By
Sparuwan@Yahoo.Com
" A nation of such enormous landmass, yet citizens
are fighting over land, a nation of such incredible wealth, yet it wears poverty
like a breastplate, a nation of seemingly deep religion, yet so steep in much
sin, a nation so populated by farmers and farmland, yet, hunger stalks the land
and the nation cannot feed itself, a nation with so many petrol stations, yet,
no fuel, a nation with so many politicians, but no political class, a nation
with millions of houses, yet no homes, a nation with so much riches, but no
wealth, a nation with so many believers in God, but no faith, a nation with so
many office holders, but no leaders, a nation struggling to develop, but not
growing..."
During the latter days of military government, some
of us who were very young to understand what government is all about were told
that “Democracy” is the solution to our problems. That in a democracy,
everything will be done on the basis of the wishes of the citizenry. We heard
our Parents, Teachers and Social crusaders, talking about the beacon himself
Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) chorusing in unison, that the military governments
are not representing the populace. They are only intimidating, dehumanising and
looting the state treasure, and so many shortcomings that needed no repetition.
Then, as one begun to understand little by little of
this democracy, one was developing a good admiration of the system. In my mind I
will be saying, it is just a matter of time, Nigerian problems will be over as
soon as we embrace democracy. Democracy was highly publicized and propagated
within the country. Many of our brave comrades threw their hats in the ring,
fighting for this democracy or even its semblance. In the process many were
brutally killed, harassed, tortured and some went on exile. However few of the
pro-democracy activists who stayed to hold the bull by the horn, were
intentionally implicated in an alleged coup de’tat, one can go on and on .The
struggles were continuing with optimism that things will get well in our
In a nutshell, the military returned the mantle of
leadership to a democratically elected government, on
Without much ado, one wishes to ask a question. Did
we have democracy in
Whosoever, that will be sincere and objective, will
agree that, there is nothing like government of the people in
Today, we have graduates in millions who have no
jobs; we have abundant of human resources wasting away daily. Poverty level is
on the increase, the poor are getting poorer, no security for all the haves not,
absolutely nothing, just go in to our public hospitals, you see how citizens are
perishing like insects.
One can see clearly that there is no development in
our communities, looking at the highly inflated contract figures and
sub-standard works. The so-called democrats are daily looting the state
resources transferring our monies to foreign nations, all to the detriment of
the poor. Since 1999 there have been numerous crises in Nigeria, the government
cannot even begin to understand the underlying problems talk less of committing
itself to find a final solution, but before our very eyes the President has been
committing our own resources towards resolving other nations crises than our
own. What a misplaced priority and negligence! Imagine
When one raises an eyebrow, his stooges will say “it
is international relations and playing the role of
Who are the contractors re-constructing
Virtually all economic policies in these years of
democracy have no positive effects on the commoners but on the rich, who have a
free day milking the resources of the people. Today all strata of government
institutions only exist in papers and government owned media. Everything has
collapsed, due processes are not followed, and those who introduce the so called
DUE PROCESS system are those killing it. Even religious leaders have gone blind,
supporting the impoverishing of Nigerians all in the name of God. Very few can
tell the government their shortcomings.
The police are harassing and killing people daily
because of the bribe syndrome. Just look at the National Assembly, what is so
good there, they don’t discuss and deliberate on issues that concern the welfare
of their constituents. Rather they are busy – busy, buying and travelling. They
are not worthy of being called LAWMAKERS; there is no quality in their
deliberations. Had they been serious towards addressing the plights of
indigents, the way they handled their feud with Nasir El Rufai, things will have
been different, where were they when Obasanjo increased the price of petroleum?
Who wants to pass a proposed bill breaking the monopoly of NLC in
There is no rule of law, no check and balances, no
constitutionalism, only ruling and reducing citizens to object poverty. Is this
democracy? Please let’s not deceive ourselves. There is no democracy in
Now the greediness of some selfish individuals is
making them to call on those same people who destroyed the country in the past
to come back and vie for governmental offices again, to do what? To finish us
completely and better the lives of their cronies. Was there no opportunity for
them to transform Nigerian? What made them believe that, it is only them that
can salvage us? Who aided the coming of the present system? What is the
difference between a Leopard and a toddling one?
As we approach 2007and beyond, we should avoid the
tendency of encouraging or persuading Ex –Military officers, commercialised
politicians to contest positions as if to say that we are pleased with what they
have done to the nation. We should not deceive ourselves. No Nigerian military
personnel can be a true democrat in the true meaning and sense of the concept no
matter how many years after retirement. We should learn to always resist
dictatorship, be it civilian or whatever, in every form.
Coming back to the present democratic problems, we
should try and put our energy towards building a democratic
Democracy is the only way out; anything short of
democratic principles will truncate the entire system. Only democracy can free
us. With all its crises and blood letting, let us pray that it will be peaceful
but also let us be ready to defend it with the last drop of blood for without
freedom, life is a prison. Those who fear the blood that comes with democracy
might as will tell us to stop the process of procreation; for birth as we all
know is a bloody business. But in its blood there is life, there is freshness,
there is hope and there is a future (Kukah 2002)
To the beacon himself and his likes, Chief Gani
Fawehinmi, there are many Nigerians with conscience who are with you no matter
what it takes.
Nigerians, let’s give our country a good leadership; we should not fall prey to deceivers and manipulators. We must indeed strive for genuine democracy, no matter the cost.