saharareporters.com/2015/02/26/buhari’s-speech-chatham-house-–-nigeria’s-transition


Permit me to start by thanking Chatham
House for the invitation to talk about this
important topic at this crucial time. When
speaking about Nigeria overseas, I normally
prefer to be my country’s public relations
and marketing officer, extolling her virtues
and hoping to attract investments and
tourists. But as we all know, Nigeria is now
battling with many challenges, and if I refer
to them, I do so only to impress on our
friends in the United Kingdom that we are
quite aware of our shortcomings and are
doing our best to address them.
The 2015 general election in Nigeria is
generating a lot of interests within and
outside the country. This is understandable.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and
largest economy, is at a defining moment, a
moment that has great implications beyond
the democratic project and beyond the
borders of my dear country.
So let me say upfront that the global interest
in Nigeria’s landmark election is not
misplaced at all and indeed should be
commended; for this is an election that has
serious import for the world. I urge the
international community to continue to focus
on Nigeria at this very critical moment.
Given increasing global linkages, it is in our
collective interests that the postponed
elections should hold on the rescheduled
dates; that they should be free and fair; that
their outcomes should be respected by all
parties; and that any form of extension,
under whichever guise, is unconstitutional
and will not be tolerated.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the
dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the collapse
of communism and the end of the Cold War,
democracy became the dominant and most
preferred system of government across the
globe. That global transition has been aptly
captured as the triumph of democracy and
the ‘most pre-eminent political idea of our
time.’ On a personal note, the phased end of
the USSR was a turning point for me. It
convinced me that change can be brought
about without firing a single shot.
As you all know, I had been a military head
of state in Nigeria for twenty months. We
intervened because we were unhappy with
the state of affairs in our country. We
wanted to arrest the drift. Driven by
patriotism, influenced by the prevalence and
popularity of such drastic measures all over
Africa and elsewhere, we fought our way to
power. But the global triumph of democracy
has shown that another and a preferable
path to change is possible. It is an important
lesson I have carried with me since, and a
lesson that is not lost on the African
continent.
In the last two decades, democracy has
grown strong roots in Africa. Elections, once
so rare, are now so commonplace. As at the
time I was a military head of state between
1983 and 1985, only four African countries
held regular multi-party elections. But the
number of electoral democracies in Africa,
according to Freedom House, jumped to 10
in 1992/1993 then to 18 in 1994/1995 and to
24 in 2005/2006. According to the New York
Times, 42 of the 48 countries in Sub-
Saharan Africa conducted multi-party
elections between 1990 and 2002.
The newspaper also reported that between
2000 and 2002, ruling parties in four African
countries (Senegal, Mauritius, Ghana and
Mali) peacefully handed over power to
victorious opposition parties. In addition, the
proportion of African countries categorized
as not free by Freedom House declined from
59% in 1983 to 35% in 2003. Without doubt,
Africa has been part of the current global
wave of democratisation.
But the growth of democracy on the
continent has been uneven. According to
Freedom House, the number of electoral
democracies in Africa slipped from 24 in
2007/2008 to 19 in 2011/2012; while the
percentage of countries categorised as ‘not
free’ assuming for the sake of argument that
we accept their definition of “free” increased
from 35% in 2003 to 41% in 2013. Also, there
have been some reversals at different times
in Burkina Faso, Central African Republic,
Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Lesotho, Mali, Madagascar, Mauritania and
Togo. We can choose to look at the glass of
democracy in Africa as either half full or half
empty.
While you can’t have representative
democracy without elections, it is equally
important to look at the quality of the
elections and to remember that mere
elections do not democracy make. It is
globally agreed that democracy is not an
event, but a journey. And that the
destination of that journey is democratic
consolidation – that state where democracy
has become so rooted and so routine and
widely accepted by all actors.
With this important destination in mind, it is
clear that though many African countries
now hold regular elections, very few of them
have consolidated the practice of
democracy. It is important to also state at
this point that just as with elections, a
consolidated democracy cannot be an end
by itself. I will argue that it is not enough to
hold a series of elections or even to
peacefully alternate power among parties.
It is much more important that the promise
of democracy goes beyond just allowing
people to freely choose their leaders. It is
much more important that democracy
