As Nigeria celebrates Democracy Day today being 12th of June,
2020, Mr. Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has
opined that Nigeria is not practicing true Democracy.
In a statement made available to Nairalaw (TNL), Okutepa
said: “On this Democracy Day, it has become imperative for me to
say with respect that we are not practicing democracy in the real
sense of the word. The events in the past 21 years clearly showed
that what we operate and practice is a civilian rule that is
completely different from democracy.
He added that “We are all witnesses to the do or die “democracy”
being practiced in our land. The primaries of our political parties
are far from being democratic. The people have no choice as to who
governs them. The sovereignty of the people is replaced with
thuggery or gunshot choices in the name of democracy where the
barrel of the gun are unleashed on our people to force people on
us.
He made reference to the statement of the INEC Chairman
allegedly reported by the media that Independent National Electoral
Commission will protect the integrity of the governorship elections
in Edo and Ondo states scheduled for September 19 and October 10,
2020.
He said the INEC Chairman was quoted to have said that “the
commission would avoid a replay of what happened during the
governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States held on November
16, 2019.”
He quoted the media in respect of the INEC Chairman’s statement
as follows:
“While threatening that it would not make a declaration on the
outcome of any disputed election due to lack of adherence to
guiding rules, INEC stated that it had been dragged to court over
2,000 times in the last one and the half years over the conduct of
the 2019 elections and party primaries. The chairman of INEC, Prof.
Mahmood Yakubu, gave the warning during a virtual event on
democracy and elections in West Africa, organised by the Washington
DC-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies in
collaboration with the Centre for Democracy and Development.
Yakubi said, “I had a meeting with the National Security
Adviser, we are meeting with all the security agencies. But what
pro-active measure is the commission going to take to ensure that
if there is a replay of what happened in Bayelsa and Kogi? We will
protect the integrity of the process.”
Yakubu said there would be no point making a declaration in such
a situation because the commission would not endorse fraud or
function outside the minimum standard set for the conduct of
credible elections anywhere. He warned political parties to “either
behave for the elections to be concluded in a free and fair manner
or we do what the law says.”
Yakubu said, “Where the election is disrupted and the commission
cannot vouch for the integrity of the process, we will not go ahead
to make any declaration.
While elections are disrupted, we should look far beyond the
electoral commission.
I think you put your fingers on the problem, on the political
class, and the security challenges.
And that is why we have been engaging with them.”
Okutepa said the report above shows an admission by INEC that
elections in Nigeria do not reflect democracy. “From news reports
INEC has always admitted that most of the outcomes of our elections
are not true reflections of democracy or true reflections of the
will of the people.
INEC has always preached and sermonised this in the public. For
me INEC preaching and sermons in public are completely different
from INEC in action on the field either during primaries of
political parties or during elections or post elections in the
courts or Tribunals. If not why has INEC been defending these
flawed and most undemocratic products of elections with the best
legal teams for the past 21 years.”
Okutepa believes that “our real problem in this country is lack
of sincerity of purpose. We preach free, fair and credible
elections, but we defend thuggery and gunshots democracy in courts
based purely on primordial partisan interest that does not take
into accounts the interests of vast majority of Nigerians.”
He said “Real Democracy was practised on the 12th day of June
1993 when Nigerians of all works of life voted without
discrimination. Those who truncated the June 12th democracy are
still very much around.”
The learned silk concluded with suggestions on how the country
can ensure the practice of Democracy
“The government must go beyond celebrating Democracy Day to
ensuring that democracy is really practiced here.
This it can do by:
1. Stop defending flawed elections.
2. Those who used means outside of the sovereignty of the people to
get to offices must be punished to serve as a deterrent to
others.
3. Those who forced their ways into public offices using thugs and
guns must be brought to justice.
4. The judicial arm of government must avoid putting judicial
roadblocks to our electoral jurisprudence and avoid setting
principles that aid and abet electoral frauds and
5. We must look at the remuneration for our political class. I
think the most lucrative business in Nigeria today is politics.
That is why there is no service for our people and the political
class engaged themselves in a do or die democracy using guns to
stay in power to recoup their investments.”
