By Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, PhD
You have chosen an intellectually stimulating theme for your Dialogue: Why Democracies Die.
According to your letter of invitation, your intention in this gathering of distinguished policy makers is to; interrogate the structural and systemic drivers of democratic decline across Africa, rising authoritarianism, institutional fragility, and shrinking civic space and exploring how democratic systems are weakened and dismantled.
Let me make some clarifications and express my concerns before I proceed with my comments to this distinguished gathering. I assume that my keynote address is meant to paint some wide brush strokes across the thematic areas of concern that you have identified. The heavy lifting and the deepening of your understanding of these themes will be undertaken by the experts, men, and women in both the laboratory of theory and those on the field of direction action. I know we will benefit from those who have been there, seen it all, and their presence and experiences should further enrich your conversation. Only last week, President Jonathan made the startling revelations of truths that had been hiding in plain sight in NIgeria to the effect that the Nigerian political scene was full of traitors and charlatans. He has the scars of betrayal to show. This is not unexpected because, whereas every other profession, from barbers, soldiers, cooks, priests, electricians, mechanics, etc. all require some certifications. Politics is the only field that requires any certification or qualification. But, let me not get ahead of myself.
I am a bit worried by the tone of pessimism implied in your choice of theme. First, when you say, “How Democracies Die”, you assume that there is a result of the post mortem, that is the result of a diagnosis of how democracies die. One of course might be tempted to argue that, given the variation in both perception, definition and practice, and given the shades and contours on the landscape, we could ask, which Democracy are we talking about? Context and content both matter here. For example, music is music and it has genres. However, Jazz is not Calypso, Ghanaian highlife is not the same as Nigeria’s Juju, Hip-Hop is not Pop or Reggae, Funk is neither Rock nor Jazz. Each of these genres elicits different emotional responses and has different audiences.
Against this backdrop, we might pause the question such as; which Democracy’s death are we forecasting? Is it the American, Chinese, African or Asian variants? The hallmark of Democracy today is multipartyism, elections and term limits. For example, there are so called rival political parties in China, Cameroon, Uganda and Rwanda, but they exist only in name. These parties and their so-called leaders know that they are only toys and side-kicks and with no rights of their own. They participate in elections as part of the pantomime and the charade of Democracy. So, which Democracy’s death are we talking about? Do any of these political parties ever hope to stand against the incumbent without consequences? So, Africa continues to wallow in a culture of self-deprecating, self-loathing and self-flagellating lamentations, wondering when we shall ever catch up with the west. Using such western liberal Democracy models such as multipartyism will always leave us wallowing in self-doubt. Opposition parties and members are enemies of state!
.
It is this patronizing self-righteousness that enabled President Obama to stand here in Accra in June 2012 and pontificate that Africa needed strong institutions and not strong men! Not unexpectedly, he received standing ovations. Yet, no one bothered to ask President Obama whether there was a necessary contradiction between strong men and strong institutions. Or whether weak men had built any strong institutions anywhere. Then as now, to me, President Obama’s irritating pontification merely exploited the arrogant and condescending manner that Americans and Europeans have often viewed Africa and its development, deliberately ignoring sabotaging and complicit roles in undermining our efforts. For them, Africans still remain the white man’s burden. They see our underdevelopment is a character flaw. Ignoring exploitative historical processes that have led them to where they are and left us where we are, we are often made to feel inferior. They ignore the issues as whose backs and sweat their so-called strong institutions were built upon. Perhaps this feeling that we are failing may have helped the organizers of the Conference to frame this Conference as a call to Democracy’s funeral rites.
Am I therefore right to assume that the theme of this conference has been inspired by the book, How Democracies Die authored by two American political scientists, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt? Although many Africans as usual find inspiration in this cynical view of democracy, we forget that the book is a reaction to Trump’s ascent to power in the United States of America. It is not to deny that there are lessons for us. In the book. Rather, the issue is that African scholarship must find reasons to focus on Africa’s historical and cultural histories, appreciating that even after over two hundred years of exploiting others, Democracy is still a work in progress everywhere. We must look inwards for our own flaws that could make our own Democraccy vulnerable.
In the course of assessing our progress with Democracy, we cannot ignore the savagery, brutality, and bloodshed that are now woven into the fabric of our legacies as countries and a continent as part of our past. Nor can we ignore the extent to which military rule arrested our march to Democracy on the continent. Propelled by false narratives of a missionary zeal to drive progress, the military marched into state houses across the continent claiming that they had come to redeem their people. However, years of military brutality and bloodshed through endless coups and countercoups across Africa gave fractured the Democratic ecosystem, destroying the foundations of our culture of human rights, free Media, a functional and effective Bureaucracy, Judiciary, Constitutions and Legislative Assemblies etc. Years of misrule resurrected and deepened ethnic consciousness as ethnic blocks sought to use the military to institutionalise their hegemony. Subsequently, in the 90s, after the so called, end of history, half-hearted plans to return our countries to the path of Democracy were often marred by the blind ambitions of military autocratic dictators mutating into false Democrats. In my view, debates about the quality of our Democracy must be measured against the backdrop of this convoluted history.
