publication on what center LSD is about:
created on Monday 5/3/2012
INTRODUCTION
The greatest problem facing Nigeria today is political leadership and democratic governance. The solution to the problem is organizing at all levels starting from the community and networking into a national movement.
OUTLINE OF THOUGHT
Political Leadership
Gender and Political Leadership
Democratic Governance
My Experience in my Community and NGO Sector
Challenges of Community Organising
Way Forward
Organising for the 2011 Elections. POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
Political leadership has been defined based on the behaviour of persons in political authority and their ability to mobilize and direct other persons within a society to act in patterned and coherent ways.[i] Political leadership has also been defined as the mobilization and direction, by a person or persons using essentially non-coercive means, on other persons within a society to act in patterned and coherent ways that cause (or prevent) change in the authoritative allocation of values within that society.[ii] Scholars have documented that whenever ineffective and selfish leaders are in positions of political authority, the result is bad governance and its associated problems of malaise, corruption, lack of accountability and transparency and the respect for the rule of law will persist in the developing nations.[iii]
Elections play a crucial role in political leadership. Election is the basis of the legitimacy of political leaders. Free and fair elections can improve the quality of political leadership. As Kali Gwegwe has argued, the poor quality of political leadership in Nigeria can be traced to the fact that votes of the citizens do not count in the emergence of political leaders:
No doubt, the quality of political leadership in most European countries, Australia, Canada, and the United States is by far higher than what is obtainable here in Nigeria. This is not because politicians in those countries are angels. Rather, their electoral system has practically put power in the hands of voters. This reality has forced politicians to offer quality leadership through selfless service so as to secure the mandate of voters.
Owing largely to the poor electoral framework in Nigeria, politics and public office have been turned into platforms for self-seeking individuals and groups to amass ill-gotten wealth. Little or no thought is given to the feelings of the citizenry. That is the main reason why almost fifty years after gaining political independence from Britain, a greater percentage of Nigerians do not have access to electricity, education, health care, sanitation, safe drinking water, decent transport infrastructure. [iv]
A political leader is expected to mobilize both men and women in society. Women constitute about 50 percent of the population. Any leader that does not mobilize, articulate, aggregate and respond to the concerns of women is illegitimate.
GENDER AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN NIGERIA
Historically, women have been discriminated against either in participation of election of political leaders or emerging as political leaders. There is huge gender inequality in political leadership. Meanwhile, it has been established that gender inequality is a constraint to growth and poverty reduction while a more equitable gender relation is an accelerator of poverty reduction. Women all over the world share a common feature of marginalisation in all spheres of life. In nearly all countries of the world, the dates of male universal suffrage differ from that of women as shown in the table below.
Table One: Democratisation of suffrage in Selected countries
Country
Male Universal Suffrage
Female Universal Suffrage
Australia
1903
1908
Canada
1915/18
1920
France
1869/71
1946
Great Britain
1877
1928
Italy
1925
1946
Sweden
1423
1921
Portugal
1911
1974
Japan
1918/19
1947
Nigeria
1922
1979
From the table above, it is clear that in all parts of the world, women have been historically discriminated against in electoral issues.
Similarly, women are marginalized in political leadership. The number of Women in parliament all over the world is not commensurate with the population of women. Meanwhile, studies show that higher number of women in parliament generally contributes to stronger attention to women issues. Fortunately, there is increasing participation of women in parliament but as at 2009, only 17 heads of state are women; only 25 % of parliamentarians are women. There are many factors that hinder women participation in politics. These include patriarchy, violence, money, cultural barriers, religious barrier.
The situation in Nigeria is similar to other countries of the world. The constitutional history of Nigeria shows that this exclusion dates back to the colonial times when women were not allowed to vote. The Clifford constitution of 1922 restricted the electorate to adult males in Calabar and Lagos who have been resident in the city for at least one year and had a gross annual income of N100.00. The Richard constitution of 1946 only reduced the property qualification to N50.00. The Macpherson constitution removed property qualification but still restricted the electorate to only adult males who pay their taxes. In fact, it was not until 1979 before the right to vote was extended to all Nigerian women. While men started voting in Nigeria in 1922, women in all parts of the country started voting in 1979, a difference of fifty seven years.
