DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF BUHARI ADMINISTRATION (2015-2019)

DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF BUHARI ADMINISTRATION (2015-2019)

EXCERPT FROM THE STUDY

An overview of the principle of democracy reveals the pursuit of public interest as a cardinal feature of democracy and this underscore the general understanding and its conception as ‘the government of the people by the people and for the people.’ The underlining expression in the principle of election during any democratic process is the art of entrusting into the hands of the elected political leaders, the citizen’s rights and freedom, which are to be managed by the elected leaders. It marked off the connection between the citizens and their leaders. As a matter of fact, the connection was more of a contract. The democratically elected leaders are representatives of the people. It is therefore expected that decisions that will be made, policies that would be formulated and implemented must be in the interest of the people and not the individual interest. But, the opposite is the case in Nigerian democracy. Decisions were taken without respect to people’s opinion. For instance, on 1st January, 2012 when the Nigerian citizens were in the euphoria of the New Year, President Goodluck Jonathan reviewed upward the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) by over 70% in the name of oil subsidy removal without any form of consultation.  The National Assembly was not consulted and there was no public opinion poll. The country was plunged into a state of crises, protests were organized and the expression of the people shows that such a policy from the presidency was unpopular yet the president imposed a new price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) on the citizens without taken into consideration the feelings of the people about the policy and number of lives that were lost during the protest. Events that unfolded after the crisis exposed some individuals, private organizations and agencies of government as responsible for the misappropriation of over One hundred and fifty (150) million dollars which was spent as subsidy in the year 2012 and over Twenty billion (20) billion dollars spent as subsidy on Kerosene in 2013/2014. All those who were involved in the misappropriation are yet to be prosecuted accordingly. Aside these, while the Nigeria minister for petroleum was accused of spending Ten (10) million dollars petroleum ministry’s money to maintain her personal jet, a onetime minister in the Aviation ministry was accused of purchasing a bullet proof car to the tune of Twenty-four (24) million naira. Neither of these two ministers and other ones were investigated. Given this and many other experiences, it seems the contemporary Nigeria political environment seeks to protect the interest of the powerful group in the country.

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