The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Revd Matthew Hassan Kukah, has said that the nation’s political space is in crisis because the nation currently parades many people who are in politics without political track records, nor antecedents of engagement with public life.
He said this on Wednesday in Abuja at a roundtable themed, “Civic Space: The Pathway to Social Cohesion and Integration in Nigeria”.
This is also as he said that civil society organisations (CSOs), which paraded men like Olisa Agbakoba, the late Beko Ransome-Kuti, Clement Nwankwo, Chidi Odinkalu and others, went to bed after it succeeded in ushering democracy in the country.
According to him, the situation resulted to the confusion which the country is currently battling with, apart from where members of the National Assembly are contributing leading other struggles to see that the civic space is actually closed in instead of opening it up.
He said that with a close look at the profile of those currently in power from top to bottom, it was understandable why the system is literally crumbling, why the struggle for human rights is literally now being renewed and why the struggle to recover the public space is now a struggle that Nigerians must renew their energies and be prepared to participate in.
Kukah noted that democracy was not an exercise undertaken by good men and good women which was really what Nigerians had always fallen victim to, a narrative that the nation was looking for holy men, men of integrity, men of dignity and so on to govern the country.
Kukah, who said that Nigerians assumed that managing a diverse country like Nigeria did not require some certain level of deep intellectual reflection and understanding of the complexity of managing a diverse society like Nigeria, added that a country that is so energetic, now has the barbarians are at the door and that how to fight back was the challenge facing the nation.
“If there was any lesson at all that the nation can learn, it was that the nation was faced with political actors in whose hands Nigerians entrusted the future of the country, but who had no reflexes for understanding how diversity can be managed and who were seemed to have almost no intellectual capacity to understand that governance, the strength of a nation lied in its ability to mobilise its resources across board.
“In 2023, whether it happens or whatever the case may be, we prayerfully hope it happens, but it gives us another opportunity to ask ourselves and think about the mistake that we made because we are not innocent in the choices that we made. Most of us are complicit despite the fact that of course, using the agencies and agents of state, those in power always continue to seek to close the space.
“The challenge for us therefore, is to understand that democracy is a work in progress. All of us engage in democracy and opening up the civic space must realise this is a journey, it is a long journey, we must wear the shoes of the long-distance runner and every generation face its own challenges and pass the challenges up to the next generation. But whatever we pass to the next generation must be a light of hope,” Kukah said.
He said that rather than accusing some of them of rebellion, it was bad governance that was a rebellion because when people sought to be elected, it was to make a better life for the people.
Speaking earlier, the Executive Director of the Kukah Centre, Revd Fr Attah Barkindo, said the conference was aimed at deepening the culture of democracy and free speech in the country.
According to him, the issue of the shrinking of the civic space had become a daily discuss amongst Nigerians, hence the need to foster understanding and contributions of Nigerians.
Also, a former Nigerian Ambassador to the Scandinavian countries and ex-Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali, said from the foundation of human society, what has brought progress and advancement was the civic space.
Igali added that throughout the cause of history, all manner of human leadership have tried to shrink the civic space, but the strength, the energy, the versatility of the human spirit has never allowed the civic space to be shrunk.
On her part, the Director Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Idayat Hassan, said that illegitimate CSOs, sponsored by anti-people and anti-democratic norms, played no small parts in spreading fake news and harming democracy, hence the need to act to correct the anomaly.