Table Two: Democratisation of suffrage in Nigeria
YEAR
CONSTITUTION
SUFFRAGE
1914
Amalgamation
None
1922
Clifford
Adult Males with annual income of N100
1946
Richards
Adult Males with annual income of N50
1951
Macpherson
Adult Males who paid their taxes
1954
Lyttleton
Adult Males+ Females in East & West
1960
Independence
Adult Males+ Females in East & West
1963
Republican
Adult Males+ Females in East & West
1979
Presidential
Adult Males & Females
The end result is that the number of women in political leadership is very low in Nigeria as can be seen from the table below showing female representation in governance in the fourth republic.
Table Three: Female Representation in Governance in the Fourth Republic
ORGAN
TOTAL NUMBER
OF WOMEN
% WOMEN
Fed. Executive Council
49
6
12.2
Senate
109
3
2.8
House of Reps
360
12
3.3
Governors
36
0
0
State Deputy Governors
36
1
2.8
State Houses of Assembly
995
12
1.2
Speakers
36
0[1]
0
Local Government Chairmen
774
9
1.2
Local Government Councilors
8,800
143
1.6
Source: Alemika, E.E.O. and Agugua, a. O. (2001), Gender Relations and Discrimination in Nigeria Police Force. Lagos, Centre for Law Enforcement Education (CLEEN)
Interestingly, when the YarAdua administration came into office, it promised to give 30 percent of political appointment to women (less that the 35 percent in the National Gender Policy). But an assessment conducted by ActionAid after one year indicated that women appointment was only 11 percent. The situation at the moment has not improved. It has been documented that:
Womens representation in appointive and elective positions has improved slightly but falls short of the 30% and 35% affirmative action margins prescribed by the Beijing Platform for Action and the National gender Policy respectively. Women constituted about 11% of all candidates in the 2007 elections with only one woman contesting for the office of the President; 33.9% for governorship positions; 13.5% for Senate, 15.6% for House of Representatives, and 15.8% for Houses of Assembly. Today, women occupy only about 8% of key leadership positions in Nigeria. Clearly, leadership in Nigeria is still gendered and men saturate the political space. Nigerian women are optimistic that the electoral reform of the current dispensation will succeed and create a strong platform for womens and mens participation in the 2011 elections. Nigerias National Gender Policy creates an enabling environment for women to transcend all hindrances “ political, economic, socio-cultural and otherwise to actualise their full potentials. Critical steps that Nigeria needs to take urgently includes the domestication of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the domestication and implementation of the Child Rights Act in all States and the passage of a bill against Violence against Women (VAW) as well as HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination. In addition, the need to build womens capacity to transcend individual-level as well as systemic hindrances to their full participation and leadership cannot be over-emphasised.[v]
It is clear to us that the struggle against class and gender oppression is a continuous one.
3. DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE
Democratic Governance is characterised by the presence of the following:
Capacity of a society to define and establish policies and resolve their conflicts peacefully within the existing legal order.
Rule of law
Separation of powers
Enjoyment of individual freedom and rights
Presence of sound, effective, professional and culturally valid institutions.
Functioning institutions based on the principles of equity, freedom, participation in decision making, accountability and promoting the inclusion of the most vulnerable in society (women, children, the poor and persons living with disability)
It must however be noted that the culture of democratic governance goes beyond the mere procedures of democracy and the establishment of democratic institutions
MY EXPERIENCE IN MY COMMUNITY AND NGO SECTOR
I have been working in the NGO sector for over twenty years. I am also very active in my community. I have initiated community projects and co-operative movement. There are a lot of lessons from this engagement.
Everyone has recognized the challenge of leadership. We also know that leaders can be trained. Yet, there are very few institutions and organizations dedicated to training leaders and people in the act of organizing.
Many of the people who are interested in real organizing for change are those who have been trained especially during their student days on organizing for change.
Many people do not believe that one can organise for change without personal benefit.
Poverty makes organizing very difficult as people are more interested in meeting their practical needs rather that focusing on strategic needs and the big picture.
Corruption has made organizing for change difficult especially as the ruling class use money to organise the poor for political support.
Persistence, awareness creation and staying close to the people over time can build understanding, confidence and support for organizing for change.
There are pockets of individuals and organizations committed to change but there is no strategy, network and synergy to bring about the required impact.
