Date Published: 10/14/09
The Road To Perdition By Adejuwon Rasheed
The kind of politics played in Nigeria since the current democratic dispensation started in May 1999 has been peculiar in all ramifications. The buccaneers in the PDP who hijacked the reins of government from the military have adopted a kind of scorched-earth policy which takes no prisoners. Operating on a two broad pedestals of power-by-all-means and unbridled corruption, one has become a means to the other. Use any means possible to seize power, loot the treasury to sustain yourself in power, kill, maim and snatch ballot boxes during elections, use state treasury to engage expensive lawyers who in turn would use any means possible to frustrate justice as we currently witness in Osun and Ekiti states.
It is pretty amazing observing the actors in this absurd drama as it unfolds, people who have no sense of history are bound to repeat it, 1966 and 1983 seemed like yesterday but to the Abuja overlords who carry on with such a swagger, the past might never have existed for all they care. Nigeria has never had it so bad, all performance indicators are at almost zero level, perpetual darkness envelopes the land, corruption occupies a pride of place and stalks the land like a colossus, seventy percent of federal roads are in a terrible state according to statistics from the senate, infrastructure is almost decrepit, people live in fear as armed bandits have taken over everywhere and yet the Nigeria police paid to protect the citizenry have become their greatest enemies, Professor Soyinka was apt when he said that government in Nigeria is on sabbatical.
Now to the people at the receiving end of this evil and wickedness, they are busy looking elsewhere for salvation - in the bosom of miracle inducing spiritualists and charlatans in spiritual and religious garments. They have forgotten that freedom is never given but taken - violently in most cases. The oppressor only gets more hardened, since power is an opium, it intoxicates to the point of stupor. No wonder then that the parasites in the national assembly were asking for automatic tickets. I wonder the kind of democracy they have in mind. The masses have no voice, the mainstream media both electronic and print have been acquired by corrupt politicians and their friends, so we get fed daily dosage of their jaundiced views, selective truths and half-truth. They don’t even bother to hide their corrupt acts anymore their disdain for the masses is legendary.
Unfortunately, the death of Chief Gani Fawehinmi marked the end of a radical era in this country, the rest of the human rights activists and democracy crusaders have either gone to sleep or joined the government of the day in one capacity or the other. They are either getting patronage as counsels or appointments into government departments or having their elections confirmed by government-induced judges, of course for a price.
In conclusion, I will say this much, having pushed the people to the wall and having driven hope away from these shores, there is only one solution to the farce we are currently witnessing, it might not be a revolution, nor a coup d’etat, but I predict a violent end to this dispensation. The reason is not far-fetched, for those who have ears, let them hear, the present debacle in Ekiti and Anambra states is a precursor to 2011 and once the power to choose has been taken away from the people, the rest is chaos whose end will be unpredictable for according to a former US president, J. F. Kennedy(1917 - 1963), “There can be no progress if people have no faith in tomorrow”
