History has demonstrated that democracy is a fount of political
stability, social justice, rule of law, principled distribution of
wealth and over all societal progress. It has improved the standards of
political morality, elevated societal ethics and refined the value
system in many countries of the world. Lamentably, in the topsy-turvy
world of our beloved country, Nigeria, democracy has not been attended
with any of these laudable outcomes. It has been fraught with social
injustice, lawlessness, inequity, poverty, repression of free speech,
and most disturbingly, insecurity and the demeaning of human lives.
Most Nigerians are not politically fastidious; our concerns are limited
to the mundane and pedestrian. We long for the basic essentials of life:
jobs, food on the table, education for children, electricity, water,
security from criminal predators, and protection from the inhumanities
of governing officials and agents of government. Unfortunately, after
more than twenty years of democracy, our basic expectations of democracy
continue to elude us.
In their hypocrisy, our rulers posture as democrats and sentinels of the
public good, but are, in essence, tyrannical and voracious feudal lords.
Shelter in their cocoons, they live in islands of affluence and
extravagance in an ocean of poverty, gloom and misery. Their thievery
and profligacy make it impossible for most Nigerians to share in the
general prosperity of the country. So, while the political elite and
their cronies maintain life-styles that amaze even the rich and the
famous of the wealthiest countries of the world, a frightening
proportion of Nigerians are trapped in extreme poverty.
A onetime United States of American Secretary of State, Warren
Christopher, once called Nigeria “the poorest oil-rich nation in the
world”. What an oxymoron – oil-rich poverty? It was an appropriate
characterization of Nigeria because despite her oil wealth, she ranks
with the poorest and war-torn countries of the world in life expectancy,
child mortality, and other social indexes. Life is a cruel grind for
countless Nigerians; so many are consumed by the drudgery for daily
existence. Many families can barely eat one square meal a day. Many
survive as scavengers, rummaging through trash dumps for edibles,
reusable items and sellable scraps; and as street hawkers, thronging the
streets hoping to eke out a living by selling water, soft drinks,
fruits, etc to motorists and pedestrians.
Many Nigerians, even in urban areas, do not have access to clean
drinkable water. Consequently, dirt borne diseases, like malaria and
Typhoid fever, are very prevalent; people suffer and die from these
readily preventable and treatable diseases. Many, especially, in urban
areas, are homeless: living in open air and under the bridges. Some of
the supposedly lucky ones that can afford housing inhabit decrepit and
dilapidated houses, just hovels and pigsties. In them, people are
crowded, sometimes, up to 10 persons in one room in dusty, filthy,
festering, trash strewn neighborhoods, with gutters clogged with filth
and debris, and streets pock-marked with pot holes.
While we generally train our focus and criticisms on the federal
government, the state governors are just as corrupt, irresponsible and
dictatorial. Without financially independence, state legislatures lack
the independence and intrepidity of a serious parliament; they are
rubber stamp parliaments. The governors are essentially provincial
despots; their powers are uninhibited. Each governor appropriates from
state coffers, at least, five hundred million naira every month, as
security vote. The security vote is unaccounted for; it is spent
strictly at the discretion of the governor. In their avarice and
wastefulness, some state governors refuse to pay state employees for
months, sometimes, for more than twelve months. And those that demand a
partial payment of their backlog salaries are severely punished.
It has been written that, “Money is like muck, not good unless it is
spread”. As such, “the best antidote for political upheaval is
equitable distribution of wealth”. Corollary, the most potent trigger
of political turmoil is inequitable distribution of wealth. The social
injustice and income disparity in Nigeria will inevitably lead to
political turmoil. In our present political passivity and docility, we
seem to have forgotten that we have, in the past, risen up, in protest,
against exploitative and oppressive powers. Long ago, we successfully
rallied against a colonial power and wrest the country from its grip.
More recently, we rose up in protest against the repudiation of the
collective will of the people – the annulment of the June 12 election
– by gun-toting generals.
Nigerians need to break the vicious grip of our evil rulers, and bring
to an end their looting and tearing down the country and deliberate
impoverishment of the Nigerian masses. To do these, we must unite in
agitation against the iniquitous cabal that rules this country. It is
collective, courageous, sustained and strategically directed agitation
that will break its ruthless grip on the country and force it to reform
its ways.
The killing of peaceful, flag waving, national anthem-singing protesters
was to intimidate Nigerians into passivity. However, Nigerians must
muster the guts and gumption to start another more elaborate, better
organized and protracted protest against this government. After all, has
the cudgel of the International Criminal Court (ICC) not fallen on many
dictators that wantonly murdered the innocent? Secondly, has history not
demonstrated that those that wanted to maintain their power, with guns
and bayonets in defiance of the legitimate aspirations of the people
have always kissed the dust?
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria