Repositioning Democratic Governance in Africa for Better Dividends Delivery: A Case for Performance

Abstract

Given the fact that democracy as a system and form of governance which allows for even participation, freedom of expression, rule of law and other indices attached thereto, had awaken the consciousness of humanity from all over the world to key into this form of leadership due to its uncommon benefits. Africa her ‘third world cousins’ seemed to have remained in a slumbering position and have refused to wake up and wear the toga of democratic principles as acts displayed by leaders lacked democratic character. This paper argues that democratic dividends and flavour can be felt and directly impacted on the citizens of Africa especially Nigeria, if adequate political socialization, culturalization and consciousness are fused as part of her cultural education. This new consciousness and democratic mindset will arguably make leaders and the led see each other as an inclusive indispensable part of the whole. It will also eliminate unwantom suspicion, rancour, ethnic bigotry, exclusion and hegemonic display of power and more so, leadership may not be tenured but anchored on performance and service delivery. The paper believes that with a political consciousness, socialization and high sense of political culture, leadership becomes service to the humanity and not business enterprise. Hence leaders that performed optimally may continue to serve the people if they so desire. This paper adopts critical, analytical and expository methods.

Full text

Predestinasi
Vol. 13, No. 2, Desember 2020, Hal. 107- 114
ISSN (Print): 1978-9351
Repositioning Democratic Governance in Africa for Better Dividends
Delivery: A Case for Performance
Ephraim A. Ikegbu1, Godwin C.S.P. Iwuchukwu2, Peter B. Bisong3
1,3,Department of Philosophy
University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
*e-mail: a.eikegbu@unical.edu.ng1
2, Department of Linguistics & Communications
University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
*e-mail: godwiniwuchukwu@gmail.com2
ABSTRACT
Given the fact that democracy as a system and form of governance which allows for even
participation, freedom of expression, rule of law and other indices attached thereto, had awaken
the consciousness of humanity from all over the world to key into this form of leadership due to
its uncommon benefits. Africa her ‘third world cousins’ seemed to have remained in a
slumbering position and have refused to wake up and wear the toga of democratic principles as
acts displayed by leaders lacked democratic character. This paper argues that democratic
dividends and flavour can be felt and directly impacted on the citizens of Africa especially
Nigeria, if adequate political socialization, culturalization and consciousness are fused as part of
her cultural education. This new consciousness and democratic mindset will arguably make
leaders and the led see each other as an inclusive indispensable part of the whole. It will also
eliminate unwantom suspicion, rancour, ethnic bigotry, exclusion and hegemonic display of
power and more so, leadership may not be tenured but anchored on performance and service
delivery. The paper believes that with a political consciousness, socialization and high sense of
political culture, leadership becomes service to the humanity and not business enterprise. Hence
leaders that performed optimally may continue to serve the people if they so desire. This paper
adopts critical, analytical and expository methods.
Keywords: Democracy; Poverty; Ignorance; Socialization; Culturalization.
INTRODUCTION
Failure to take into cognizance the fact that, not everything that works in the West and
other developed countries will work in Africa, has been the mistake that Africa is slow in
correcting. Ever since its displacement by colonialism, Africa has tended to sheepishly follow
the West in almost all things, from religion, language, dressing, to dancing. Its educational
curricula are purely western. Its economic system is western and more frustrating; its political
system is tailored after the West.
Nigeria and most African countries are now democratic like the West. Democracy
however, has failed to yield the expected dividends in the continent, making many to question
the reasoning behind its enthronement (Ikegbu & Enyimba 2010). The failure of democracy in

