By Ugochimereze Chinedu Asuzu
In the most simplified definition; “Democracy is the government of the people, by people and for the people”
-Abraham Lincoln
Hence; “The glory of a good government is the welfare of its people. Good government rests on the rock of responsibility”
-Bill Clinton
Nigeria, a nation of many languages, cultures and religions have enjoyed a record twenty-four years of uninterrupted democracy. One may argue, whether rightly or wrongly, that the major indices of democracy as seen practiced in other civilized climes are a shadow of itself in the Nigerian context. For example, democracy envisages of a government chosen by the majority of the people in a free, fair and credible elections. In every four years, the President of Nigeria, who will be used for illustration purposes in this piece, is subjected to popularity and acceptability test, or another elected in his place either for failing this test or after he has completed the constitutional limits of two terms. The credibility of the elections from 1999 to 2019 has been marred by wide ranging maladies, which the continuous tinkering of the content of the Electoral Act and of course the introduction of high level electoral equipments bought with humongous amounts which depletes the common till of the Nigerian people was supposed to curb; one would pause here to ask, of what use and for what purpose really are the modern hi tech equipments bought at very outrageous amount of money for, if they are not going to be effectively deplored to the purpose for which they were meant to serve? Is it that those handling the affairs of Nigeria are so seared in their consciences to the point of treating the Nigerian people treacherously with malicious intent to weaken their resolve or provoke them into taking their destinies in their own hands?
Sincerely, I’m disturbed so much in my heart that I can’t imagine a situation where one can spend stupendous amount of money in purchase of hi tech electoral equipments that has the potentials to serve the interest of the people better, and when the equipments are seriously needed to serve the cause for which they were purchased and installed it’s reduced to ‘tales by moonlight folktales’, it still beats my imagination to contemplate or place my hands on what exactly it is that’s wrong with the psyche of those in charge or superintending the public affairs of Nigeria; do we still have consciences that functions in them?
Well, before we have a bite at the impending legal and political crisis arising from the lack of political will or capacity of INEC or other state actors at doing the needful, the attendant challenges that such deliberate dereliction shall in turn occasion, what wittingly or unwittingly the abdication of such critical responsibility will cause the Nigerian state, more so at such a time like we are already quired in, that frustration and utter despondency seems to be the order of the day with majority of the Nigerian people, the only tiny light of hope at the end of the tunnel increasingly becoming a mirage before their very eyes, for responsibilities are seen as abdicated when the right purposes for which the responsibility was bequeathed are either deliberately stalled or the end expectations defeated through deliberate actions or inactions of the handlers. I will love to firstly drive home some itching points before proceeding further.
Tyranny is antithetical, in a wide sense, to democracy. Tyranny is opposed to all that democracy espouses. Tyranny is, to juxtapose Lincoln’s words, a government of the Lord Masters, by the Lord Masters and for the Lord Masters. The Politicians in Nigeria garb themselves with the cloak of Lord Masters over the ordinary people of Nigeria by their actions and wanton disregard to laid down principles in participatory democracy.
It is my unapologetic view that most of the political leaders in Nigeria are best described as tyrants, who according to Plato are the “fourth and worst disorder of a state.” Tyrants are the harbingers of tyranny. Human elements who are tyrannical are among men the most vile and utterly arid, because in the basic analysis tyrants lack sound reasoning ability, as they tilt towards abnormalities. The lack of cognitive reasonability, which is “the very faculty that is the instrument of judgment”, and in place of reason they apply unrestrained cruelty as the instrument of oppression, because they are themselves enslaved, particularly in their rational reasoning, they tend to be suppressive to any idealistically propelled group or persons, because such persons or groups not only make them look inferior, but also dumb, and by identifying with such class of people their hollowness is made more pronounced, as much as their bereft coordination showcased in the full scale for which they detest. Tyrants are not only those in direct ruling class, but a tendency and position of thought that quite many Nigeria Politicians possess; such is the position of mind of the enemies of Nigeria that masquerades under the shade of her leaders; individuals who are themselves inherently uncultured, despicable and utterly of seared conscience with distorted orientation of subjugative pattern of thoughts that tend to appreciate and in cahoots with rambunctious behaviors as against principled and civilized pattern of behavior.
