By Olu Fasan
President Muhammadu Buhari recently said this year’s general elections showed that “Nigeria’s democracy has truly matured.” But speaking on Arise TV, Barry Andrews, Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria, said: “It’s difficult to point to progress being made in terms of the democratic story of Nigeria.” Basically, he’s saying Nigeria’s “democracy” is too rudimentary to be called a true democracy. Or, as the Financial Times said, “Nigeria remains a democracy, but only just.” Put simply, Nigeria is a Democracy in Name Only, DINO!
But why does Buhari think differently? Well, a former dictator turned “democrat”, he sees democracy through the narrow prism of “voting” in “elections”, with little interest in what happens before, during and after the process. For him, provided there’s “voting”, it doesn’t matter if elections are not free, fair, transparent, and credible; if the will of the people is obstructed through vote-buying and voter-intimidation; and if people’s votes actually don’t count due to ballot-snatching and manipulation of results.