With all its structural flaws, Africa’s march to Democracy is seemingly unstoppable. Africans know where they have come from, the future may be uncertain, but they have no hope of returning to the Egypt of autocracy and dictatorship that has been their lot since independence. Our two countries, Nigeria and Ghana remain the best examples of this malfeasance. Today, our people are hungry, they are still poverty-stricken and are living in destitution. Yes, Democracy has not delivered what is promised to them. Yes, Democracy has not made them safe. Yes, Democracy has not ended years of oppressive and suffocating corruption. Yes, our people are still caught in the cusp of violence. Yes, Democracy has not educated them, it has still left them sick. Yet today, our people have nailed their hopes for progress and development on the mast of Democracy despite these very strong headwinds.
In a historic feat, Nigeria has conducted seven successive back-to-back elections since 1999 till date. Through time, these elections have been seriously flawed, they have been bloody, chaotic, corrupt and well below par. Yet, unlike a few years ago, neither losers nor frustrated citizens have called for the military to stage a coup in our countries. It is over 30 or 40 years since we heard the last martial music, announcing a coup in both our countries. Our people have now realized that military rule has proved itself to be a cure worse than the disease and the military itself has realized how much damage its adventure into politics has done to it. The Sahelian coups may have created a false sense of appeal, but despite the plastic and manufactured populism and adulation, I do not see how long they can last. Therefore, the challenge is for Africans of this generation to ensure that in our hands, these seeds of Democracy are watered and nurtured.
Going forward, I believe that this discussion is timely and quite auspicious. However, your topic, How Democracies Die should be replaced by a more hopeful title, How Democracies Survive. Our concerns should be on how to learn lessons about the consequences of Democracy dying here or elsewhere and seeking how to avoid that from happening. A good driver, seeing another car in the ditch after an accident, would do well to ensure that he or she avoids the same fate by obeying the rules. There is a saying in Hausa that translates as; If you see your brother’s beard on fire, put water on yours immediately. Africans must learn that Democracy is hard work with no easy answers. Democracy is a labour of love, a hope, a dream, and a vision that one generation must pass to the next. Our challenge is that each generation should make the job easier for the next.
Revitalizing the civic space by free speech, a free media, and a civil society that is alive to its challenges is the best strategy for keeping authoritarianism at bay. Professor Amartya Sen, in his book, Democracy and Development, argued that free media is always a guarantee that people will not die of hunger because Democracy should be another name for development. Ahead of Nigeria’s return to Democracy in 1999, I published a book titled, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. My conclusion was that civil society and all forms of dictatorship can not co-exist. One cancels out the other! Collective citizenship action is the threat to authoritarianism.
This is neither the time nor the place to debate or define Democracy. However, it is important to note that each democratic seed has had its own story of growth, harvest or failure, depending on where and when it was sown, who nurtured it, on which soil, under what weather and to what end. The world has come to accept Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech (1863) definition of Democracy as a government of the people, for the people, and by the people as literally cast in stone. However, on further interrogation, there are gaps in Democracy’s operational claims once we shift gears to identify geographical locations, cultures, and historical experiences of peoples.
We could, for example, ask what form of government we are talking about since every government in the world, whether by the ballot or the bullet ostensibly hangs its toga of legitimacy on the claims of being for the people. No one has ever declared upfront that his or her ambition in politics is to form; a government of myself, for my family, and by my kinsmen. The Afrikaners in South Africa, white supremacists in America, Hitler and his Nazis in Germany, Mussolini and his Fascists in Italy, King Leopold who ruled the Congo by proxy, all of these men through time and history made altruistic claims about their convoluted missions. They garnered huge support from misguided followers. Philosophies like Communism, Bolshevism, Stalinism, Fascism, Nazism, were operational ideological vehicles that conveyed their dreams, each claiming to do good for humanity no matter how narrow their definitions. They set the clock of Democracy back, but Democracy has outlives all of them!
One of Africa’s most distinguished scholars, the late Professor Claude Ake of blessed memory argued that the attempt to define Democracy presents us with anarchy, while attempts to clarify Democracy only adds to the confusion. By whatever definition, Democracy in theory and practice is about the people’s ability to participate in determining who governs and how they are governed. By whatever name we call it, humanity has continued to search for the best means of ensuring among other things; how to stay safe, raise families, manage community relations, live in justice, equity, fairness, love, humility, respect and so on. Practice of these ideals over time with patience and sacrifice has led to deepening of a political culture. Another name for political culture is, habit of the heart, those actions that we do naturally without reflections or counting the cost. This is what the founding fathers of Ameica called, the pursuit of happiness.