should deliver on the promise of choice, of
freedoms, of security of lives and property,
of transparency and accountability, of rule of
law, of good governance and of shared
prosperity. It is very important that the
promise embedded in the concept of
democracy, the promise of a better life for
the generality of the people, is not delivered
in the breach.
Now, let me quickly turn to Nigeria. As you
all know, Nigeria’s fourth republic is in its
16th year and this general election will be
the fifth in a row. This is a major sign of
progress for us, given that our first republic
lasted five years and three months, the
second republic ended after four years and
two months and the third republic was a
still-birth. However, longevity is not the only
reason why everyone is so interested in this
election.
The major difference this time around is that
for the very first time since transition to civil
rule in 1999, the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) is facing its stiffest opposition
so far from our party the All Progressives
Congress (APC). We once had about 50
political parties, but with no real
competition. Now Nigeria is transitioning
from a dominant party system to a
competitive electoral polity, which is a major
marker on the road to democratic
consolidation. As you know, peaceful
alternation of power through competitive
elections have happened in Ghana, Senegal,
Malawi and Mauritius in recent times. The
prospects of democratic consolidation in
Africa will be further brightened when that
eventually happens in Nigeria.
But there are other reasons why Nigerians
and the whole world are intensely focussed
on this year’s elections, chief of which is
that the elections are holding in the shadow
of huge security, economic and social
uncertainties in Africa’s most populous
country and largest economy. On insecurity,
there is a genuine cause for worry, both
within and outside Nigeria. Apart from the
civil war era, at no other time in our history
has Nigeria been this insecure.
Boko Haram has sadly put Nigeria on the
terrorism map, killing more than 13,000 of
our nationals, displacing millions internally
and externally, and at a time holding on to
portions of our territory the size of Belgium.
What has been consistently lacking is the
required leadership in our battle against
insurgency. I, as a retired general and a
former head of state, have always known
about our soldiers: they are capable, well
trained, patriotic, brave and always ready to
do their duty in the service of our country.
You all can bear witness to the gallant role
of our military in Burma, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia,
Darfur and in many other peacekeeping
operations in several parts of the world. But
in the matter of this insurgency, our soldiers
have neither received the necessary support
nor the required incentives to tackle this
problem. The government has also failed in
any effort towards a multi-dimensional
response to this problem leading to a
situation in which we have now become
dependent on our neighbours to come to our
rescue.
Let me assure you that if I am elected
president, the world will have no cause to
worry about Nigeria as it has had to
recently; that Nigeria will return to its
stabilising role in West Africa; and that no
inch of Nigerian territory will ever be lost to
the enemy because we will pay special
attention to the welfare of our soldiers in
and out of service, we will give them
adequate and modern arms and
ammunitions to work with, we will improve
intelligence gathering and border controls to
choke Boko Haram’s financial and
equipment channels, we will be tough on
terrorism and tough on its root causes by
initiating a comprehensive economic
development plan promoting infrastructural
development, job creation, agriculture and
industry in the affected areas. We will
always act on time and not allow problems
to irresponsibly fester, and I, Muhammadu
Buhari, will always lead from the front and
return Nigeria to its leadership role in
regional and international efforts to combat
terrorism.
On the economy, the fall in prices of oil has
brought our economic and social stress into
full relief. After the rebasing exercise in April
2014, Nigeria overtook South Africa as
Africa’s largest economy. Our GDP is now
valued at $510 billion and our economy
rated 26th in the world. Also on the bright
side, inflation has been kept at single digit
for a while and our economy has grown at
an average of 7% for about a decade.
But it is more of paper growth, a growth
that, on account of mismanagement,
profligacy and corruption, has not translated
to human development or shared prosperity.
A development economist once said three
questions should be asked about a
country’s development: one, what is
happening to poverty? Two, what is
happening to unemployment? And three,
what is happening to inequality?
The answers to these questions in Nigeria
show that the current administration has
created two economies in one country, a
sorry tale of two nations: one economy for a
few who have so much in their tiny island of
prosperity; and the other economy for the
many who have so little in their vast ocean
of misery.
Even by official figures, 33.1% of Nigerians
