Nigeria’s democracy has derailed here are five short reasons why

Rather than bore you with too much turenchi let me just go straight to the meat.

Credibility: Since 1999, there have only been two credible elections - 1999 itself and 2015. All the others have been questionable. This is a problem given that we have had four other elections. A return of 33% in terms of credibility presents no surprise as to why the turnout keeps dropping.

Violence: Violence has become an accepted tool of Nigerian electioneering. The use of violence by both state and non-state actors contributes to a lack of interest in coming out by the electorate, and eventual outcome is decreased legitimacy for various governments.

Lack of continuity: One thing that has become the bane of Nigeria’s economic development has been the fact that most of our leadership have shown this penchant for discarding nearly everything that their immediate predecessor did for reasons that are less than savoury. Examples? Buhari discarding or ignoring most of GEJ’s power reforms. Yar’Adua reversing Obasanjo’s proposed sale of the refineries. Ambode and then Sanwoolu in Lagos. Imoke in Cross River going cold on Tinapa. Ganduje in Kano abandoning Kwankwaso’s scholarship programmes. Ugwuanyi in Enugu ignoring Chime’s ESBS revamp. There are examples all over the country. This lack of continuity has stymied development.

Unpreparedness for leadership: Yar’Adua after his tenure as Katsina governor simply wanted to retire, then Obasanjo dragged him into the presidential race. GEJ was an accidental leader, both as governor and as president. Buhari had not read a book since 1985, and it is clear that despite the fact that he ran four times, he was unprepared for leadership. This cuts across all strata where in many cases leaders are picked because a godfather or group of influential people want someone they can control, so we end up with people who are unprepared for leadership.

Electoral reform: Yar’Adua’s legacy will be the Uwais report and the Electoral Act of 2010. But like almost any law, there were loopholes that could be exploited, and the mantle to close those loopholes fell on his successors. Of the two of them, the more egregious in ignoring the need to improve our electoral process is Muhammadu Buhari. The man only cared about occupying the seat of power which is why despite the 2015 elections being better than both 2007 and 2011, we regressed significantly in 2019. The problem with these things remains that they are effectively a spiral. We climbed in 2015, and since we fell in 2019, we are, to all intents and purposes now in a worse position than we were after 2011.

So, the question is, how do we rescue this?