Professor Patrick lumba he is a director of Kenya School of Law and has served as a director of the Kenya anti-corruption [Applause] commission I am happy to be present here in Nigeria this afternoon I'm happy because this is celebrated as the day of democracy and I am informed that throughout the 36 states of Nigeria there is some activity which is deliberately designed to celebrate democracy democracy is sometimes an unhappy word because it is understood differently but permit me to to say that throughout my intervention my understanding of democracy will mean a government that acknowledges people's
participation a government that guarantees that a people are given the opportunity from a standpoint of Enlightenment to elect into office men and women who will serve them as servants rather than Masters if that is what democracy is it also gladdens my heart to be in the presence of a man who at a critical time in the history of the federal republic of Nigeria did something that in my view has not been sufficiently celebrated in Nigeria General Abdus salami abaka at a time when Africa and African countries were INF famous for individuals who would want to
hold office forever you gave up office at a time when many Skeptics and many cynics thought that you would stay on you said I would not stay on at a time when many had written the obituary of Nigeria you created a situation that facilitated the peaceful transfer of power and you may or may not know it is because of that simple act that at critical moment in Nigeria's history even when there is the appetite for individuals to stay in office they remember your act and they leave office because they know that they will be judged
alongside you may God bless you amen he will bless you because you did something that planted or replanted the tree of democracy in Nigeria and sent a clear message to the world and to Nigerians that one can do that which is in the best interest of his or our country today therefore as we are assembled here we are assembled here to celebrate you because as the saying goes when a person has gold in his hand sometimes he thinks he has copper Nigerians you have gold in your hands treat him as such we are assembled here
in Nigeria at a time when Africa is still interrogating democracy and in order to understand and appreciate democracy we must remind ourselves that the African continent As We Know Her Today divided as she is into 54 states is a continent that continue contines to underperform she is a continent whose sons and daughters on the dawn of Independence promised many things one must also remember that only on the 25th day of May we celebrated Africa day we celebrated that day because on that day in our sa by Ethiopia 32 heads of states and government who were
representing the countes that had regained their independence assembled and each one of them without exception on that day made a solemn vow that Africa having chain Unchained ourselves from the shackles of colonization would move on a different trajectory on that day the leader said that in order for Africa to immunize ourself against the Diabolical machinations of the former colonizers Africa had to unite they said that on that day they reminded themselves that if Africa and her sons and daughters were to realize their potential their economic circumstances would have to be improved they reminded themselves on
that day that Africa needed to address the critical areas of the society so that the dividends of democracy can be earned but several years down the line in many countries in Africa even in countries where we celebrate democracy there are many who say it was better while we waited they say so because there is a sense in which the promise or the promises that were made have not been delivered in a manner of speaking if you allow me to be dramatic we are promised an elephant and many times we have delivered to us a rabbit
and that is what then legitimizes our interrogation of democracy in the land last few years those who are our colonizers and those who in many ways continue to want to dominate our Affairs have wanted to dictate to us what democracy is they have wanted to tell us and they have told us that democracy means that you must have periodic elections and there is nothing wrong with periodic elections they have wanted to tell us and indeed they have told us that democracy equals to multi-party politics and I know countries in Africa where we have over 233
political parties there is a sense in which they want to tell us how to run our Affairs but today as we interrogate what democracy is I want to suggest to these audience that democracy must be understood contextually and that there is no one size fits democracy in other words I'm saying the Democracy only has a critical DNA and that DNA is people participation in other words at all critical moments when we claim that there is democracy we must ensure that the will of the people is expressed I remember as a young student reading about a
Latin American leader known as sza and it is recorded that during an election he said to the one who had actually won the election and the man told him I won the vote he said but you did not win the count I am suggesting to us that Africa must give practical meaning to democracy where the vote of the people is given its pride of place because history has demonstrated not once not twice but times without number that when a people are invested in their governance system then they will protect it with their life and if
they protect it with their life then they will ensure that the Democracy that they are talking about is not a democracy that is only designed to satisfy the appetite of those who are in positions of leadership but it is the kind of democracy that is designed to address this generation and generations yet to be B we are suggesting therefore that it is fitting and right for Nigeria and indeed Any Nation to interrogate their brand of democracy I have come to Nigeria at a time when every other governor and indeed his Excellency the president of Nigeria
are around and about trying to interrogate their first year in office in other words they are coming back to the people and asking themselves have we delivered on the promises that we made to the people and I want to suggest to Nigeria that that is a good thing When leaders or those in positions of leadership have a sense of of guilt and they have a sense of responsibility to the people that they govern that is the beginning of the development and the growth of democracy what is happening in Nigeria today therefore is a good thing
