Book Launch: Two Decades of Uninterrupted Democracy in Nigeria

FINALLY OUT: BOOK ON TWO DECADES OF UNINTERRUPTED DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA

In December, 2018, I was invited by Dr Mike Omilusi , a fine, prolific writer, political scientist and renowned scholar of Nigeria’s electoral system, to be part of a book project conceived to document 20 years of democracy (1999-2019) in Nigeria.

At that time, I’d never met Dr Omilusi in person (and I didn’t on a one-on-one basis until yesterday); but his reputation preceded him in the sheer number of scholarly books and peer-review articles bearing his name, aside being a regular voice on radio as a public affairs analyst.

But we had become friends on Facebook and followed each other well on that platform after one of his articles was published in a journal on whose board I serve (Agidigbo: ABUAD Journal of Humanities).

At first, I was excited to be part of the book as contributor and co-editor, but my excitement didn’t last.

It was clear that Dr Omilusi had invited me to a discursive engagement of Nigeria’s democracy on the basis of my Facebook writings on politics and governance in general. On the list of contributors and their assigned topics were scholars and political scientists of note.

Not being a political scientist by training but only by inclination and volition, I was to tread an uncharted territory. I was gripped by a momentary fear of the unknown. Good enough, that fear soon evaporated like the desert mist as I took up the challenge and settled down to do justice to my topic: Nigerian Presidency and Intergovernmental Relations, in which I privileged the monstrosity of the presidency and Executive arm of government together with the ‘kabiyesi mentality’, with which it treats other arms and tiers of government.

The book, “Two Decades of Democratic Experiment: Perspectives on Institutions of Democracy in Nigeria”, is finally out to critical acclaim. Yesterday, when the co-editor visited me to deliver my copy, someone bought it immediately.

The book has elicited much interest among politicians, public servants, scholars and students of democracy and politics.

That it took us more than two years to publish this rich and enriching book on democratic governance in Nigeria underscores the formidable challenges, which scholars face in this clime. The environment is unfriendly to scholars on almost all grounds and it kills scholarship in the process, unless one is dogged and indefatigable.

The road was rough and serpentine; there were frustrations, anger, disagreement and discouragements. But we soldiered on. Funding was our greatest challenge in a country where corporate organizations, government and private citizens fall over themselves to sponsor BBN and fete its winners like they won Nobel Prize for finding the cure to cancer.

It’s a big shame and certainly counterproductive that we fund inanities at the expense of critical knowledge production. You cannot sow wind and not reap whirlwind; it’s only a matter of time before we rue our collective foolishness.

The editors spent the whole of Covid 19 pandemic lockdown working day and night on the book. Only the grace of God and the Nigerian never-say-die attitude brought the book to life and light.

Dr Omilusi and I are grateful to everyone who supported the book project. We thank our families for the sacrifices especially the hours away on the computer, reading, researching and writing.

Kudos to all the esteemed contributors and our publisher; we did it together. Thank you.

It’s our hope that this book would elicit progressive engagements and reactions from all the right quarters.

May Nigeria succeed.

Olumide Olugbemi-Gabriel