Democracy, good governance and development in Nigeria – Part 2

As a core value of democratic rule, therefore, transparency means unfettered access by the public to timely and reliable information on decisions and performance in the public sector. Where such information is regarded as ‘classified’ or ‘top secrets’ and freedom of the press or freedom of expression is censored as was the case with the recent Twitter ban in Nigeria, there is little transparency which is a core value of democratic rule.

Thankfully, advances in information and communication technology have provided a revolution that is facilitating debate and timely access to information on governance in Nigeria. In this area, the courts are urged to adopt a more liberal approach in the determination of cases premised upon the Freedom of Information Act, in order to remove governance from the realm of secrecy.

In the present dispensation, it is not acceptable that the Independent National Electoral Commission and the political parties have made nonsense of the Electoral Act by hoarding information concerning candidates of the political parties and activities relating to the primary elections and the main elections.

Responsiveness:
A key characteristic of democratic rule is the continuing responsiveness of the government to the preferences of its citizens. Robert Dahl, in his book, Polyarchy, stated that: ‘the ability of citizens to influence public policy is the bottom line of democratic government. While a few would expect or even desire a perfect correspondence between majority preference and government policy, the nature of the connection between what the citizens want and what government does is a central consideration in evaluating the quality of democratic governance.’

Nothing highlights this better than the present crisis rocking the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, which set up a special committee to choose the running mate for its presidential candidate. It has since been reported that the committee voted by an overwhelming majority for a particular candidate but the presidential candidate decided to pick a different person apart from the one picked through popular vote. And this has led to some kind of rancor in the party capable of scattering the little gains it had made in the smooth organization of its presidential primary election as compared to the ruling party.
 
Once democracy is devoid of the input of the people to reflect their will one way or the other, it cannot be said to be democratic practice to be compared with the June 12 election.
Concluded
Adegboruwa is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).