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Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, was ranked 109th out of 165 countries in the world’s democracy index, according to the Economist report released earlier in February.
This represents a drop in the country’s previous ranking, according to BDSUNDAY analysis of the country’s democracy score from 2006-2017.
Based on the report, Nigeria recorded the highest score in 2015 as against other years, scoring 4.62 out of a total of 10 marks. In 2016, the index score decreased to 4.50, and also in 2017, it decreased to 4.44.
The index was based on five categories which included electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.
Different countries were scored over 10 based on these categories. Despite the country being the largest economy in Africa, it lagged behind fewer developing countries, scoring 4.44
“Nigeria runs a hybrid regime as against other countries which run a full democracy or authoritarian regime where elections have substantial irregularities that often prevent them from being both free and fair and government pressures on opposition parties and candidates may be common,” The Economist said in the report.
The top five countries that scored the highest in these categories were Mauritius, which scored 8.22, Cape Verde scored 7.88, Botswana scored 7.81, South Africa scored 7.24, and Ghana scored 6.69.
The top five countries that scored the lowest were Guinea- Bussau (1.98), Equatorial Guinea (1.81), Congo (1.61), Central Africa Republic (1.52), and Chad (1.50).
Reacting to this development, Isaac Nwaogwugwu, senior lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Lagos, said, “If you look at the democratic principles, yes you can say there are political parties, no doubt. They conduct elections which are the key things to determine democratic system, but when you take into consideration the literacy level, participation of voters, satisfaction of voters and deliverance from democratic governance, you will discover that Nigeria is not in any of the above indicators mentioned.”
Dolapo Ashiru, CEO, Mega Capital Financial Services Limited, said for Nigeria to improve on its ranking on the index, elections in the country have to be free and fair.
“The 2015 elections was a case study for, or was the best in our electoral calendar because for the first time an opposition person won the free and fair elections,” Ashiru said.
“We found out that a lot of issues are still being addressed. First, all the people that delivered the previous elections in 2015 resigned. But so far INEC has not been able to give us that confidence because the few elections we had since Jega left have not been conclusive,” he said.
Attahiru Jega, a former chairman of INEC, said in a speech on the ‘Three Decades of Democratic Transition in Africa’ organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Abuja earlier this month, said democracy was not thriving in Nigeria because of the autocratic nature of politicians, who obviously were connected to military rule.
As Nigeria gets into general elections next year, analysts say the electoral commission has to improve its measures to conduct free and fair elections.
On the necessary steps towards achieving this, Nwaogwugwu harped on the need to strengthen the political party system, encourage independent credibility, ensure that there is internal party democracy, ensure that the electorates themselves are educated, and ensure that the rule of money is minimised.
“INEC has to be truly independent and autonomous. There is need for more voter education and technology to create more transparency in the electoral processes, just like other countries,” Ashiru said.
BUNMI BAILEY
