On Saturday, July 29, 2023, hundreds of people gathered at the main auditorium of the Living Spring Chapel International, Dominion City, Aduloju Bus Stop, Iwo-Road-Ojoo Expressway, Ibadan for the 2023 edition of the Femi Emmanuel Lecture Series. The event was part of the activities lined up to mark the celebration of Pastor Femi Emmanuel’s birthday and the annual celebration of grace of the church. The occasion which was chaired by the immediate past president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Supo Ayokunle, and anchored by Ademola Aderinto, the Special Assistant to Governor Seyi Makinde on Environment, had in attendant, politicians and public office holders, religious leaders, scholars, students, youths, and captains of industry.
Among the dignitaries in attendance are the Director General, Oyo State Operation Burst, Col (rtd) James Oladipo, the Head of Department, Anatomy, University of Ibadan (UI), Professor Olatunde Owoeye, the Registrar of The Polytechnic Ibadan, Mrs. Modupe Fawole, Registrar, Leeds City University, Dr. Bola Ayeni, Senior Magistrate I. O. Olanipekun, Oyo State Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Apostle Dare Ojo, Bishop Daniel Oluwasimade, CAN scribe, and Dr. Joshua Obasa, the Director of Politics and Governance of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.
Delivering his address, Rev. Ayokunle posed a series of rhetorical questions to interrogate the version of democracy Nigeria practices and conclude that Nigerian democracy is an aberration because it lacks the elements of true democracy.
Rev. Ayokunle, who was the chairman at the 2023 Femi Emmanuel Lecture Series, noted that the nation’s democracy is not people’s driven or run by the constituent of the society, hence, it cannot situate Nigeria among the comity of developed nations.
Stressing that genuine democracy must cater for the people, Ayokunle emphasized that since 1999, Nigeria has been practicing democracy of aberration. He noted that historically, elections have not been free and fair, politicians have not been representing the people, and the political public office holders are not popular choices because they emerge in shady circumstances.
He said for the nation to boast of its democracy, there must be a level playing ground for all the political contestants and elections should devoid of molestation, intimidation, and harassment at any level of election, votes must be recorded and counted without manipulation, INEC must be an unbiased umpire, an election must be free of violence, and law enforcement must not be partisan.
The cleric said that the country has found itself in a protracted mess because the political leaders emerged through undue process.
In his lecture titled, “The Critical Mass to Change Nigeria”, Femi Emmanuel, stressed the relevance of educating the Nigerian youths, and the body of Christ, to think of how to turn Nigeria around. The cleric said that the only thing that can change Nigeria politically is the massive involvement of good youth and Nigerians in the nation’s politics, particularly from the ward level.
According to him, the most important and critical stage of politics is the ward level, adding that it is at the ward level that ward officers would be elected, who would, in turn, elect the delegates that would elect candidates that would stand elections into various political offices.
Being guided by the book of Mathew 5: 13, Femi Emmanuel convinced his audience that they would not be able to change a system if they were not involved, stressing that both voters’ cards and political parties’ cards are the magic wands that could positively alter the political landscape or arrangement of Nigeria.
His words, “The issue is that Christians should be mobilized to join political parties from the ward level. It is at the political parties’ congress level that candidates that will be elected into political offices will be elected. We must take power at the ward level. Nigerian democracy is different from the democracy in other countries. Nigerian democracy is of godfatherism. No candidate can emerge to contest for any office without godfathers. You cannot emerge as a political candidate without being a son or daughter or the crony of political entrepreneurs. Nigerian democracy is only in paper.”
Femi Emmanuel lamented that political parties in Nigeria lack ideology unlike in the civilized world where ideology determines the political party to be affiliated with.
He reiterated, “Good Nigerians are not available where critical decisions are made. People should go beyond mere voters to ensure that they are at the critical places where decisions are made. Voters in Nigeria are treated like tissue paper that once it is used, it is thrown away. Nigeria is not like civilized countries such as the United Kingdom, Europe, America, Canada, France, etc. where the system has been so perfected that it will throw up credible candidates to contest elections.”
Speaking on leadership, Femi Emmanuel stated, “The only thing that eludes us in Nigeria is leadership. The power for change is at the grassroots, not the polling unit. Your voter’s card and voting will not ensure credible candidates. The difference between APC and PDP is that while APC is a kidnapper, PDP is an armed robber. The monsters that will not allow Nigeria to function are ethnicity, religion, poverty, and literacy. Unless we own grassroots, nothing can change.”
“Nigerian youth are unstructured and no amount of protest or social media will change Nigeria. Youth should organize themselves and take the grassroots. Activism, debates, and conferences will not change Nigeria. The most important election is primary”, he said.
Speaking on local government elections, Femi Emmanuel pointed out that the third-tier election is constructed in a way that the ruling party would always win and no amount of the energy dissipated would make the opposition parties win. “The LGs election will be organized in such a way that the opposition parties will withdraw and say that they don’t want to waste money”, he added.
He noted that this is the fear the opponents of state police have, saying that the state police would always be the tool of the state governor just as the federal police is a tool of the federal government.