If we are concerned about How Democracies Die, then, like all deaths, we must accept that the causes will not be same. Therefore, when we speak of the manifestation of Democracy’s failure through; institutional fragility, shrinking spaces, the weakening and dismantling and weakening of democratic systems, we must ask if they are causes or consequences of the death of Democracy. In other words, are we perhaps confusing the symptoms with the disease? Diseases do not necessarily kill everyone who contact them.. Some people have better immune systems than others. Therefore, assuming we speak of the possibility of the death of Democracy, what does it take for a Democracy to survive or die in one place and not the other?. For example, during the period of Covid-19, the reports said that most of those who died already had certain prevailing health conditions that weakened their immune systems. Simlilarly, the quality of Democracy will be measured by the presence or absence of certain conditions.
In the last twenty or so years, the world has witnessed Democracy’s reversals and decline in many countries across Europe and America. We have witnessed the rise of what is now called, illiberal Democracies, sustained by right wing hate groups. We are witnessing the rise of Islamism and terrorism across the world, pose a fundamental threat to our common humanity. Although all of these pose severe threats to Democracy, I would rather that we speak of the challenge to Democracy rather than its death. In my view, as long as human beings exist, there will be Democracy. If we see Democracy from the point of its leaders, office holders, institutions, parliaments, and political associations or parties, then, we might contemplate its death when these human beings die. However, when we see Democracy as part of the human instinct, our thirst and hunger for justice, love, fairness, integrity, sense of belonging, community and family, then Democracy cannot die. To be sure, politicians, political parties, parliaments, constitutions can be banned or destroyed as we have seen by autocrats in and out of uniforms, but the human instincts and quest cannot die. We can therefore argue that certain types of structures for the pursuit of human happiness, security and wellbeing could collapse in the hands of wicked men, but others will spring up. Democracies might differ in form, just as food, Arts, Music, ocial habits etc. differ among different peoples and countries.
The problem of many African countries today is that they never really experienced successful transitions. After colonial rule, most countries gained independence and then began what they considered to be a journey toward Democracy. Sadly, these journeys were interrupted by military coups and hamstrung by neocolonial structures that made it almost impossible for them to function effectively. We went through rudimentary elections but never developed a political culture. Therefore, many African nations transited from colonialism, military dictatorships, but did not successfully transit to Democracy. This is because the military often sowed too many landmines whenever they attempted to set up so called, transition to civil rule programmes.
Western liberal democracy which we have adopted across Africa focuses on free markets, a capitalist economy focusing on transparency, accountability, a free media, human rights, a free judiciary, rule of law fighting corruption. The elevation of these concepts does not address other fundamental cultural factors that blur the lines in African cultural discourse. Anticorruption weighting agencies side step corporate corruption and focus on their manifestations in African politics. Illegal financial flows continue to undermine Democracy and its capacity to deliver on social goods, yet, western governmenets and banks are not prepared to help Africa address these issues. Weighting agencies have offered us a broad range of indices for measuring Democracy and its effectivenes. The Mo Ibrahim Index for example broadly measures the efficacy of Democracy by looking at where countries stand in regards to; Freedom, Political Participation, Media Freedom, Education, Human Rights, Security, Transparency & Accountability, Anti-Corruption, Sustainable Development etc.
There is no doubt that Democracy is imperiled today, but it is not dead. Let us not become victims of exaggerated pessimism. What is going on in the United States of America today is a lesson. After over two hundred years, the behaviour of Donald Trump and his supporters on June 6th, 2022 suggests that time and experience are not enough to tame the human instincts to violence. It is however, a measure of the strength, resilience and rigidity of Democracy’s guardrails that it was able to withstand the assault during those moments of madness. The point here therefore is that no matter how long Democracy has been in a country, it is the strength of its institutions that sustains the occasional assault to its foundation. Democracy’s womb possesses seeds of the good, the bad and the ugly. Politicians must learn to manage their conflicts within and without. As a priest, I have had experience of helping to resolve marriage problems. In the end, with patience, families often find that if they communicate with patience, relationships become stronger when they each realise their mistakes. We often take those who love for granted.
Rather than dying, Democracy can lose its appeal and allure for a myriad of reasons. For example, like any garden, when left untended, it will neither bear fruits nor survive. Democracy is an elite game and the capacity, determination of the elites to use it as a platform for negotiations and trade offs is fundamental to making Democracy grow. Elite malfeasance often opens the doors to demagogues, rabble rousers and mobsters who can very easily instigate the people to violence by weaponising ideology, religion, ethnicity, or gender. Democracy’s claims are enshrined in the Constitution. Often, the letter and the spirit of the Constitution are miles apart and the operators sometimes do not have the political will. It is the duty and the responsibility of a strong, patriotic Parliament, the Media, Judiciary, and Civil society continue to test the limits of these claims. These trials of the system may test the limit, but they also create opportunities for lessons.
