would be unsteady. Very real and considerable obstacles still exist. Nigeria which was the greatest hope towards a new Africa in the early years of the 1960s has experienced almost twenty eight years of authoritarian military rules and this experience probably could tell more than any other. Besides, the move towards democratic transition has been on for only ten few years. Accordingly, only an interim assessment can be offered at this stage. The parameters for such measurement must also be tentative. The ability of Africans to circumvent or mimic the real thing is almost unsurpassed elsewhere. Peter Ekeh called this democratism the ability to make use of apparent institutions of democracy while creating anti-democratic conditions and prospects 10. However, what are listed below may be of some use as tentative qualitative criteria: 5. Party System and the Electoral Process It must be noted from the outset that exclusive focus on competitive party system and elections as parameters for measuring democracy as some so-called specialists on Africa have done, is not only wrong and unhelpful but also deceptive. Party system and electoral process are critical variables but not sole indicators. In any case, assessing the status of the party and 4

5 electoral system needs more fundamental questions than merely the number of parties that are officially permitted to operate and how frequently elections are held. It is necessary that questions be raised as to how autonomous the parties are and who controls them. In other words, we must ask whether the parties truly represent and are controlled by the members. Within the last four weeks I personally had to issue a press release against my schoolmate and friend who not only had once been a former head of state but more importantly had been a military man all his public life. He worsened the situation by donating one hundred and thirty million naira and a few dozen vehicles to his political party as first set of gifts to help his party whose presidential candidacy he seeks. Nigerians call such people money bags. They control the parties on the basis of their financial strength. My press release said in part: I, Oyeleye Oyediran, Professor of Political Science at the University of Lagos wish to categorically deny that I have been appointed by... who announced his interest to contest the presidency of Nigeria on the platform of... in 1999, to chairman a Think Tank to study the current federal structure and recommend how each of the 200 ethnic groups in the country would have equal access to the country s resources. I went further to state that, As far as I am concerned, my objection to any military-man whether my school-mate, friend or otherwise, retired or not, taking over from General Abdulsalami Abubakar is based on the following reasoning: 1. A clean break with military leadership, retired or not, is the best way to start a new democratic Nigeria; 2. The first or most critical constituency of a military leader, retired or serving, is not the Nigerian nation but the military. The nation comes a distant second; 3. Military leaders cannot tolerate the idea of checks and balances, in particular a strong role for the legislature will be unacceptable; 4. The person in question has been opposed to or side-tracking the need for a national conference where minorities and majorities will have equal representation to decide where Nigeria goes after May 29, 1999; 5. A true and balanced federation in the sense of states being the center of relationship of various groups, rather than a strong overbearing center runs contrary to the training of military leadership; 6. A growing, mature and balanced civil society requires compromise, conflict and consensus. These cannot be nurtured under a leadership with military upbringing steeped in the Nigerian version of military culture. What I am saying simply is that if a military government is leading a country through transition from military authoritarianism to representative democratic governance, it will be wrong for a retired military general to be the choice. Questions about elections must include how truly independent is the electoral agency? How are its members chosen? What is the character of its leadership? How liberal are the electoral regulations and to what extent are they adhered to? Recent Nigerian experience illustrates how vital these question are. As the whole world knows, Nigerians went to the polls on 12 June 1993 to elect a president. But the outcome of the election which was adjudged orderly, free and fair by local and international monitors was annulled by the military. More recently, five political parties or political parastatals, as Nigerians called them, adopted an incumbent military head of state as their sole presidential candidate. There were also cases during the Babangida and Abacha transitions where 5

6 prospective candidates were disqualified for no stated reasons. The only umbrella reason given was security. 6. How Autonomous is Civil Society? It is of critical importance that the level of freedom of association enjoyed by the citizens be assessed. This is one way of establishing the extent of popular participation in the democratic process. Without doubt, it is only through their autonomous and democratic organizations that the people can best compel attention to their needs and exercise some restraint on government officials. We must therefore raise question such as these: what is the status of trade unions, students, women s and youth organizations? What of professional groups and the human rights movement? Are there impediments in the rights of these groups to organize and operate? Are they allowed to choose their leaders independent of the government and to what extent are these leaders allowed to articulate the aspirations of their members without state harassment? What of national minorities; are their rights fully secured? Answers to these questions will hopefully enable us ascertain how inclusive the political process is. 7. Are the People Educated? The linkage between the level of literacy among the people and democracy may not be immediately evident. It may also be argued that the leading democracies evolved before the attainment of a high level of literacy among their citizenry. But conditions have changed drastically. A high level of literacy is now required among the populace for them to be able to participate in policy debates and in the articulation of their aspirations. Education will also help them to discard traditional beliefs and practices that discourage participation, particularly of women and the youth. It is thus of importance that questions be raised about progress in mass education and the development of human resources. 8. Are the People Empowered Economically? Democracy and good governance are values which ought to be actualized for their intrinsic worth. However, the promotion of the welfare of the people must be acknowledged as a primary objective of the democratic process. It is reasonable to suppose that the right to vote would mean more to a citizen who is housed, employed and fed. Without his basic needs assured, it may be too much to expect a man/woman not to sell his/her votes if he has an opportunity. Measuring good governance must therefore necessitate an examination of the living conditions of the people. 9. Relationship of Governmental Organs and Levels This encompasses measuring the level of decentralization or concentration of power. Do the traditional organs of government exercise checks and balances on one another or does one of them, particularly the executive, predominate? Do the courts have the power and independence to adjudicate freely? Are their decisions adhered to or are these flouted in display of what in Nigeria is now known as executive lawlessness. How are judicial officers appointed? What level of autonomy does the judiciary possess? Progress towards good governance can also be measured by reference to the level of power granted sub-national governments. Are the state and local government councils autonomous and answerable to the people or are they agents of a central government? 6