As Nigeria celebrates Democracy Day today being 12th of June,
2020, Mr. Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has
opined that Nigeria is not practicing true Democracy.
In a statement made available to Nairalaw (TNL), Okutepa
said: “On this Democracy Day, it has become imperative for me to
say with respect that we are not practicing democracy in the real
sense of the word. The events in the past 21 years clearly showed
that what we operate and practice is a civilian rule that is
completely different from democracy.
He added that “We are all witnesses to the do or die “democracy”
being practiced in our land. The primaries of our political parties
are far from being democratic. The people have no choice as to who
governs them. The sovereignty of the people is replaced with
thuggery or gunshot choices in the name of democracy where the
barrel of the gun are unleashed on our people to force people on
us.
He made reference to the statement of the INEC Chairman
allegedly reported by the media that Independent National Electoral
Commission will protect the integrity of the governorship elections
in Edo and Ondo states scheduled for September 19 and October 10,
2020.
He said the INEC Chairman was quoted to have said that “the
commission would avoid a replay of what happened during the
governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States held on November
16, 2019.”
He quoted the media in respect of the INEC Chairman’s statement
as follows:
“While threatening that it would not make a declaration on the
outcome of any disputed election due to lack of adherence to
guiding rules, INEC stated that it had been dragged to court over
2,000 times in the last one and the half years over the conduct of
the 2019 elections and party primaries. The chairman of INEC, Prof.
Mahmood Yakubu, gave the warning during a virtual event on
democracy and elections in West Africa, organised by the Washington
DC-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies in
collaboration with the Centre for Democracy and Development.
Yakubi said, “I had a meeting with the National Security
Adviser, we are meeting with all the security agencies. But what
pro-active measure is the commission going to take to ensure that
if there is a replay of what happened in Bayelsa and Kogi? We will
protect the integrity of the process.”
Yakubu said there would be no point making a declaration in such
a situation because the commission would not endorse fraud or
function outside the minimum standard set for the conduct of
credible elections anywhere. He warned political parties to “either
behave for the elections to be concluded in a free and fair manner
or we do what the law says.”
Yakubu said, “Where the election is disrupted and the commission
cannot vouch for the integrity of the process, we will not go ahead
to make any declaration.
While elections are disrupted, we should look far beyond the
electoral commission.
I think you put your fingers on the problem, on the political
class, and the security challenges.
And that is why we have been engaging with them.”
Okutepa said the report above shows an admission by INEC that
elections in Nigeria do not reflect democracy. “From news reports
INEC has always admitted that most of the outcomes of our elections
are not true reflections of democracy or true reflections of the
will of the people.
INEC has always preached and sermonised this in the public. For
me INEC preaching and sermons in public are completely different
from INEC in action on the field either during primaries of
political parties or during elections or post elections in the
courts or Tribunals. If not why has INEC been defending these
flawed and most undemocratic products of elections with the best
legal teams for the past 21 years.”
Okutepa believes that “our real problem in this country is lack
of sincerity of purpose. We preach free, fair and credible
elections, but we defend thuggery and gunshots democracy in courts
based purely on primordial partisan interest that does not take
into accounts the interests of vast majority of Nigerians.”
He said “Real Democracy was practised on the 12th day of June
1993 when Nigerians of all works of life voted without
discrimination. Those who truncated the June 12th democracy are
still very much around.”
The learned silk concluded with suggestions on how the country
can ensure the practice of Democracy
“The government must go beyond celebrating Democracy Day to
ensuring that democracy is really practiced here.
This it can do by:
1. Stop defending flawed elections.
2. Those who used means outside of the sovereignty of the people to
get to offices must be punished to serve as a deterrent to
others.
3. Those who forced their ways into public offices using thugs and
guns must be brought to justice.
4. The judicial arm of government must avoid putting judicial
roadblocks to our electoral jurisprudence and avoid setting
principles that aid and abet electoral frauds and
5. We must look at the remuneration for our political class. I
think the most lucrative business in Nigeria today is politics.
That is why there is no service for our people and the political
class engaged themselves in a do or die democracy using guns to
stay in power to recoup their investments.”