I reluctantly picked up my iPad a while ago to pen down my thoughts concerning Nigeria; reluctant, yes, because I seem to have lost the enthusiasm to write about Nigeria anymore. It seems more to me like as the years go by Nigeria continues to descend neck deep into the cesspool of putrid perfidy, enmeshed in a cocoon of disjunctive narratives that defy logical interpretation occasioned by the actions of their supposed leaders. More like getting more and more irredeemable and totally sold to negative identification, trappings, cumulative ambiguities and swayed to natural attraction to adorning odoriferous garments of ceaseless inanities as identifying trademarks. This is a country where it’s becoming increasingly obvious that there is absolutely nothing that could be referenced as absurdity that is impossible of taking place here.
We are, as a country, the truest definition of absurdity in the practical sense of the term; beginning from the very basis of our foundational imperatives to the very core of the principles of our togetherness, hence it’s right to define us first as different ethnic nationalities packed together in a geographical space, undefined and without integration or sense of nationhood. The very reason we are more ethnocentric in orientation than nationalistic, a gulf created by the demonic oligarchs to easily subjugate us as a people; whereas we are that divided down the rungs of the ladder, but those satanic oligarchs calling the shots high up the ladder are themselves united in their shared perspectives of dominance and subjugation of the people for whom leadership is meant to ameliorate their sufferings and situate better.
Those evil minded clique of shameless devourers that feasts on the common patrimony of the Nigerian people, those who ride roughshod over them and unabashedly committed to treating the Nigerian people treacherously with utter disdain. This presidential election offering the bulk of the Nigerian people a glimpse of hope of a better future owing to the promises of those who hitherto ought to be honourable in speech and conducts, being leaders entrusted with the common till of the Nigerian people; those who act as sovereigns forgetting that true sovereignty derives its locus not of them but from the people, yet they are totally insulated from the yearnings and aspirations of the very people for whom leadership became a necessity, yet in the truest sense they serve only at the behest of the people and not the other way round, as contrary to this is tyranny. And who ultimately disappoint the expectations of the very people who yearned for a free, fair and credible elections in which their genuine will for a pragmatic change will be accommodated and their expressions given vent to by way of consolidated transparency in the electioneering process, owing to unfulfilled promises made to them by leaders saddled with the core responsibilities of expanding the frontiers of good governance, those who unfortunately decimated the goodwill of the people, showcased their very tainted and soiled position of thoughts in their actions, indicative of flawed characters and blemished integrity that speaks ill of their personality; those who cannot be trusted to keep to their words of commitments.
In essence, when the legitimate will and vote of the people is reduced to nothing, it’s not only an open invitation to anarchy, but you take away the inalienable human rights of the people which ought to be sacrosanct, thereby reducing them to mere articles or objects to be treated without dignity and respect, in turn rendering them redundant and of no effect in the affairs of the country. It is supposedly through free, fair and balanced political participation that the dignity and strength of citizens are felt, celebrated and made worthwhile; when it no longer counts, no matter the nomenclature or trappings of whatever we claim to practice as a form of government is then without any modicum of legitimacy or credibility, because the rights to freely choose their leaders is one of the cardinal fundamental rights of the citizens of any serious country, to the contrary is reducing the said state to the status of a failed state or banana republic.
It’s therefore heartrending to posit, that in our country today, I mean before one’s very eyes an obvious black colour can be quoted before one as white and the skewed narrative will gather such level of acceptance that could make the one question their very sanity, because you will simply find yourself in such situation of quagmire by resort to doubting even the soundness of one’s visual acuity, even when you are perfectly of sound mental health and visuality. Such level of frustration is better imagined than encountered, because it has the potentials to make one interrogate his wholesomeness and in most cases his overall wellness. That is the precarious, preposterous, debilitating and arid situation we seem to have found ourselves in as a people.