CHALLENGES OF COMMUNITY ORGANISING
Lack of skills in organizing
Lack of motivation in organizing: craze for primitive accumulation of wealth
Unresponsiveness of the political class to advocacy and campaigns
WAY FORWARD
Capacity building for Leadership, Political leadership and Female leadership
Capacity building for organizing and mobilization
Encouragement of people of integrity to engage in partisan politics
Capacity building for strategy and operations
Engagement with community organizing and political party organizing
Engagement with the 2011 elections and beyond
ORGANISING FOR THE 2011 ELECTIONS
Political Education
Protection of mandate
Advocacy and Campaigns
Monitoring of the electoral process
Election observation
In our view, there is the need for medium term strategies to restore the confidence of the electroate in the electoral process and long term strategies for the transformation of the electoral, political and economic system. The medium term strategies should include voter education, protection of mandate, electoral reform, constitutional reform and reform of election management. In the last ten years, especially during the 1999 and 2003 elections, civil society organisations have conducted a lot of voters education programmes focusing on the importance and power of the vote. Citizens were mobilised to come out to vote for candidates of their choice. Citizens came out in 1999 and 2003 but were disappointed when they realised that in some cases votes do not count. Despite this, there is the need to continue to embark on voter education because it is basic to engaging other strategies. In preparation for the 2007 elections, many civil society organisations started training citizens and communities on the protection of mandate. This involves a series of tools and strategies that citizens can use to engage political parties, security agents and electoral officers to prevent manipulation of electoral franchise. This was successful in some places like Bauchi State which has been documented in the book: the 2007 Elections and the capture of the Peoples Sovereignty. There is the need to continue and scale up efforts at mandate protection.
Finally, there is the need for the reform of election management. Mechanism must be put in place to ensure that voters register are displayed before elections to enable registered voters, political parties and electorate to make claims and objections. Similarly, we must ensure that announcement of results is done at polling centres by presiding officers and duly signed copies given to accredited agents, the Police and State Security Service. It is imperative that all efforts are made to ensure that the electoral law and regulations are implemented faithfully. As Jibrin Ibrahim has noted, most African constitutions are excellent documents; they have most of the right provisions about the rule of law, human, civil and political rights, elective institutions, governmental accountability, separation of powers etc. The problem however is that these provisions are not followed.[vi] Our argument here is that if the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act 2006 were followed, the level of irregularities in the 2007 would not have been experienced. We must therefore put emphasis on implementing whatever law is used in the conduct of elections in Nigeria. In particular, the role of different stakeholders that need to be performed to ensure credible, free and fair election should be enforced. The stakeholders include Political Parties, Security Agencies (NPF, Armed Forces), media, religious and traditional institutions, CSOs, International Organisations, the National Assembly, the Executive and the Judiciary.
While the medium term strategies are necessary to bring Nigeria out of the woods in terms of the conduct of elections, ultimately, full restoration of franchise will depend on a long term strategy of changing the nature and character of the state and the conduct of politics, political party organising and eventual capture of political power by democratic, radical and progressive forces in Nigeria. The present nature and character of the Nigerian state is such that political power has become the easiest method of primitive accumulation of capital. The resource curse and the oil economy has made rent seeking behaviour predominant leading to the collapse of Agriculture and industry. There is the need for a change in the nature and character of the state in a fundamental manner that will affect the political culture and development paradigm in the country. This will affect political party organising so that there will be ideologically rooted parties that will practise issue based politics. Ultimately democrats and progressive elements will participate and change the colour of politics in Nigeria.
Whether in the short term, medium term or the long term, there is the need for some strategic approaches for the restoration of franchise. First and foremost, there is the need to mobilise forces of change to make denial of franchise or disregard of electoral standards difficult if not impossible. This will require a movement of patriotic and dedicated Nigerians that are opposed to the present bankrupt ruling elite. The movement will educate and mobilise citizens to resist rigging of elections. A major strategy that the movement can use is effective communication especially to citizens on the dangers of loss of franchise to the entire society. Secondly, there is the need for the trasnsformation of institutions of democracy. It must be recognised that democracy goes beyond the ritual of conducting elections. Democracy is a holistic concept that involves process, culture and attitude. This means that deliberate efforts must be made to inculcate democratic values and ethos including building electoral culture of electing prefects in primary and secondary schools, social clubs, town unions etc
ENDNOTES
[1] At the beginning of the republic there was one female speaker who had to resign.
[i] Udogu, Ike (2008), Journal of Third World Studies.
[ii] Ibid
[iii] Ibid
[iv] Gwege, Kali, Mechanism of Sound Political Leadership
[v] National Women Coalition on AIDS (NAWOCA) (2010)Draft Six Year Strategic Plan and Programme Implementation Framework.
[vi] Ibrahim, J. (2003), Democratic Transition in Anglophone West Africa. CODESRIA Monograph Series.