7 10. Relationship of Governmental Organs and Levels This encompasses measuring the level of decentralization or concentration of power. Do the traditional organs of government exercise checks and balances on one another or does one of them, particularly the executive, predominate? Do the courts have the power and independence to adjudicate freely? Are their decisions adhered to or are these flouted in display of what in Nigeria is now known as executive lawlessness. How are judicial officers appointed? What level of autonomy does the judiciary possess? Progress towards good governance can also be measured by reference to the level of power granted sub-national governments. Are the state and local government councils autonomous and answerable to the people or are they agents of a central government? 11. Press and Individual Freedom The central role of the press in a democratic order is widely recognized. A free press serves to inform the government about the aspirations of the people and the people about the activities of government. The press also helps to expose incompetence, corruption and abuse of power in government. An important indicator of good governance is the extent of freedom of news media to operate. We may measure this by raising questions as to whether there are special and stringent requirements for granting operational license to the media and whether critical journalists are harassed by the state. Are the people free? In other words, to what extent do the people enjoy their civil and political rights? Is the due process followed before denials of these rights? Answers to questions such as these will help. 12. Conclusion As could be noted from the title of this paper, these are tentative criteria. Furthermore, there may be other criteria that another student of democracy and good governance in Africa may suggest. For me, the most important task for us as scholars, citizens, advocates, etc., is to be steadfast in securing that whatever we have gained is not lost. Democracy as I always say is not necessarily the most efficient system of government. It is, however, the best so far. We should lead our people to know that as empowered citizens they must not see themselves simply as onlookers who do nothing more than vote, but rather as participants actively participate not because they hope for any reward but because they can make a difference in the achievement of democracy and good governance. We all must, as the good book says, always be our brothers keeper in Africa. We cannot afford to be parochial and limit our activities to our own country alone. Africa is our continent and all dictators, authoritarian rulers, whether civilian or military, must be removed. Long years of rule say over ten years for any individual ruler is not healthy for our continent. I see those rulers who stay indefinitely as rulers not helping towards progress of democracy and good governance in Africa. Finally, we, all over Africa, should always remember as Mrs. Ayo Obe, President, Civil Liberty Organization, (CLO), keeps reminding Nigerians that the task of achieving sea change in people s attitudes towards a genuine preference for democracy, rather than simply a constant desire for impatient-driven change is not an easy one, and it must not be forgotten that we ourselves are the same possibly impatient... (people) 12. 7

8 Notes 1. Estudo/Working Papers 1997/101, June Dahl, Robert A., Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition New Haven: Yale University Press, Ibid. 4. Sargent, Lyman Tower, Contemporary Political Ideologies (7 th Edition), Chicago, The Dorsey Press, 1987, pp Pagden, Anthony, The Genesis of Governance and Enlightenment Conceptions of the Cosmopolitan Word Order International Social Science Journal, March 1998 pp Ibid. 7. Stoker, Gerry, Governance as Theory: Five Propositions International Social Science Journal, March 1998 pp Kooiman J., Van Vilret, Governance and Public Management in Eliassen K. and J. Kooiman (eds.) Managing Public Organization (2 nd Edition), London: Sage Publications, World Development Report, 1988 Published for the World Bank by Oxford University Press. 10. Festus Eribo, Oyeleye Oyediran, Mulatu Wubneh and Leon Zonn, Window on Africa: Democratization and Media Exposure, Greenville: Centre for International Programmes, 1993 p Ayo Obe Good Governance: What Role for Civil Society? (Nigerian) National Concord, Nov. 27, 1998 p Ibid. 8

Republic of Nigeria. Electoral Law Reform in Nigeria A Critique. By:Dayo Oluyemi-Kusa

Republic of Nigeria. Electoral Law Reform in Nigeria A Critique. By:Dayo Oluyemi-Kusa Republic of Nigeria Electoral Law Reform in Nigeria A Critique By:Dayo Oluyemi-Kusa 2001 Nigeria is like a Limited Liability Company owned by 120 million shareholders. The company s shareholders elect