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the continent seems to lay credence to Elijah John (2009) assertion that “certain nations of the
world are not ripe yet for democracy” (p. 68). We agree with John that most African nations are
not yet ripe for democracy, though reservation as certain fragments of Africa such as South
Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya even Gambia have some elements and features of democracy in
their political system (Ikegbu et al., 2013).
Democracy does not thrive well in areas of mass illiteracy/ignorance, endemic poverty
and tribalism. Democracy demands mass participation, and effective mass participation can only
come when the citizens are politically enlightened, economically vibrant and detribalized. This
paper argues that Africa can only reap the dividends of democracy, if the educational and
poverty level in the continent are improved and communalistic spirit completely exorcised.
Thus this where it happens will differentiate African democracy from western democracy that is
tenure based and not performance. African democracy (Nigeria) for it to gain its desired flavour
and acceptability status must be anchored on performance of the leaders. A leader who has
performed optimally must be made to continue until he becomes weak and incapable of
discharging his functions either on health ground or age or both.
MEANING AND NATURE OF DEMOCRACY
The origin of the term democracy is traceable to the 5th century BC, where it was used in
Greek city-states, notably Athens (Wilson, 2006). It is derived from two Greek words demos
(people) and kratos (rule). It therefore, etymologically means rule by the people. In consonance
with this etymological meaning, Appadorai captures it as a “system of government under which
the people exercise the governing power directly or through representative periodically elected
by themselves” (p. 137). For Nnamdi Azikiwe (1974), it means “the rule of the people by its
majority inhabitants and it includes a government in which the supreme power is vested in the
people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation, usually
involving periodically held free and fair elections” (p. 2-3). John Dewey sees it as “the settling
for free use of the experimental method in social inquiry and thought, which is required for the
solution of concrete social, political and industrial problems” (Coppleston 1984, p. 373).
According to Elijah John (2009), democracy is a “method of government through which leaders
are held accountable for their actions and inactions in the public realm, and by which citizens
are actively involved in the completion and cooperation of their elected representatives” (p. 68).
Though, democracy lacks a universally accepted definition, it could be said from the
definitions above that democracy has identifiable marks, some of which include: existence of a
constitution, Regular, free and fair elections: Existence of Federalism, an independent judiciary:
Powers of the presidency, A free media: Transparency: Civilian control of the military, Multi-
party system, Equality before the law, Political tolerance, Accountability: Human rights,
Neutrality of state institutions, Rule of law. In our view, democracy implies no less than a
civilianized system of leadership with inclusive character conferred on persons or group of
persons in a representative flavour on trust, for the management and administration of the
commonwealth of the people while ensuring equity, fair play, justice in resource allocation and
distribution and freedom of opinion and association.
THE CHALLENGES OF DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA
The major challenges facing democracy in Nigeria are illiteracy/political ignorance,
poverty and communal consciousness.

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Illiteracy/political ignorance
Arguably, more than one half of African population is believed to be illiterate. Inability to
read and write robs most Africans of the opportunity to get abreast with the political happenings
around them. Success of democracy largely depends on active participation of the citizens.
Active participation however, depends on how politically informed the people are which also
depends on the peoples’ ability to read and write. Inability to research and get facts for
themselves, make the people susceptible to the deceit of political office seekers. Whatever is
said to them becomes the norm, making them to be unable to make truly free and independent
political decisions. Inability to read and write equally makes the people politically ignorant and
thus unable to know and exercise their political rights. Most African electorates do not know the
extent and limit of their political rights. They do not know when to act and when to fail to act.
They do not know when to speak and when to refrain from speaking. They do not know when to
revolt and when to cheer.
The political ignorance of majority of Africans, make it possible for the political elites to
exploit and manipulate them to fit into their selfish political goals and ambitions. Apart from
illiteracy, which is absence of formal education, political socialization and consciousness
remained necessary thematic factors to be dealt with. If the people are fully conscientized,
market women, traders and other people in unskilled vocations, it will go a long way in
redirecting political equation and democratic leadership of the Nigerian state will further be
strengthened. Political education and socialization did not necessarily imply educational
competence or qualifications, some countries that witnessed rapid positive political change did
not necessarily have the best brains in the area of education. What was fundamental remained
political consciousness, socialization and appetite to effect a positive change by initiating
appropriate and people oriented policies. To buttress this, Anthony Gidden (2006) opines:
British don’t much esteem intellectuals. During the course of my career, I have met
politicians from many different countries. Britain is one of the few countries I have come
across where there is virtually no direct transfer between universities and politics. There
are some MPs who begin as university lecturers, but after that they become professional
politicians and lose their connection to the academy. I know of no case where someone
who is a full time professor in university has moved across into a prominent position in
the commons. And the commons is quite openly anti-intellectual….Thursday 23, Nov,
2006 .
In most African states, it is selection that is the norm and not election. The votes of the
electorates do not count. There is lack of transparency and accountability. The judiciary and the
media are not truly free. Other principles of true democracy are either absent or ineffective and
yet the masses are silent about it. This is exactly what illiteracy and political ignorance breed.
Adequate political socialization and conscientization will certainly reduce if not eliminate these
inordinate practices in the polity.
Poverty
Poverty is another major challenge to democracy in Africa. A person deprived of the
basic wherewithal cannot effectively function politically. Over 70 per cent of Africans are
believed to live below poverty line. This means more Africans are basically concerned with
survival than in politics. Their over concern for survival makes them susceptible to
manipulation by the rich politicians. That is exactly why it is common in Africa, to hear of
buying of votes, especially in Nigeria. Due to ignorance and poverty, Africans are willing to sell

