Democracy as a system of government is not new to Nigeria, save that in the last 50 years, those who have managed the country have not learned any meaningful lesson; those who are currently in charge have doggedly refused to learn any lesson; and the people who should challenge this atomic few, and either force them to learn those durable lessons or be forced out of power, have been robbed of their capacity to do so.
From the time the British colonialists surreptitiously abandoned the government and the people of Nigeria in the hands of their cronies in the then fading colonial enterprise, the Nigerian Project has continued along a familiar line of history. Thus, while the helpless and apparently orphaned nation did continue to change hands, with each change having about the same set of characters reshuffling themselves under different guise, each of these sets of ruthless beneficiaries of the British-imposed confusion made sure they left the country worse than they met it, and each made sure that the same familiar history their unkind parents told them of how the country was run aground, was successfully retold by them.
has become quite common among the country’s elected public office holders at all levels of government, to insinuate or even expressly claim that they are being sabotaged or conspired against by their political detractors, simply in order to cover up their failure to deliver or justify their purported inability to deliver. Similarly, having had no realistic alternative development policy programs and cogent campaigning methods to raise public awareness and mobilize adequate public support to defeat the incumbents in elections, the opposition have equally adopted this method in order to attract undue public sympathy, mislead their audiences hence score cheap political goals.
Moreover, it is not uncommon nowadays to read or hear a supposedly responsible public figure, public office holder or someone who at least commands some public respect and recognition, claiming or insinuatingly making some baseless and ridiculous allegations of conspiracies the sorts of which are only circulated in beer lounges, suya, mai shayi joints and roadside hangouts.
It is very unfortunate that, in Nigeria’s strange political context where politics and trickeries are literally identical, all it takes to gain, regain or retain political power, influence and relevance is the ability to manipulate the reasoning of the average Nigerian voter, with prejudiced ethno-religious or regional notions, empty and unrealistic promises and/or buy his vote, or rather his right, to put it more appropriately, with peanuts or some meagre hand-outs of foodstuff, “which will neither nourish nor avail against hunger.
Nigerian politicians, both the incumbents (most of whom are clearly inexperienced and incompetent) and the opposition (most of whom are mere political opportunists awaiting their turn to perpetuate the status quo) would always cling to such irrelevant stuffs in their desperate struggle for power and influence.
While opposition leaders insist Jonathan should leave as soon as possible, his supporters don’t “give a damn” about the monumental costs to the nation of presidential ineffectiveness. Not surprisingly they care more about maintaining the privileges they currently enjoy than about national development which, of course, is why he must remain, irrespective of actual performance.
The “Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria” and the “Protectors of Nigerian Posterity” insist that our problems are all over. Claiming that Goodluck Jonathan has some hidden qualities shared with Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and President Barrack Obama, which are apparent to them and not the rest of us, these groups sponsor advertisements claiming (without conducting any sort of opinion poll) that Jonathan has more people with him than against him. Knowing full well that if a Nigerian said this it would be laughable, they use paid American voices as if the white man cannot lie!
The state of the various legislatures of a nation at any particular point in time is a significant pointer to the strength of the bond between the government and its citizens. In Nigeria this bond is broken and our “Honourables” appear completely oblivious to the damage caused our democracy by their incessant dishonorable behaviour. Since 1999 it has been one long sorry story. Now that the confab report will dance on the legislators’ floor majority of Nigerians its unfortunate already knows the type of music that they will play for confab report.
All the unnecessary diversions, drama, washed out security resources, litigations, squandering of money and failure to enact meaningful legislation is somehow accepted as the “Nigerian technique”. There is an embarrassment of proven sleaze and embarrassment of un-investigated allegations which makes Nigeria the legislative scandal capital of the world. Citizens have become quite rightly cynical about the integrity of lawmakers and their ability to enact meaningful laws to uplift and advance our society both materially and morally.