live in extreme poverty. That’s at almost 60
million, almost the population of the United
Kingdom. There is also the unemployment
crisis simmering beneath the surface, ready
to explode at the slightest stress, with
officially 23.9% of our adult population and
almost 60% of our youth unemployed. We
also have one of the highest rates of
inequalities in the world.
With all these, it is not surprising that our
performance on most governance and
development indicators (like Mo Ibrahim
Index on African Governance and UNDP’s
Human Development Index.) are unflattering.
With fall in the prices of oil, which accounts
for more than 70% of government revenues,
and lack of savings from more than a
decade of oil boom, the poor will be
disproportionately impacted.
In the face of dwindling revenues, a good
place to start the repositioning of Nigeria’s
economy is to swiftly tackle two ills that
have ballooned under the present
administration: waste and corruption. And in
doing this, I will, if elected, lead the way, with
the force of personal example.
On corruption, there will be no confusion as
to where I stand. Corruption will have no
place and the corrupt will not be appointed
into my administration. First and foremost,
we will plug the holes in the budgetary
process. Revenue producing entities such as
NNPC and Customs and Excise will have one
set of books only. Their revenues will be
publicly disclosed and regularly audited. The
institutions of state dedicated to fighting
corruption will be given independence and
prosecutorial authority without political
interference.
But I must emphasise that any war waged
on corruption should not be misconstrued
as settling old scores or a witch-hunt. I’m
running for President to lead Nigeria to
prosperity and not adversity.
In reforming the economy, we will use
savings that arise from blocking these
leakages and the proceeds recovered from
corruption to fund our party’s social
investments programmes in education,
health, and safety nets such as free school
meals for children, emergency public works
for unemployed youth and pensions for the
elderly.
As a progressive party, we must reform our
political economy to unleash the pent-up
ingenuity and productivity of the Nigerian
people thus freeing them from the curse of
poverty. We will run a private sector-led
economy but maintain an active role for
government through strong regulatory
oversight and deliberate interventions and
incentives to diversify the base of our
economy, strengthen productive sectors,
improve the productive capacities of our
people and create jobs for our teeming
youths.
In short, we will run a functional economy
driven by a worldview that sees growth not
as an end by itself, but as a tool to create a
society that works for all, rich and poor
alike. On March 28, Nigeria has a decision to
make. To vote for the continuity of failure or
to elect progressive change. I believe the
people will choose wisely.
In sum, I think that given its strategic
importance, Nigeria can trigger a wave of
democratic consolidation in Africa. But as a
starting point we need to get this critical
election right by ensuring that they go
ahead, and depriving those who want to
scuttle it the benefit of derailing our fledgling
democracy. That way, we will all see
democracy and democratic consolidation as
tools for solving pressing problems in a
sustainable way, not as ends in themselves.
Prospects for Democratic Consolidation in
Africa: Nigeria’s Transition
Permit me to close this discussion on a
personal note. I have heard and read
references to me as a former dictator in
many respected British newspapers
including the well regarded Economist. Let
me say without sounding defensive that
dictatorship goes with military rule, though
some might be less dictatorial than others. I
take responsibility for whatever happened
under my watch.
I cannot change the past. But I can change
the present and the future. So before you is
a former military ruler and a converted
democrat who is ready to operate under
democratic norms and is subjecting himself
to the rigours of democratic elections for the
fourth time.
You may ask: why is he doing this? This is a
question I ask myself all the time too. And
here is my humble answer: because the
work of making Nigeria great is not yet done,
because I still believe that change is
possible, this time through the ballot, and
most importantly, because I still have the
capacity and the passion to dream and work
for a Nigeria that will be respected again in
the comity of nations and that all Nigerians
will be proud of.
I thank you for listening.

Wow,this man seems to be inteligent he has some very valid points and i believe he deserves a clean slate and should not be judged on his military rule.
Food for thought:would PDP need to hire youth protesters against buhari if indeed he is as bad as they claim.

"The current administration has
created two economies in one country, a
sorry tale of two nations: one economy for a
few who have so much in their tiny island of
prosperity; and the other economy for the
many who have so little in their vast ocean
of misery." ----GMB

Devastatingly true! Excellent!

Chai.. What a brilliant and arousing speech... See as my prick dey rise..#Nohomo

Wow! This is my President. I feel like crying