Citizens must learn how to manage frustration, anger and bitterness. This is where moral upbringing, patriotism and Civics can help citizens learn how to manage their frustration without resort to violence. Citizens must learn that the solution to a bad election is another election. The winners must also be ready to create a level playing field rather than raise roadblocks or walls after victories. Electoral laws and umpires must ensure that the processes are so fair and transparent, that winners and loser can shake hands and go back to work harder for the next election because they agree that the playing field was level. How winners conduct themselves will determine how the losers take their losses, thereby encouraging people to trust in Democracy. Politics should be for the living and no one should lose their lives cheaply over elections.
The debate about Democracy remains a controversial but enchanting subject. It will continue to remain a subject of intense interest. Democracy is about systems and systems will always remain in a state of flux with the goal posts constantly shifting. Professor Costica Bradatan, an American political scientist has argued in a provocative essay that; Democracy is really for the gods. Another American scholar, John Keane in his book, a The Shortest History of Democray has said that with all its flaws; Democracy remains the most potent weapon yet invented by humans for preventing the malicious use of power…a system that aspires dreams of how to prevent the few, the rich and the powerful who act as if they are mighty immortals born to rule. He further argues the Athenian origins of Democracy are overstated because before Greece, the Syria-Phoenicians and the Indians already had forms of assemblies where issues of governance were debated. This coincides with the main theme of Amartya Sen’s book, The Argumentative Indian. Sen’s central argument is that Indians had a long history of robust debates for centuries, debates that lasted for hours and hours and therefore their encounter with western civilization. Like Professor Samuel Huntington’s three waves of Democracy, Keane identifies, waves of Democracy, ranging from the Assemblies, Electoral and what he calls, the Monitory Democracy. In his view, we are in a Monitory stage of Democracy where people ask questions, keenly and actively engage in monitoring performances and forcing leaders to answer their questions.
I wish to conclude by arguing that to the contrary, the notion of democracy dying is an oxymoron, We should rather focus on addressing the usage of various models of Democracy that respond to the burning issues of human development. Therefore, I believe that like the air we breathe, the weather, the water and so on, Democracy, is subject to toxicity, decay, rut, fracture but not death. Democracy will never die. There will be bad elections, but they can only be cured by drawing lessons and testing the limits of the claims of our Constitution and Electoral laws.
Often those who pose the greatest threat to Democracy are the elected officials who substitute blind, personal ambition and greed for the fine principles of service that Democracy represents. Once elected to power, some politicians often become a danger to their own people and the Democratic process itself by seeking to govern at all cost. The gargantuan corruption that continues to gnaw at state resources is revolting. Religious leaders must be more upfront in presenting a moral compass to our politicians. Once in power, the paraphernalia of power often makes it impossible for the already powerless people to feel the impact of governance.
Let me try to end, by saying that being here is an honour for me. There is no other way to reward President Jonathan than to answer when he calls, than to open when he knocks the door. His singular sacrifice has helped to shape the future of Democracy in Nigeria. I am happy to be part of this effort at making Democracy work in Africa. Mr. President, Sir, remember that when you made that call on March 31st while the votes were being counted, you answered God’s call in your conscience. You had a standing army, you had the resources and the power to overturn the elections, but you chose the path of honor. This has set you apart. The Athenian gods have given you the flame of Democracy to carry around the continent. Do not be deceived by the voices whispering to your ears. Very often, as General T. Y Danjuma once said, the voice of the devil is often closer to God’s voice. The devil heard God’s instructions to Adam and Eve and whispered his own instructions. In end, it is your call, Sir. But, listen to God through your conscience.
Finally, some years back, John Major, the former British Prime Minister, addressing top level politicians in the UK, posed a question to his audience: If after over 850 years of our Democracy, there is anyone in the room that believes that we have gotten it right, please let them raise their hands. No hand went up. So, as I said, Democracy cannot and will not die, not because it is not sick. Democracy has survived through time and suffered all afflictions. It has outlived cancers, demagogues, mobsters, emperors and empires, Nazism, apartheid and all forms of evil. As long as there are brave men and women like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Steve Biko, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshal, Vaclav Havel, Malala, and thousands of people who continue to risk life and limb to defend honour. There are millions who continue to do everything to keep the flame of freedom alight. The embers of Democracy will continue to flicker. The earthquakes, gales, cyclones, windstorms may blow with ferocity, but Democracy’s flames will never go out. We, here and elsewhere, today and tomorrow, will remain custodians of this flame.
Thank you very much for your kind attention, and God bless you all.
Being a text of the Lecture delivered by the Founder of The Kukah Centre, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, at the International Conference Centre, Accra, Ghana, during a summit organised by the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation on Wednesday 17th September, 2025.
