{"id":67525,"date":"2019-07-06T08:17:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-06T07:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=67525"},"modified":"2019-07-06T08:17:35","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T07:17:35","slug":"nigeria-a-dictatorship-with-the-facade-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/nigeria-a-dictatorship-with-the-facade-of-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: a dictatorship with the fa\u00e7ade of democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\u00a0By Tochukwu Ezukanma<\/div>\n
\n
\nThe dividend of democracy is not economic prosperity, rule of law or the
\nelevation of societal morals and ethics. The dividend of democracy is
\nnot quality education and its accessibility to all, effective health
\ncare delivery system, infrastructural development, steady power supply,
\netc. After all, in some countries of the world, these are existing
\nin-tandem with dictatorship. The dividend of democracy is power.<\/p>\n

The 18th century German sociologist, Max Weber, once defined power \u201cas
\nthe ability to get others acting in accordance to your will\u201d. When
\nNigerians gain the dividend of democracy \u2013 power – they will have all
\nthe elected and appointed officials and every institution of government
\nacting in accordance to their will. As such, the powers of the governing
\nwill be subordinated to the will of the governed. Then, Nigerians will
\nlevitate from pawns and stooges in the elite power game \u2013 that we now
\nconsider democracy – to become the focus of the interests, concerns and
\nactions of elected and appointed government officials and every
\ninstitution of government. And the Nigerian ruling elite will inevitably
\ndescend from supercilious, profligate, over-paid, self-indulgent and
\nmoney-stealing panjandrums to public servants.<\/p>\n

It is a political dynamics that will inevitably bring about – economic
\nprosperity, rule of law, social justice, effective health care delivery
\nsystem, infrastructural development, steady electricity supply, etc, not
\nat the benevolence of a dictator but as dictated by the will of the
\npeople. The problem of Nigerian democracy is that, like a dictatorship,
\nthe powers of the governing are not subject to the will of the governed.
\nWithout this indispensible ingredient of democracy, Nigeria remains a
\ndictatorship with the fa\u00e7ade of democracy.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, as in a dictatorship, the political class repudiates
\nthe public will and ride roughshod over the masses. They undermine a
\nprincipled distribution of the national wealth by strengthening an
\nunconscionable economic system that reinforces the inordinate wealth of
\nan elite few \u2013 politicians, government officials, businessmen,
\nsuper-star pastors, etc – at the economic strangulation of the
\ngenerality of the people. In their avarice and extravagance, many state
\ngovernors misappropriate public funds to the point of not paying the
\nsalaries of state employees. In some states, civil servants are not paid
\ntheir salaries for months, sometimes, up to 18 months. To work for so
\nlong without pay must be unimaginably agonizing. It is gross;
\ndisconcertingly redolent of slavery. Nothing reminiscent of slavery in
\nthe 21st Century can be in consonant with democracy.<\/p>\n

It is lamentable that our relatively wealthy country is the home to the
\ngreatest concentration of extreme poverty in the world. In addition,
\nthis our \u201cpoorest oil-rich nation in the world\u201d, ranks with the poorest
\nand war-torn countries of the world in terms of incidence of poverty,
\nlife expectancy, child mortality, and other social indexes. It is
\ndisproportionately populated by dispirited and demoralized masses
\nwrenched by economic hardship and consumed by the endless drudgery for
\ndaily subsistence. It has been written that \u201cthe root of bondage is
\npoverty…\u201d The incredible mass poverty in this land of plenty must be a
\nstratagem by the ruling class to keep the people in bondage.<\/p>\n

There is homelessness, especially, in urban areas; people live in open
\nair and under the bridges. For many that can afford housing, their
\nhabitation is pitiful. In them people are crowded, sometimes, up to 10
\npersons in one room. Their neighborhoods are festering squalors, with
\ngutters clogged with filth and debris, providing breeding grounds for
\nmosquitoes and all forms of vermin. Not surprisingly, dirt borne
\ndiseases, like malaria and typhoid fever are widespread in Nigeria.
\nNigeria is also home to the highest maternal and infant mortality rate
\nin the world. With only 2% of the world\u2019s population, she accounts for
\n11% of the world\u2019s maternal mortality and 12% of the world\u2019s under-five
\nmortality. It is a sad reality that persists because the ruling elite do
\nnot patronize Nigeria hospitals; they jet-out to hospitals in India,
\nBritain, Germany, etc., for their own health care, and even, routine
\nmedical check-ups.<\/p>\n

In their Apartheid-like systematic humiliation of the masses, state
\ngovernors have routinely ordered the bulldozing of the homes and
\nbusinesses of Nigerians without due process. Ostensibly, these are done
\nin furtherance of urban redevelopment programs, but there are evidences
\nof other motivations, like the appropriation of choice real estate. The
\nmethods adopted in most of these demolitions are tear-jerking. Homes are
\ndemolished with little regards for the hapless and helpless men, women
\nand children abruptly rendered homeless and the indigent dispossessed of
\ntheir sources of subsistence. Thus, families, including children, babies
\nand pregnant women, with no alternative accommodation are unexpectedly
\nthrown outside in the rain and cold. A man\u2019s home is his castle. It is
\ninviolable, even, when it is an illegally built shack. The removal of a
\nman from his house without painstaking adherence to due process and the
\nrule of law is tyranny.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian president, governors and a number of the other members of
\nthe political elite, with the arrogance of power and contemptuous
\nindifference only appropriate of colonial masters and medieval feudal
\nlords, run people off the street with their siren-blaring motorcades.
\nThose that failed to hurriedly get off the street are beaten up by their
\nsecurity details. In the past, these speeding, siren-blaring motorcades
\nhad run people over and caused fatal accidents. In their snootiness and
\ninconsideration, they neither admit their offenses nor apologize. Like
\nthe power elite they serve and represent, the Nigerian Police Force
\ntreats the masses as though they have no right worthy of protection by
\nthe law. Not surprisingly, it is world renowned for brutality,
\ntrigger-happiness and extra-judicial killings.<\/p>\n

So, despite our much vaunted democracy and recent celebration of twenty
\nyears of unbroken democracy, Nigeria is still not a democracy. Nigeria
\nwill become a genuine democracy when the ruling elite become subject to
\nthe powers of the electorate, and consequently, act only in accordance
\nto the will of the people, which is antithetical to electoral fraud,
\nprofligacy, theft of public funds, and other abuses of power and
\ndegradation of the Nigerian masses.<\/p>\n

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
\nmaciln18@yahoo.com<\/a>
\n0803 529 2908<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Tochukwu Ezukanma The dividend of democracy is not economic prosperity, rule of law or the elevation of societal morals and ethics. 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