Experts on rule of law and democratic governance have called on heads of government to adhere to the rule of law and other democratic principles to enhance good governance across the world.
They made the call at a virtual conference by FixPolitics Movement and the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG) on Saturday.
The theme of the conference is ‘Power, Performance and Legitimacy: Renewing Global Democratic Momentum”.
In a lecture, Dr Larry Diamond, a political psychologist at Stanford University, United States of America, decried the continuous decline in the practice of competitive democracy.
He said that while there is a growing practice of authoritarianism across the globe, there was a decline in the satisfaction of how democracy is being practiced.
Diamond said that the situations where a political party muscles all institutions, does not allow for criticism, saying the using state powers to disqualify candidates considered as threat was serious threat to democracy.
Diamond said that a survey on citizen’s satisfaction with the practice of democracy showed a decline in Nigeria from 41 per cent to 21 per cent, while in Ghana, it declined from 78 per cent to 51 per cent between 2006 and 2022.
According to him, citizens’ satisfaction with the practice of democracy in Senegal had decline from 59 per cent to 48 per cent while in South Africa, it declined from 43 per cent to 21 per cent.
Diamond said that weak economic growth, inadequate jobs and social safety net, poor education, long-term deficits of human capital and corruption were some of the factors responsible for the decline.
He blamed the decline on crony capitalism, kleptocracy, extreme and rising inequality, declining public order resulting from crime, gangs as well as geographic areas of very weak governance.
“There is urgent need for economic support and investment to promote growth and opportunity in democracies.
“There is also the need for enhanced diplomatic pressure and aid conditionality to counter democratic backsliding
“Also, technical and financial support and training for democratic policing, revive civic education in schools, counter authoritarian propaganda and disinformation while embarking on global campaign for democracy are required,” he said.
In her remarks, the founder, SPPG, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, said that there was an urgent need to empower citizens to take their rightful place at the centre of democracy.
She said that absence of good governance was the greatest obstacle to economic development as failure of democracy equally endangers the common good of those who capture power at the end.
The former minister of education said that if nothing was done to transform the current trend, African would continue to lag behind in terms of development.
Ezekwesili said, to turn the current tide around, there was the need to focus on the demand side of the triangle of politics which represents the citizen as key component.
She said that not much change would be achieved if the three sides of triangle which represents democratic institutions such as electoral umpire/ security agencies and those in government do not collaborate effectively.
The former minister said that empowering the citizens for positive change was the initiative behind establishing the SPPG