Democracy Day : Dr. Friday Sani, IHRC Head in Nigeria Exposes Political Interference as A Major Set Back on Security Operatives in The country

Dr. Friday Sani is the Country Head, International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) Nigeria, and Coordinator, IHRC volunteers in West African countries.

In an interview with DAILY POST in Abuja, on Democracy Day, the rights advocate said, politicians have meddled into the nation’s security agencies for the wrong reasons.

Excerpts:

Q. Today is democracy day, and we know you were once in active politics for some time but now you are on this side of the divide. Do you think Nigerians really have anything to celebrate?

A. I think it will be fair to discuss the gains of democracy. It will be fair because as a democrat and for people like me, the worst civil administration is the best military regime.

Well, my position can be contended by other opinions, but as a democrat, I maintain that the worst civil administration is the best military rule. That’s why I feel that it is fair to begin this discourse, first, by looking at the gains of democracy. As a Democrat, you can’t bring anything better than a human being to manage governance. No theory can be as good as the theory of democracy, therefore, I am one of those who totally believe that the worst civil administration is the best of military governance. I can comfortably beat my chest and say that in a democratic era, everybody has the right to their opinion.

However, my own opinion on this issue, is the most popular opinion, that there is nothing you can get better than the democratic theory of administration.

But again, we have run the democratic governance for quite some time now in Nigeria. A lot of people are now being tempted to compare democracy and military administration because it is clear that the political class was unable to define clearly the separation between the military and the civil administration. This is because of the level of maladministration we have witnessed in the civilian administration over time.

Even at that, I cannot concede to military administration, instead, I will continue to advocate civil governance and I feel it is the best governance that we can ever have, even though we are unable to get it right yet in Nigeria.

Q. Talking about maladministration, many Nigerians liken the term to corruption, now in the last twenty-one years of democracy, how will you assess its impact on democratic governance?

A. You see, a journey of one thousand miles starts somewhere. I am convinced that in our lives, the righteous will have their way. The theory of democratic governance indeed has to do with bringing government close to the people; about bringing succour to their plight. Unfortunately, we have experienced what I can now describe as bad leadership.

Today a lot of people are tempted to believe that the military regime may be an option. Our democracy in Nigeria has been fluctuating in terms of democratic governance. That is not to say we should give up. I am proud to say that we have opportunities to air our views as a result of democracy. It is true that in the current democracy, we may not have total freedom of speech, but there are some levels of citizenship rights, especially expressing oneself without fear of immediate arrest and clampdown that we enjoy.

There was once a time under the military rule that the punishment for expressing oneself was death. Again, I will not fail to say here that some military leadership that we have had in Nigeria have at times demonstrated democratic character than some of us who were once elected into political offices to lead the people.

I can remember a video I watched when General Yakubu Gowon was the military leader, and when the issue of Biafra came on board, he didn’t hide his feelings. Gowon said the best approach to solve Nigeria’s crisis at that time was to have a round table dialogue and that his government was open to discussions even as a sitting military leader.

Today, we have a democratic government with some persons who are close to the corridors of power encouraging the government to clamp down on citizens. That is why certain people are comparing military government to a civilian administration. This is where the issues are, but I still believe that in our attempt to get it right, a day will come that we will have the right person in power in democratic governance.

I celebrate the gains of democracy under whatever guise with Nigerians today because the people are consulted before the leaders are elected, but under the military rule, it was by appointment.

Whether things are done wrongly or rightly, elections are conducted based on consultation with certain persons. I think that is one of the greatest gains of democratic governance and I make bold to say, Nigerians should celebrate democracy.

Q. We are in a democratic dispensation, but brutalisation and manhandling of citizens by security agents still exist. Can you say for sure, that security agents have imbibed the culture of civility that is a norm in a democracy?

A. You see, the problem is not with the security agencies. The problem is with the political class. I will say it without mincing words that ‘what you garbage into a computer is what would garbage out.’ What you give in is what will be given out and of course, in compliance with our Bible and the Quran, you do not reap what you didn’t sow. We have a problem here with our democratic governance. At the level of the political class, they have destroyed the structure of our security system which ought not to be.

Security has been politicised, the military for instance that is supposed to be the mirror of the state have been politicised. The military is doing quite well in some areas, they ought to have been appreciated but because the political class has destroyed that institution, it becomes difficult for people to appreciate what they are doing, particularly in fighting terrorism.

Similarly, the Nigeria Police Force which is supposed to be responsible for civility that you talked about has been politicised. It’s the Nigeria Police Force that is recognised by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to carry out civil orders. Everything we do in line with democracy goes round with the Police. This institution ought to be independent and not just that, but ought to be uncompromising for anything. Right now, you can see clearly that the Nigerian Police we have these days is far from the ideals of our founding fathers. We are beginning to get it right under the current leadership of the Nigerian Police Inspector General. We are beginning to get some aspect right under this current leadership.

In the previous leadership before the current one, you discover a situation where an Inspector General of Police is having an affair with his junior female officer. You can imagine where an Assistant Inspector General of Police is subjected to be a guard to a Sergeant; you can see a situation where a Policeman is already qualified to be promoted, but because he does not have a political godfather, he or she cannot be promoted. Those who are not qualified, but have political godfathers were being promoted. This is where and how we succeeded in destroying the structure of our institutions that ought to have been protecting our democracy and its norms.

Having used our hands to destroy our institutions; it will be unfair to channel blames on the security agents. There are lots of unqualified people who are appointed into positions they can’t manage in these security agencies we are talking about. Whereas the most qualified in these institutions stay in the hierarchy they find themselves permanently until they are eventually retired from service and in that case, how do you expect the security agents to give out their best.

Let me not take you too far. I give you an example of the Nigerian Police in the ongoing COVID-19 that as we are talking, they are yet to be properly addressed by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19. If you look at those on the frontline, in as much as I will not fail to mention the medical personnel, if you don’t mention the Police, you are wrong.

These are areas we continue to get it wrong and if you look at it, what is the real sin of a Policeman that they can be so discriminated against and you expect them to go to the roadblock and give you the best of their services.

I am aware of the kind of treatment being meted to the Nigerian Police within the junior rank especially. I have a brother who was an Assistant Superintendent of Police who just closed from duty when death met him.

It became difficult for the authority of the Nigeria Police to provide a vehicle to take his corpse home. By the time these men who are serving you discovered this gap, in terms of their compensation and welfare, that it’s that bad, how do you expect them to give their best? That is why I want to put it on record that blaming security agents will not be fair enough. We have young military officers that have been sent to the war front and a majority of them have lost their lives. What is the compensation for families of these officers who died on duty? We have them in DSS who died in the course of operation. How many times have we met to recall those uncompensated officers that died while serving the nation? So we should blame the political class who do not want to come to equity with clean hands.

Q. But security agencies take instructions from their Commander-in-Chief.

A. Not those that are not in the interest of the state. I give an example of the current racial crisis in the United States of America. There are things that Donald Trump wanted the security agents to do in a particular way, but the Security Chief declined because it’s not part of the oath they took. Security agents who know their onions decided not to go that way. This is because they have a security institution that has not yet been destroyed there.

But here in Nigeria, you can imagine a politician calling the Inspector General of Police to promote an officer guarding him because the officer does domestic chores for him. He will call the Chief of Army Staff to promote the men under him; he will also call the Chief of Air Staff to do the same thing. These are things that security Chiefs ought to do Independently on their own based on performances of their officers.

Credit : Samson Usman Atekojo /Daily Post