Fela: Hunting our democracy — by Tahir Ibrahim-Tahir

The legendary afro-beat musician among his very numerous hit songs had this very instructive track released in 1986 called ‘teacher no teach me nonsense’. His songs were mostly satirical and this one was a masterpiece that ridiculed our education and our democracy. Do not forget the date of release, it was in 1986, exactly 40 years ago. His art aptly fits in to what is happening to our political journey of today, especially at a time that our political parties and its actors are machinating to produce candidates that would represent them in the 2027 polls. Fela refers to democracy in pidgin english as the ‘demonstration of craze’ while basically just ridiculing leaders as a corrupt bunch who under the guise of democratic governance were fleecing the nation dry. Fela doesn’t limit his invectives to Nigeria alone, he usually carries the entire African continent along and quite truthfully we have always acted in unison, and therefore the criticism of the entire continent was in order. He argued that democracy as practised in Africa is just a chaotic experience that is always accompanied with suffering, poverty, and inflation for the masses while the elite become richer. Felas’s democrazy song is one of the most politically relevant artworks by an African artist and is arguably the most relevant today, towering over even the most recent or current similar works.

Africa as a whole and Nigeria in particular are stuck in a maze we can never get out of, because we have imbibed western civilisation along with its leadership structures which were developed over centuries and continually modified to assume a form of adaptability to suit modern european and american nation states: and this has just been incongruous to our nature. While at that we have kept a blind eye on their monarchies and how they are not only revered, but are relevant and at the top echelon of the leadership structures of these countries. We are also far off reflecting on the middle east and their leadership structures that have gifted the world with Dubai and etc. Even though it was intentional, our own traditional leadership structures have been balkanised and bastardised and they will continue to be even when we wake up tomorrow. Aside the obvious chaos in leadership Fela referred to, our security challenges stem from the incapacitation or decapitation if you like; of the powers and functions of our traditional structures run by the emirs, obas and ezes. So also the lamidos and ofcourse the shehu’s, so that my Kanuri families do not cry foul (pun intended). With fully functional and empowered native/ traditional institutions, banditry and the likes could have been reduced to a bare minimum. Anyway, the insecurity talk is not the import of this piece, yet, it is relevant to underscore some of the demerits of our home grown democracy.

Now coming back to the “track” of this piece, being about Fela’s track; today we are driving ourselves crazy as prophesied by Fela, trying to settle a square system into a round hole. The Nigerian political space is married to, and infatuated with a docile and inept opposition that only deceives itself to be in the race to wrestle power from the APC led government of the day. The reality on ground bites as verifiable followership numbers (NIN/ BVN backed) are in favor of the APC by millions. The parity is so evident that all the opposition parties put together do not have the numbers to match the APC. The consensus idea which is the most noble and fair, as adopted by the ruling APC, and crucified in the public square, seems to reverberate across all the political parties. In some parties, candidates were outrightly picked in a ‘parlour’, and in others, cries of rigging continuosly ring the air. Aspirants that ran amok with foul cries of disenfranchisement have gone on to disenfranchise others in their own political home bases and have taken away the mandates of others. So much for democracy abi demoncrazy? Those singing “undemocratic” tunes have proven to be more undemocratic than their alleged transgressors. The APC has better policies with timelines as well deliverables, and the assembly of completed and ongoing projects from 2015 to date cannot be rivaled by any party, especially the formerly mighty PDP that held sway over our affairs. Clearly what is manifesting in our democratic exercise is the adaptation of a system that is a hybrid of the intended or imported western style of governance aka democracy. Our parties have the emirs and obas cloaked as chieftains of the party and they decide who gets what, where and when. Voila, just like the good olden days of emiral prestige and power.

The opposition does not excite me. It is bland with ideas and does not have an exciting or innovative and progressive blueprint. Infact what it sadly boasts of is a return to the years of profligate governance models with lax govt policies and programmes. It is deploying old tricks to hunt a street dog and the antics and approaches are at everyone’s fingertips. The playbook is all so archaic and lacks ingenuity and above all: it is not driven by patriotism but by the hungry greed to grab power and use it for “thy own” benefits. Nigeria cannot return to full blown fuel importation and neither can it return to arbitrary or double exchange rates. Overly subsidized economies are no longer in vogue as socialism cannot keep up with the survival of the fittest styles of governance of a very capitalistic 21st century. While some are rushing to push for a regime change, we must enquire what we are changing to, and why we are changing. We must see a well defined road map with a fully functional destination. The delusion of change and the accompanying rhetorics that usually ends up in the mindless pillaging of our common wealth by cronies of the seat of power must come to an end. Nigeria has to look forward to an industrialisation drive that will advance our gifted country in many more ways than just subsidising fuel and power. Power is the most expensive commodity in the world and if you want it at your doorstep? You must work hard for it!

–Tahir is Talban Bauch