when I listen to Governors from different states of Nigeria saying you elected me on the basis of a Manifesto and I'm suggesting and I'm showing you that on the B bis of that Manifesto we have started a journey that is a good thing when I see the governor of Borno and we have had a conversation he'll be leaving very shortly he wants to go back to Borno to tell those who elected him you elected me one year ago and I've started the race because as they say in the kahili language a or a chick that
will grow into a is seen on the day that it touches and your leadership it is also true of a Chek that will grow into a hand and it is also true that a good day is seen in the morning so the whole idea of interrogating democracy in Nigeria is a good thing but it must be said that democracy is a culture that must be inculcated in the minds and hearts of a people and I remember a lady who was once the president of Philippines Kazan Kango Aquino one said that if you call democracy a
practice where people vote without knowing what they are voting for or when people vote because of tribe or religion that is not democracy that is a confederation of fools I'm suggesting to us that in order to have have proper democracy we must be informed by only one desire we must be informed by the desire to ensure that the countries that we live in are led by men and women who are blind to our differences men and women who are blind to the distinguishing factors which only divide us because as the saying goes he is not
a Democrat he or she who appeals to primordial ethnic sentiments or religious sentiments we must as a people recognize that our diversity is our strength and I want to suggest to us that as the famous Kenyan Ali mazui said Africa has distinguished herself that in the midst of the disruption that she has suffered because you and remember Africa suffered the pain of slavery and we withstood that Africa suffered the pain of colonization and we withstood that Africa is reeling from the pain of neoc colonization and we are withstanding that African countries with stod the pain
of arbitrary partition in Berlin in 1884 and peoples of different cultures were put together but even in the midst of our diversity some how we continue to thrive let us not judge ourselves too harshly sometimes I fear that in Africa we judge ourselves too harshly but what is 62 years what is 67 years when your life had been disrupted for 100 years what is 50 years when you had been confused what is 50 years or 60 years when a dominant power came into your mid and their declared policy was divide conquer and Rule and you
are trying to liberate yourself from their conquest and they appear to have gone and they have not gone let us not judge ourselves too harshly Africa has been victimized and victimized in many ways victimized by prescriptions which Do not sit well with the realities of the continent of Africa Africa has been victimized by institutions which were alien John Henry Clark that famous American Civil Rights when asked about governance in Africa said that one of the problems of the continent of Africa was that when her countries regained their independence not a single one of them adopted
systems that can be described as African what they did was to inherit and to inherit governance systems that were bequi to them by their colonizers and this was his verdict that unless they adopt and adopt they will never succeed on the basis of those borrowed systems because a court that is borrowed that not sit well on your shoulders I'm suggesting to us that Africa must now redefine what democracy means in the context of the realities of Africa we must agree that there is a DNA which is dominant we must agree that that DNA as I
said at the very beginning is one that requires people participation we must agree that that DNA is a DNA that requires that leadership must be changed that young blood must replace Young Blood old blood periodically that new ideas must replace old ideas because it is only through that process that a societ is renewed we must also take into account that many African countries are diverse and that our democracy must also take into account our diversity we must also take into account that our countries have different cultures and that there is wisdom in looking at our
cultural practices and adopting the things that can work and discarding the things that cannot work because I still hold the view that debate about governance in Africa is a continuing debate we must also remind ourselves that the whole idea about democracy is intergenerational that one generation plays their part and once they have played their part they hand over the Baton to another generation so that after many generations it can't be said over people that they have succeeded in sustaining a good system which benefits them because the question that we must ask ourselves today when we
talk about democracy is why democracy is democracy an end in itself does democracy stop on the day that the European Union tells us that we held peaceful elections on the day that the observers tell us that we had transparent election is that the day the Democracy ends is it the day when the Electoral commission comes and pronounces behold you have a new president behold you have a new governor behold you have a new Senator behold you have a new representative of the House of senate or the House of Representatives is that what democracy is is
it the case that on that day the men and women whom we then elect can now go out into the world and say behold we have been given the power to rule the roost or that is when work begins I'm suggesting that that is when work begins because in true democracy those who have the honor and privilege of serving their countries must be Servants of their people those who have the honor and privilege of serving their countries must only have one agenda they must be Trustees of the things that they are entrusted with that those
who have the honor and privilege of serving their people will go out there and will be prepared to say that they are prepared to lay down their lives for the benefit of the people and the people only want a few things the people want to be told that if there is agriculture that agriculture will be supported and they'll be able to deliver that they can feed themselves the people want to be told that they will have good health systems so that when they are sick they will go to hostels that are worth the scratch and
they will not want to see hostels built for them and their leaders running away to different parts of the world to seek better Medical Care they will not want that they will not want to see their education system being an education system that is prepared for for them and then the Children Of Those whom they have elected going to different parts of the world they will not want to see that they will want to ensure that they have power and energy particularly the younger generation they want to ensure that they are enjoying the dividends of