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their votes for as low as a cup of salt. Indeed, there is clear absence of integrity for a poor
hungry person to preserve. This perhaps explains the reason for vote buying, bullying, ballot
snatching, maiming and killing that characterize the electoral processes in Nigeria and other
developing African countries.
Also, due to the cost of politics, only the rich can actually contest for elective positions.
This means that, no matter how credible a person may be, he/she cannot exercise effectively
his/her rights to be voted for because of poverty. This has made power to circulate only around a
few rich powerful individuals, turning democracy in Africa to the left aristocratic bent.
Aside from individual poverty, national poverty is also a great hindrance to the effective
take-off of democracy in Africa. African countries are among the poorest countries in the world.
Democracy is not meant for poor countries because it is an expensive form of government. This
will be made vivid, when we consider the billions spent on elections periodically, the billions
spent on the salaries and allowances of the federal and state houses of representatives, billions
spent on electoral tribunal cases. These monies will be enough to improve infrastructure and
reduce the poverty and thereby elevating the living standard of the people. By indulging in
democracy, Africa only succeeded in enmeshing itself deeper into poverty. The poverty of the
citizens is deepened in the process, thereby increasing the failures of democracy. In an
atmosphere of political culture, socialization and conscientization credible leaders if emerged
will enthrone a culture of quality leadership, consistency of quality democratic policies and
programme thereby avoiding periodic elections. Hence performing leaders need not be re-
elected as they remain in office until they become unfit for the job. Leadership is necessarily
service to the people and not a theatre for conversion of commonwealth to private estates.
Serving the people creditably and in line with the appropriate laws of the land will lay credence
to the Lockean perception of sovereign power lying in the hands of the people. A performing
leader continues to be in office until the people objectively discover that the leader now leads
contrary to the enabling law and to the good of the people.
COMMUNAL CONSCIOUSNESS
One major factor militating against the growth of democracy in Africa is communalism.
African communities which were basically communalistic where forcefully amalgamated to
form countries. While the communal spirit kept the traditional communities united and alive, it
has become a spoke in the wheel of progress for the amalgamated countries. Communalism or
community-centeredness by nature drags individual into impenetrable clusters. Communalism
demands that individuals of a certain community, draws towards the community and pursue its
interest over and above the interest of others. The community is expected to be first and the
individual second. This system worked well before amalgamation, when the communities where
autonomous and independent, but now that these communities are expected to accommodate
and embrace others as one, it has become a big challenge. This tendency to cling to one’s
community has bred what is variously referred to as tribalism or ethnocentrism.
The demand of the communal spirit that everybody seeks to foster the interest of his/her
immediate community has been the bane of democracy in Africa. Everybody now tends to cling
to a political candidate from his/her community or ethnic group, irrespective of whether or not
he/she is the most qualified candidate for the position. In turn, a political office holder tends to
tilt more towards his/her community or ethnic group than others. As a consequence of this,
democracy in Africa has tended to follow ethnic and tribal lines, contributing to its failure and
numerous agitations from different ethnic groups. This phenomenon has aggressively
metamorphosed into ethnic associations, terrorist and not-so terrorist group such as Independent

