Democracy is supposed to be ideally the government of the people by the people and for the people. This means that the people are actually the employers of whoever is the president. Whatever you are doing as a leader is supposed to benefit the people, and the people are supposed to be the ones to put whoever they want in the seat.
Firstly, the political allegiance is to the party and not to the people. What I mean is this: people in the Senate or House of Representatives, the lawmakers; these guys make laws that favor their party, not the laws that favor the people. So because their allegiance is not to the people, it is already defeating the aim of what democracy is. Secondly, there's an absolutely lack of accountability, so nobody holds anyone responsible for mismanagement of funds, for embezzlement, for corruption—nothing, and I will tell you why. The institutions that are supposed to handle this are very weak. Let's say the judiciary; they don't hold them responsible because they are already corrupt, so no body-checking anybody, so these are the reasons for things that are wrong with democracy in my country.
Thirdly, there's a high cost of governance. This high cost of governance will leave almost little for the populace. If the country, for instance, has #100, they use #70 to share among the few people that are in the helm of affairs, the Senate, the House of Reps, the president, etc. The remaining 30% will now be used for the welfare of the entire population, making people poorer and poorer. So with the high cost of governance, all the revenue they get, most of it goes to themselves, and that's another big reason. These are the things that are wrong with democracy in my country.
Now, let's talk about ways people are frustrated by our leaders for exercising their rights to choose their leaders...
Number one is the electoral procedure: In my country, the people that contest for positions in the government are selected by what we called the delegate system. Another reason again is the cost of purchasing the nomination form. They will make it so exorbitant that it's almost only the rich through corruption that can afford the nomination form.
So obviously, the people that are available to be voted for by the population are already corrupt because the few delegate that are supposed to select these people are easily bribed, and at the end of the day, they will bring candidates that none of them are even the choice of the people.
The primary election is where our problems start, because at the end of the day, who you want to vote for will be difficult. You will just be choosing between the devil and the deep sea
Another way people are frustrated is through our political party system. This means that if you don't belong to a political party, you cannot contest, but there should be private candidates where someone comes out to contest without belonging to a political party.
When you belong to a political party, you have to abide by the rules of the party, and sometimes the rules of that party might not be favorable, but because it's a law, you must belong to one to contest. Let's take, for instance, Peter Obi, our former president elect. He was in PDP before the party frustrated him, and he ran to another party to contest. However, if there's a private candidate system in Nigeria, he is not supposed to join any party because it's only him that people want and not a party, so all these crises in political parties will not be there. You can see that the party affiliation becomes a way that people are frustrated from choosing the one they want to lead.
In the main election in my country, these people still use their power and authority to frustrate the people. The military is usually given the power to frustrate anyone that comes to vote against their favor. In fact, a lot of people lose their lives for just exercising their civil rights. If you are not voting for their candidates, your name is sorry.
Changes I feel must be implemented
One of these changes is Reforming the electoral law: This is where it should start because if you are operating with a flood constitution, you can never do anything right. There's no way you can make changes without changing the law. There are a lot of things to be changed, and I believe private candidates can be included. One doesn't have to be affiliated with any political party to contest. Let people be on their own, and if the masses want them, they get their vote without those limitations in the party. There are a lot of things in the electoral law: remove the delegate system, let the people actually choose whom they want directly without passing through the primary election, and bring out unelectable people to choose from.
Secondly, to strengthen our institutions, the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive are the three arms of government, and they are independent, meaning no other arms should influence the other one. This is important so that the judiciary can check the executive, and the legislator can also be the checkmate. Because as it is, if a member of your political party is the president, he will do everything to favor the person, whether good or bad, because your allegiance is for the party and not even for the people, so the aim is defeated from the beginning. So we have to strengthen our institution. The party corruption crusade should be strengthened. People should not be above the law but face the law squarely. When these things are in place, you will see that there will be proper accountability for the use of public funds. . I believe that in the era we are in now, we can use technology to make things easier; all government payments should be paid through an app for better transparency. Also Having functional local government and wards is also important.
Another important point is the reduction of the number of representatives. There are just too many people representing each local government contributing to the cost of governance. Let the unnecessary positions contributing nothing be scrapped out, and automatically, the cost of governance will be reduced.
Finally, we can start blocking every other way there are leakages, corruptions, ghost worker systems, and a whole lot of other things that contribute to the high cost of governance in our country. With these measures put in place, I believe there will be a better result in our country.
Images 1 & 3 were taken and edited in canva while image 2 is mine