He commented further on the local government election and administration, “No local government’s Chairman can have a voice because the governor put him there. The governors are the most powerful people in Nigeria. The governor owns the legislators. If a legislator messes up at the National Assembly, the governor will wait for him and when he comes back for a second term, he will be denied a ticket. How can the state assembly check the governor when the governor put many members there and determine how far each of them will go?”
The clergyman also enlightened his audience that political parties have owners, who determine who gets what, urging aspiring politicians not only to identify with the ruling party but to identify with those that make things happen in political parties.
“What can you be in Lagos without the Bourdillon? What can you become in Kogi without Yahaya Bello? What can you become in Ekiti without Fayemi? The political parties are owned. The nucleus where the power is is the ward. If you offend the governor, he will just engineer your removal from the party, ask Senator Adams Oshiomole, he will tell you better.”
He called on the church leaders to mandate their structures to join political parties, pointing out that DPG has succeeded in instituting political structure. According to him, DPG has 62 zonal directors and 36 DGs, with an overwhelming presence in the 774 local government areas and he oversees this structure.
Calling on the church to move from the voters’ card to wards card, Femi Emmanuel berated the abuse of prophecy by some church leaders during the last electioneering campaign, saying that he was ashamed at the ways many churches’ leaders were saying that God spoke when God did not say anything.
He urged religious leaders to desist from rascality so as to avoid the government enacting laws to curtail them. “There are credible Nigerians but parties have to produce them. Except we own it or co-own it, we cannot win”, he concluded.
During a question-and-answer session managed by the three-man panel: Supo Ayorinde, Femi Emmanuel, and Apostle (Col. Rtd) Joshua Akinyemi, the CAN Chairman, Oyo State Chapter, it was agreed that the Nigerian government is too expensive and the government should look for a way of reducing the cost of governance.
The panelists urged the government to replace a bicameral legislature with a unicameral legislature, noting that, if possible, make legislative business part-time.
Describing the National Assemble as “the shrine of corruption in Nigeria, and a prodigal son”, Femi Emmanuel pointed out that Nigeria cannot sustain a bicameral system of legislature. He cited the allocation of N70 billion recently allocated to the National Assembly as a fraud the government committed against Nigerians.
Femi Emmanuel and Ayokunle also pointed out that the youth of the country do not portend any hope for the nation. Ayokunle said, “Put youth in charge, you will regret it. They cannot stand the test of integrity. They don’t have integrity. They lie. The youth are not ready.”
In the same direction, Femi Emmanuel noted that the current generation of youth is worse than the current political leaders because “their mouths are too wide. Youth need to be mentored for now.”
However, Akinyemi cautioned against writing off the youth, stressing that they could be changed through the words of God and education, and added that youth needed to be guided and mentored on the path of righteousness.
On the constitution, Femi Emmanuel described the nation’s election as a fraud and a military decree called a constitution.
Pointing out that Federal Character is also a fraud, he sought the insertion of a referendum into the nation’s constitution. He also noted that the amalgamation of Nigeria expired in 2014, hence there is a need to renegotiate the coexistence of several nations fused together by the colonial masters into a country.
Delivering a keynote lecture titled, “Democracy and Governance: Moving Nigeria Forward”, Leke Alder, a public analyst, and consultant, noted that the biggest challenge of Nigeria is the evolution of nationhood, which he considered the reason Nigerians struggle with something as basic as democracy.
Alder highlighted why it is difficult for democracy to work in Nigeria as a result of the nation tending towards the lowest common denominator.
He rhetorically queried, “Why do we have a predilection for kakistocracy- government by the least suitable or competent? The answer is simple. Democracy assumes the people are enlightened and educated. If the people are not enlightened as to their rights and what they should expect from their government, democracy will produce a flawed result. A flawed democracy can ironically produce a democratic dictatorship, or breed insensate representatives of the people who think of nothing but themselves. To maintain control a democratic dictator will weaponise poverty and channel angst against the enlightened elite. An incompetent populist is a dangerous phenomenon. He will wreck lives, wreck the economy, and produce more poverty.”
The public analyst said, “It’s why we need to make very substantial and sustained investments in our educational system. Without this, chances are we will keep on electing people who do not value education. This creates a cyclical problem. Poor investment in education creates unenlightened voters who then vote for unenlightened opportunists who do not value education. There is moral justification after all they got into power without education. A classic case in point is the late Governor of Kano State, Barkin Zuwo. He was elected senator and later became governor in 1983. When he was asked to list the mineral resources in his state, he reeled out Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Sprite. Aren’t they minerals? He was known to stash money in the state house. When challenged about it he responded that it was perfectly logical to put state money in the statehouse.”
“As if our predisposition to the lowest common denominator is not enough, we entrenched the factor into our constitution. According to Section 131(d) of the Constitution, to become Nigeria’s president all you need is to be educated up to at least the School Certificate level or its equivalent Note the phrase, “School Certificate Level”. You only need to be educated up to Secondary School. We don’t know if the phrase means to pass the exams or just pass through secondary school. If it means just passing through secondary school, does this mean that you can have F9 in all the subjects and still qualify to run for president?”, he added.