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People of Biafra (IPOB), Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen, Reformed Niger Delta Avengers
(RNDA), Odua Peoples’ Congress (OPC),
Democracy by its nature favours the domination of the minority by the majority. In a
continent dominated by ethnic groups which are closed up to other ethnic groups, democracy
will necessary pitch one ethnic group against the other in a struggle for supremacy. This is
typified in Nigeria. Nigeria has been more divided in this democracy than it has ever been in the
military regimes. There has never been a time in the history of Nigeria, that Nigeria has
witnessed such division and infighting. One may point at the civil war. But the civil war was as
a result of a friction between two groups. Today we have many groups agitating for freedom;
the Niger Deltans agitating for independence, the Boko Haram seeking an Islamic state, the
IPOB seeking a republic of Biafra, and Odua Peoples’ Congress of Yoruba crying against
marginalization. A lot of reasons have been blamed for these skirmishes. We blame the system
of government in place. Democracy cannot help Nigeria or any African countries at the
moment, it only tears the already fragile but healing wounds inflicted by a forceful unification
of disparate groups into a country by their colonizers.
By making the various ethnic groups to compete for power and supremacy in elections, it
puts a knife to the fragile bond that has been developing over time amongst the ethnic groups.
This bond seems to have dissipated in Nigeria, placing the country at the verge of a total
breakup – a breakup that may not be in two pieces but in many pieces. This breakup is not just
about Nigeria, other African countries will be caught up with it too. However, this could be
averted, if certain conditions are met.
CONDITIONS FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA
To advise Africa against democracy now will be dysfunctional. Africa is already neck-
deep in democracy and thus the only possible way to salvage it from its excruciating effects, is
to fashion a kind of democracy that will fit African social, economic and political environment.
The following measures to be considered:
Majority of the elective positions in the wisdom of this paper need to be made apolitical
as much as possible. Elective positions in the federal and state houses of
representatives/assembly, governors, local government chairmen and councillors should no
longer be electorally contested. These positions should be filled like other positions in the
ministries are. The positions of House of Representatives should be advertised like other job
positions. Interview and selection should then be carried out and the selected people made staff
of the federal or state government as the case may be, and their salaries fixed according to the
national scale. State governors should be selected from the highest ranking staff of the state, the
same way a vice chancellor is selected from the highest ranking staff of the university. Local
government chairmen and councillors should also be selected by basis of ranks of staff of Local
Government Councils. The highest ranking officer of the local government staff should be made
the chairman and staff of a certain level and qualifications made the councillors of wards. It is
only the presidential position that should be contestable. Doing this will eliminate the expenses
incurred on these political positions, through huge salaries, allowances and more seriously the
cost of running elections. It will also lead to rest, the ethnic sentiments that is now a mark of
Africa. The billions spent on periodic elections, when put into other uses is capable of
improving economic and infrastructural growth in the different countries of Africa. The trillions
spent on political officers annually could create more job opportunities for Africans. The monies
spent on campaign by political office seekers could be spent on other functional projects that
would benefit everybody, instead of creating liabilities that the officers would want to recover

