By: Adedayo Oluodo
The charade our ruling class celebrate as democracy day on June 12th, is nothing but a time to reflect on our pretence as a democratic society, when, in reality, we are a combination of what looks like an autocratic and communist society.
While June 12 is all about Chief Moshood Kasimawo Abiola, a democratic martyr who died in the struggle to ensure Nigeria experienced true democracy, the Nigerian state adopted this memorable day to celebrate her democracy day which used to be celebrated on May 29th.
Going by the current situation of things in Nigeria, and the way the beneficiaries of Abiola's sacrifice handle our democracy, can we say, the sacrifice Abiola made was worth it after all? Are we honestly practicing democracy in this country?
Even when I feel I can't answer these questions, I can only summit that the current All Progressives Congress (APC) government under the leadership of General Muhammadu Buhari has eroded the basic tenets of operating a democratic society, under his watch, human rights are openly violated, citizens are illegally detained by agencies of government, court orders and judgements are disregarded without consequences, even elections are not free and fair. In all of these, I'm amazed that we still have the effrontary to say we're celebrating democracy day?
On a democracy day, citizen are being denied their right to organise a peaceful protest! The Nigerian security agents are deployed to unleash terror on peaceful demonstrators, because, they speak against a government they have concluded is not working.
On a democracy day, people are afraid to go out of their houses, not just for the fears of bandits' attacks, armed herders, kidnappers and unknown gunmen, but, for the fear of security agents, paid with tax payers money being deployed on them by a president they elected in an electoral process engendered by the democracy Abiola paid for with his life.
The voice of the people should be the propeller for policy formation and direction of leadership in a democracy, but, in this our supposed democracy, the greed, ego and gratification of a privileged few, dictate the policies and direction of leadership.
In a supposed democracy, lethal force is deployed on people who resorted to a forceful call for secession after subtle calls for restructuring and equal treatment of all Nigerian across all regions of the country failed to yield any result. While in a true democracy, the people have a right to self determination, why hold a people down in a country they feel or have no sense of belonging and refuse to address their grievances?
I remembered, the leadership of APC as an opposition party, before the 2015 general elections, protested and said all vile things about Goodluck Jonathan and PDP without any victimisation or harassment, today however, that same protest and peaceful demonstration the deployed to take power from the PDP has become a crime in Nigeria.
The social media they have banned or suspended today, (Thus, eroding our right to freedom of expression and publication), was judiciously used to push the manifestos, agenda and ideas Nigerians believed APC had, but turned out to be a white elephant project, but, eventually help them win the election.
The APC deployed every media at its disposal to disseminate heavy propaganda and hate speeches against the PDP government and Goodluck Jonathan, who never intimidated them because, he believed in allowing them express their freedom of speech and publication as expected of a democratic society, but today, all those luxuries they enjoyed has become a punishable offence in the variant of democracy we practice in Nigeria today.
Don't forget that in every form of government, be it autocratic, communist or democratic, the primary function of government is protection of citizens' lives and properties, but in Nigeria's democracy, a government led by a supposed repentant democrat, with a military background that earned him the rank of a general, cannot protect citizens' properties and lives. I now ask myself, how did he rise to the rank of a general in the military? The only excuse I could come up with is the fact that, he like many Nigerian army generals never fought a real war, all the wars they fought was against their civilian population. No wonder, he is out of ideas to combat the trained bokoharam fighters and bandits that kill the citizens he swore an oath to protect in their numbers everyday.
We thought former president Goodluck Jonathan was clueless and weak, but, this current administration has given the true definition of cluelessness and weakness. We can understand that Goodluck was a civilian that had no combat experience or military exposure, hence, his inability to tackle insecurity we thought thrived under his administration, what excuse can we make for the "Army General" under whose watch as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and president of Nigeria, deadly bokoharam insurgents became more emboldened? Under his nose, bandits became a force of terror across the nation, herders became armed and unleashed mayhem on agrarian communities across the six geo political zones of this country.
Despite all this happening, the president has refused to admit he has failed in his responsibility as a president and Commander in Chief, he has also forbid the citizens to tell him the truth about his performance. Whosoever dares to speak against him is considered an enemy of the state and is treated in a language they understand.
I believe this was the reason security forces cracked down on peaceful #endsars protesters during and after the government succeeded in scuttling the demonstration by the instrumentality of fear, killings, and intimidation.
While the government say we are celebrating a Democracy Day, we should be reflecting on the various anti democratic manifestations of this current government and how we can survive as a people or our continuous existence as one nation.
Even if the government is pretending that all is well, we should tell ourselves the truth, Nigeria is not a democratic society, rather, we are in a full blown dictatorship by a man in civilian attire. It is either we fix our problem like a democratic society that we claim to be, or we declare to the world that we have returned to a military and autocratic dispensation in our political journey.
Permit me to wish Nigerians a happy autocratic day.
0 Comments