DWINDLING FORTUNES OF NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY. By Isaac Nsikak. PREAMBLE; Following the wave of democracy that swept across African states in the early 90s, Nigeria as the most populous nation in the continent was no exemption as it embraced the concept with both arms. This had to be so given her experiences in the hands of totalitarian regimes who impeded her growth and development. ORIGIN OF NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY; Albeit the concept of democracy was not totally alien to Africa nay Nigeria as it was practiced in most traditional societies e.g Igbo in Nigeria, Gikuyu in Kenya etc, but the latter form of democracy was Western oriented with modifications. It was prescribed for the continent by the West against the backdrop of bad governance, corruption, political intolerance and human rights violation that was associated with African totalitarian practice. It was also one of the conditionalities for obtaining loans and foreign aids from the Western controlled IMF/World bank. The West was of the opinion that if loans be given to these states who probably were in dire need, it must be given to those who accept democracy. In thier view, if loans are given to totalitarian regimes which were prevalent then in Africa, there would be likelihood of mismanagement of such funds as there would be no checks and balances. Hence they prescribed multi-party form of democracy for the continent. The idea behind this was that,if many parties are contitutionally allowed to operate, there would be checks and balances which would prevent financial recklessness and abuse of power by the party (government) in power therefore they would be able to payback the loans. Another reason democracy was prescribed ,was to streghten constitutionalism and safeguard human rights. Therefore having many parties as possible in a country under the type of democracy was not an aberration but a standard phenominon. THE DISTURBING TREND. Some pundits are of the opinion that Nigerian democracy is nascent, but how wrong this is, as the countrys democracy is rather atavistic. This position is based on some emperical factors which include inter alia, a. Violation of freedom of press. b. Violation of freedom of association. c. Political interference, intolerance and rascality. e. Electoral fraud, etc. To political aficionados,there is no gainsaying that the current practice of democracy contradicts all known tenets of democracy. For instance, in the middle of last year, the number one citizen of Nigeria openly admitted that in his own understanding, 16 is greater than 19. This, the Dutch Embassy in Nigeria maintain its a threat to 2015 election. The maccabre dance with impunity was taken to the Rivers State House of Assembly where some few elements attempted to impeach the Speaker without the required quorum with the police again taken side which many believe it has it root from the NGF fallout. According to Magnus Abe, it is Rivers today and tomorrow it could be anywhere. Today undemocratic practices are ubiquitous in the country. At one point we witness the seizure of newspapers that reported the heinous activities of Boko haram. Needful to mention the barring of opposition party members from campaigning for their candidate and abduction and unlawful detention of party supporters. The unconstitutional withdrawal of security operative attached to the speaker of the house of reps for defecting to opposition party. The unlawful impeachment of the Ekiti State House of Assembly Speaker by a modicum of members. The height of it being the barring of the Speaker from performing his constitutional role using the police. THE WAY FORWARD. All the above mentioned undemocratic practices exhibited by the government in power need to be curtailed by all lovers of democracy if we are not to regress to militocracy or totalitarianism. We have to once take the campaign out of social media by ceasing any opportunity we have to condemn this dangerous trend. In fora, seminars, conferences we must speak in unison against it because according to Joseph de Maistre,every nation gets the type of government it deserves.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 21:18:06 +0000
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