Very many Nigerians in a momentary period of time clinged to the fringes of hope offered to them by the candidature of tested and trusted individuals with integrity, competence, character and credibility, thus bringing sanity to bear in the electioneering process, away from the uninspiring narratives that formed the basis of political participations before now; for the very first time in our history emphasis was shifted from ethnicity to tangible narratives of what is best for the country irrespective of the surname or ethnic nationality of candidates, for the first time too campaigns were based on issues not on non issues as was the situation prior; the Nigerian youths whose future are daily being mortgaged by the evil leaders who wish not a blissful future for them taking up the challenge, a country in which majority of her citizens have for far too long a time already lost hope in her ability to be redeemed, hoping against hope that for the very first time in her chequered history things might be done differently in a more positive dimensional reality; hence the presidential election of 2023 became a threshold of a sort to adumbrate on the idea of a renaissance for a country which seems to have totally lost the sense of direction and sacredness; for a very long time since the existence of this undefined contraption called Nigeria, we witnessed a tiny glare of hope only but momentarily and like an accursed entity that she has since proven to be, that tiny ray of hope was not only dashed by those in power and their cohorts in ignominy, but almost totally extinguished with the speed of lightning.
Like I said, I’m not enthusiastic writing today, and I wouldn’t know if I yet possess any iota or modicum of faith, not even the minute muster seed like faith do I have in the redemption of Nigeria, not with our cash and carry judiciary that have since proven to be more anti-people in disposition, daily showcased by the nature of judgements passed mostly in recent time, such judgements wherein one begins to wonder if indeed they are meant to strengthen or further dampen the morale of the people. Another like it, we seem to cherish as a country the bastardization of values than we care for its preservation. Much like the more older we get as a country the more foolish we are becoming, hence it’s truest to assert that we have a fundamental flaw as a country; and this fundamental flaw is responsible for our lack of cohesive progressive bond, the bond that is capable of making us tap into our vast human capital as a country to move forward.
A tiny crop of very demonic and heartless individuals who go by the bogus title of leaders seem to have divided this country among themselves, in such a manner that each with their devilish grip on the jugular of the country continue to gradually strangulate her, while sapping her of her naturally endowed potentials, those who are lurid among the tiny crop of these evil men took it upon themselves to ceaselessly and repeatedly violate and uncontrollably rape her, while the gradual strangulation is ongoing. How on earth would one faced with such height of aggressive mental and emotional torture from sadistically flawed characters and buccaneers survive, let alone replenish? For them nothing else matters, except to take turns to either rape her or beat her the more to the stupor of submission; which either ways is not of any pleasant experience at all. Little wonder they take turns at going in to her without recourse to her consent, and you hear them chant “it’s my turn”, shameless oldies, they kept re-circling themselves, by so doing blocking the chances of the emerging leaders with good conscience, good judgement and better ideas for the resuscitation and sustenance of the country not to get any close at all; hence they circumvent the system to perpetrate themselves in office or continue to handover to themselves at the detriment of the country and her citizens.
For the great and indomitable Nigerian youths, I salute your courage, resilience and tenacity, again I urge you not to be dampened or demoralized irrespective of the ugly narratives that’s daily becoming our ignoble identifiable trademark as a country, but rather to sustain this momentum for positive change which you have resoundingly proclaimed loud and clear, the tempo should be maintained and consolidated upon no matter what it takes; in like manners, you can only be rendered irrelevant and incapacitated only via the deliberate submission to your traducers and the instruments of your willingness to concede defeat by consent, as no one can make you inferior without your consent, hence I implore you that you should not slow down, do all within the confines of the laws of the land and seek anchor on natural laws too which is inalienable to buttress your points and make your demands for justice and the right things to be done to correct the obvious anomalies that’s not only prevalent but endemic in our society today, the hydra headed monsters must be decimated and dismantled for any meaningful progress to be made; great Nigerian youths it’s your future that those who already ate up the past, present and intermediate stages of your parents are seriously eating up, do not by any means allow them get away with it; most audaciously the mandate which you freely gave that was stolen, the need to demand same back with every ounce of power granted you as free citizens is now more than ever before essentially expedient.
Finally I leave us with this very audacious proclamation of Elie Wiesel, in which he emphatically challenges that: “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.”
Aloha! “A luta Continua; Vitória é certa”!
©Ugochimereze
02/03/2023