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while in government. This model is akin to the pat-time legislative model advocated by Ikegbu
and Duru (2013).
The beauty of any democracy is based on the moral credentials of its legislature which
will consequently reflect on the quality of laws and policies initiated and passed by them.
Sadly, African political jurisdiction has the misfortune of having a legislature that think
less of the happiness of their various constituents as a people….a part time legislative
arrangement can if put in use address some of the problems already faced in the
legislative arm of government which consequently, affect the output of governance (p.56).
There is need for political education to make the people politically enlightened. True
democracy revolves round the people, and the extent of citizen’s involvement to a large extent is
dependent on their political knowhow. Political education is therefore, necessary in Africa as
the Sophists of ancient Athens discovered. The sophists took upon their shoulders the task of
educating the citizens, in order that they may excel in the art of politics. Education in Africa
should not be without this sophistic intent. Both the rulers and the ruled, must be trained to take
up and perform their various duties well. Falaiye (2012) seemingly holds this position,
considering his assertion: “I am convinced that good leaders are not born, but made. Training is
very essential for those aspiring to become leaders at all levels … ruling is a skill, just like any
other skill, it requires training or tutelage to master” (p. 39). This point was also emphasized by
Plato the ancient Greek philosopher, who held that the three classes of the society (the rulers,
soldiers and workers) need to be educated, to enable them perform their duties well (Ikegbu &
Diana-Abasi 2017). Political office seekers if well-educated will understand that virtue and
politics can co-exist; that rhetoric is a better tool to win elections than violence and ethnic
incitement. Presently in Africa, politics is seen as a dirty game, making many honest people to
disassociate from it. Proper education will put this belief in proper perspective. A careful survey
will show that strong and stable democracies are only found in countries given to education. No
country with poor educational system could sustain its democracy for long. Education imbues
the citizens with the ability to read and write, thereby enabling them to communicate and work
collaboratively with others. The colonial masters knew this fact well. They undertook the
education of Africans, not really for the sake of love, but to make them capable of being ruled.
To rule very well, one must make the followers able to be ruled. Democracy being a
government of the people by the people cannot actually succeed if the people are ignorant. An
ignorant populace cannot actually rule itself. This is why only the enlightened few rule in
Africa, meaning that democracy in Africa is not government by the people but by a few. One
good way to improve educational quality in Africa is to privatize the universities. The money
spent on universities, could be channelled to the primary and secondary education, with the
view of increasing quality of education at these levels. When the quality of education at the
primary and secondary levels (which should be free) is improved, a graduate from these could
meaningfully find his/her place in the society. Tertiary education is for specialization, and
whoever desires that, should fund it himself/herself. The truth is that African nations are not rich
enough to fund quality education at the moment. They should therefore, be no pretence about it.
Government should be decentralized. The powers of the federal government need to be
diffused to the different states. Each state should be allowed to operate autonomously. States
should control their resources and finances and a certain percentage sent to the federal purse.
Overdependence on the federal government has made most states lazy and less creative. It is the
federal government that ought to depend on the states and not the other way round. Self-
dependence will make each state to think deeper in order to raise enough to keep itself afloat.
These deep thinking will definitely lead to the creation of more jobs and consequently more
wealth for the countries. Poverty is so widespread in Africa, especially in Nigeria, because the
various states fold their hands and wait for allocation from the federal government. This

Ephraim A. Ikegbu et.al.; Repositioning Democratic Governance in Africa for Better Dividends Delivery…|113
allocation needs to stop, to enable the states to look inward with a view of developing what it
has within.
CONCLUSION
A country that neglects education does so at its own peril. Education is so fundamental to
a country, that it can never know development economically, socially, technologically and
politically without a sound education (Ikegbu & Bassey 2018; Ikegbu & Bassey 2019). Nigeria
and most other African countries lack this, which is why their political system is nose-diving.
Most so called educated Africans are uneducated in political matters. Being educated in the
university is not a guarantee that one is vested with the rubric of politics. There is need for
curriculum review that will make civic education compulsory at all levels of education. Falaiye
(1996) named courses he would want to be taught the would-be leaders in the country to
include: Principles of justice, Ethics, the history of great world leaders, economic theories, truth
telling, the art of public speaking, corruption, physical training (p. 252). To this list, this paper
adds Rhetoric, geography, law, history of Nigeria/Africa, African values system and culture.
It is the firm assumption of this paper that studies of these will better equip Nigerians and
all Africans to perform creditably their specific political duties. This together with operating a
less expensive democracy will put Africa on the roadmap to greatness. It will make the
dividends of democracy to begin to flow. Africa urgently needs to reconstruct democracy to fit
its peculiar circumstances – performance base leadership will certainly reduce if not eliminate
serial killings of Nigerian citizens in the name of political campaign. This will guarantee
confidence on both the electorates and the elected or leaders.
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