artificial intelligence they'll want to ensure that governance facilitates them and makes them inventors and innovators and creates for them an environment where they can Thrive because if we don't make democracy do that then our young men and women will be dying in the Mediterranean Sea then our young men and women will be humiliated at embassies of foreign countries then our young men and women who have the opportunity will run away to go and be engineers in different parts of the world then our young men and women will not have faith in their country then our
young men and women will want to acquire the passports of different countries then our young men and women will not be proud of democracy your Excellency the Democracy that you cherished the Democracy that you keep talking about and walking around Africa for is a democracy that promises us that Africa can be great again and Africa must be great again and Africa will never ever be great I submit to you Nigerians if Nigeria Is Not Great why do I say that with a population of over 300 million I'm suspecting that your sensus doesn't always tell us
the truth I suspect you are 300 million with a population of 300 million if that Nigeria can be made into a market who can control the continent of Africa who can ignore know the continent of Africa tell me where in the world do you not find a Nigerian somebody once told me that if you go to any place in the world and you do not find a Nigeria run away from that place because there is nothing to be done in that place I'm suggesting that the Democracy of Nigeria will only begin to have meaning when
Nigeria provides leadership it is the time is now as we say celebrate democracy in Africa today I'm calling upon Nigeria and Nigerians rise up to the occasion rise up so that your politics will be a point of reference so that when we watch men and women in the senate in Nigeria and in the House of Representatives in Nigeria and we watch them debate there'll be debating about the things that relate to Africa they'll be debating about Africa agenda 2063 they'll be debating about Africa Continental free trade area they will not demanding of anybody that anybody
who wants to come to Nigeria who is an African must have a Visa no Nigeria being as big as it is should be the welcoming big brother because when you do that we'll follow your leadership we want to see a Nigeria that is economically dominant because if Nigeria is strong then the rest of Africa is strong so when I hear occasionally Nigeria saying that is the third largest sometimes the second largest sometimes the first largest economy in Africa I'm not impressed because when you have a GDP of 500 billion I'm not impressed I think you
should have a GDP of 10 trillion United States dollar then I will be impressed and you have the human resources you have the intellectual where with all to ensure that that happens when I hear Nigeria saying that they generate anything between 5,000 and 10,000 megawatt of electricity I'm not impressed I'm not impressed because little Denmark generates 35,000 megaw of electricity and if Nigeria is to earn the dividends of democracy through industrialization Nigeria must now get and Embark in the serious business of ensuring ing that Nigeria has energy to propel not only her and her neighbors
but the continent of Africa into the fourth Industrial Revolution those are the dividends of democracy I want to hear that Nigeria is successful because Nigeria can be the defender of democracies in Africa I want to hear that when the leaders of Nigeria go to different parts of the world they are treated with respect because Nigeria has demonstrated economically politically and diplomatically that they are the dividends of democracy I want to see that when one carries a Nigerian passport but I hope that there will be an African passport that that passport will be respected throughout the
world I look forward to those days you know General today we are saying many things about democracy but you are the one who has made us say these things you have made us say these things because at a critical moment in the history of your country you played your part at a critical moment in the history of your country you became selfless at a critical moment in the history of your country you thought about patriotism at a critical moment in the history of your country you chose the path of rectitude at a critical moment in
the path in the path in the life of your country you chose to follow the right path and today you are alive and well because God is saying good I created a responsible human being promise heaven and deliver Heaven promise as an antelope and deliver an antelope let it not be that you promis us an antelope and you deliver a rabbit I know you well and I know you will deliver today therefore as we talk about democracy in Africa let me say how glad I am to be in the presence of greatness to be in
the presence of men and women who having been given the opportunity to serve served well speaking on the sixth day day of March 1997 the former president of Tanzania Julius karag in Akra Ghana said when we fought against the colonialists we said among other things is that we will make our people enjoy the dividends of good governance we are identified our enemies and our enemies then he said were poverty disease and ignorance when we had the opportunity to serve we tried to fight poverty and we have discovered that poverty takes different faces we have succeeded
and there is a sense in which we have done certain good things we tried to fight diseases and we built hostels and different facilities and there is a sense in which our people now live longer we try to fight ignorance and we have built institutions and there is a a sense in which our people now know those who judge us from outside say we have failed we have not this is a journey of a thousand miles we have only Run 100 miles we must never be judged after 100 miles this is a journey which is
intergenerational our generation have played their part and they have handed over the Baton it is the duty of the Next Generation to run the next leg and when they do so they'll discover these old adage that when you plant a tree you never enjoy it shadow that when you plant a tree what you do is to ensure that you watch it another generation will prune it another generation will enjoy it Shadow ABD salami abubakar gcfr you planted a tree you watered it a little in your life you can see us continuing to water it across
the continent may God bless you and may democracy Prevail in the continent of Africa God bless you on