The lecturer regreted that the National Assembly would not attempt to amend the educational clause in the constitution for selfish reasons, noting that the nation is stuck with the provision for some time except miracle do the needful.
Alder knocked out the wide assumption that Nigeria is the way it is because it’s God’s will, even if the outcome is totally preventable, saying “Great nations are not created by accident they are products of intentionality.”
He urged that Nigerians must be very deliberate in the recreation of our nation, describing the belief that the nation’s problem would be fixed themselves as irresponsible.
According to him, “Because we don’t believe in intentional creation, our country sometimes feels like the scene of an accident. The sad part is, we’re wasting the lives of our youths in four-year installments. If you’re a 24-year-old today, the political map of your life is pretty clear. Obasanjo spent eight years, Yar’Adua/Jonathan spent four years, Jonathan took another four years, and Buhari eight years. Total: 24 years. How far have you gone in life?”
Describing the youth as luckier than his generation, he noted, “Despite the problems with our system however the youths are lucky, though they may not appreciate the fact. My generation practically grew up under a military dictatorship. We experienced war as infants and were not aware of what democracy is until we got into university. Shehu Shagari became head of state in 1979. He heralded our short-lived second republic. By 1983, he had been booted out of office. All our youth, save that four-year window was spent under the jackboot of sometimes unbelievably deceptive dictatorship. We had a head of state who mimicked Maradonna on the football pitch.”
“The first government I had consciousness of was that of General Gowon. Imagine my disorientation when Gowon was overthrown. I had gone to see my father in his office in Marina, Lagos. I was sad for Gowon. He was a political constancy. Like everybody in my generation, I knew the twelve states of the federation by heart and I knew the names of the governors. Then the Game of Thrones began. In came Murtala Mohammed who was soon brutally murdered. Then Obasanjo Season 1 began, quickly followed by Shagari the school teacher. Then came Buhari Season 1, and then Babangida, followed by a contraption called “Interim National Government” administratively headed by a corporate titan named Ernest Shonekan. And then came the ineffable General Sanni Abacha. For some reason, he wore very dark sunglasses indoors. That should have warned us. And then we began the rounds again, this time accommodating franchisees of the same people who had ruled the country since 1975. We had Obasanjo Season Two, Yar’Adua – an Obasanjo franchisee, who himself generated a franchisee called Jonathan, and then Buhari Season 2. The jury is out on the administration of President Bola Tinubu. I did not factor in the administration into my analysis because like I said, the jury is out. The life of the administration is too young”, he explained.
He lamented that Nigeria has been governed by the same college of rulers from 1975 on, stressing that the nation is running on the same genre of ideas.
Of interest to the lecturer was that those who generated those ideas were young people, stressing that they were in their prime when they took the reins of power. “Names and ages: Tafawa Balewa-45 years old Nnamdi Azikwe-59 years old Aguinyi Ironsi-42 years old Olusegun Obasanjo (Season 1)-39 years old Yakubu Gowon-31 years old Murtala Muhammed-37 years’ old Shehu Shagari-53 years’ old Muhammudu Buhari (Season 1)-41 years’ old Ibrahim Babaginda-44 years’ old”, he highlighted.
Alder attempted to conceptualise what Nigeria is or who is a Nigerian and enumerated various fruitless efforts made by the political leaders to make Nigerians see what a Nigeria should be from their perspective, concluding that the creation of “the Nigerian identity is hardly finished.”
Alder faulted how Nigeria was broken into 36 states with a federal capital territory from the regional identity, saying it was done in bad faith and skewed in favour of a hegemonic region.
“In search of equity and fairness, we broke up our geography into six regions even though we do not run a regional system. So desperate were we in our regional pursuit we even invented cardinal points that are not on the compass. We invented “South-South” and “North Central”. And that’s not all, we also rigged the map. If you look at the map our East is not in the East. As per North Central, it is not in the centre of the North. You know you have an identity crisis when you begin to mess up Geography”, he established.
He added, “The point I’m trying to make is that the definition of Nigeria has to be an intellectual exercise. We need the level of intellect displayed by the founding fathers of America if we’re to balance divergent interests in the federation. And we need to castrate hegemonic tendencies.”
The lecturer painted a worrisome picture of Nigeria when he stated that 133 million out of about 218 million Nigerians are poor and this is a security nightmare, saying that lack of managerial competence is responsible for the poverty rate in Nigeria.
According to him, “Poverty in Nigeria is an anomaly. There should be no poverty. Nigeria is perhaps the most endowed nation on earth. The country is a mineral dump. There are over 44 mineral resources in Nigeria. There is no region in the country without mineral endowment. Even Zamfara State which is arguably the poorest state in Nigeria has gold. There are actually more mineral resources in the North than in the South. This is our mineral map.”
Speaking on democracy, Alder noted that democracy “is a game of numbers and there are two classes of numbers – quantitative and qualitative. When we go to the polls on election day quantitative numbers play out. The votes are counted and the candidate with the most votes wins. That’s quantitative.”
“In effect, there are two levels: those who determine candidature and those who vote at general elections. Here’s the painful part: the Church is absent from the first 12 and hardly votes in the second. It’s why the church is politically weak in Nigeria”, he said.
