Usually, as a commentator or a public affair analyst, I find it difficult making comments about government or its policies. This is not because I’m biased about government or that I’m not its fan. NO! It’s simply because, I decided to leave government issues and politics to politicians alone. Later as time went by, and when it done on me that without good governance and stability in government, I will not be possibly sitting here to write. I then considered it important to challenge government where it’s lacking. This gave me reasons to consider the words of Charles De Gaulle when he said…“I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.” Also, Chester Bowles had this to say…"Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.” And Aristotle crowned it all by saying…”Man is by nature a political animal” That is when I discovered I’ve been making a huge mistake to let government be even when it’s under-performing. Government is complicated and so it, need people with complicated reasoning and understanding to steer it wheels. I don’t have much knowledge of democracy or how it work but how it should work. This is because by virtue of my age, which is thirty two, you don’t need to be told I was born in the eighties. Obviously, at the year of my birth, 1981 to be precise was a time of civilian rule. This was during the second republic and at the time Shehu Shagari was the president. Shagari was overthrown in a coup by Muhammadu Buhari in 1983, as at that time I was only two years. With such age, it will be difficult for me, a child to have a clear and sharp memory of how democracy or government worked (though government have standards and need not compromise). As I grew older and attained adolescent age, the Military was still in power. Lest, for the brief civilian interim national government (ING), which was installed by Ibrahim Babangida and headed by Chief Earnest Shonekan from august - November in 1993. I didn’t experience any civilian regime till 1999 when I was already eighteen years. My final year in Secondary School came alongside the return to civilian rule, after about fifteen years of military rule from 1983. Since I never had knowledge of the past civilian republics and their characteristics nature of work and structure, I didn’t know what to expect. After all, I didn’t know what democracy was all about beside its definition. Well, if the true definition of democracy is anything to go by and duly applied, I wouldn’t have been wrong about how it (democracy) should work. I remember the jubilation from all around Nigeria as I watched from Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) the swearing-in ceremony that took place at Eagle square in Abuja. And the celebration thereafter, across various states as their Governors were also sworn-in the same day. All I thought, to mention but few (going by what I heard people talked about), was that the return of good governance and equal representation was here. Little did I know that I was so wrong and Nigeria was so far from it. It’s over a decade now since the return to democracy in Nigeria but all I can see is the same old system, if not worse. With this I’m tempted to believe and say that government is the same any time and day...
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 10:18:10 +0000
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