Democracy is meant to empower ordinary people participate in government and benefit from government, but in Nigeria, participation is limited to elections only. In most cases, their true choice of leadership do not emerge, due to election fraud and there is no accountability after elections, no citizen engagement.
Political and Economic Power is held by the few, and they are above the laws of the land. Anybody who questions their activities is an enemy of the state, that must be dealt with- gross human rights abuse. The Government is only interested in the next election instead of provision of public services including infrastructure. There is no transparency, no accountability and repression is very successful. There is this issue of threatened separation of powers.
The power holders endorse themselves and waste resources in repression and patronage politics, often using carrot and stick strategy; bribing those in a position to demand accountability from the government to endorse the status-quo. There is widespread insecurity, killings, poor public services including health and education, housing, mass unemployment, widespread poverty and inequality , and infrastructural deficit despite wealth in natural resources.
Elections are not expected to be free and fair due to repression, nepotism, exclusion, exploitation, government control of the important democratic institutions including the election office, the judiciary and the security, often marked by ethnic domination, especially in a heterogeneous society like Nigeria. What we are witnessing is mass propaganda, lies, endless online and offline manipulation to endorse fraudlent and tyranical government policies.
Today there is a new peril, manipulation by a hidden cabal using the ''excuse or fig-leaf of appeals to democratic licence'' to carry out their agenda- A.C. Grayling; (Democracy And It's Crisis). The result is extreme violence, 'development in reverse'. Current events in the country have shown the rest of the society have demonstrated firm resolve to resist any form of territorial conquest. You cannot expect a 'sound government' given the phenomenon.
In an ethnically diverse society, like Nigeria, the only solution for stability and growth is the restructuring of the current political structure. According to Professor Sir Paul Collier; there must be a ''shared value and shared identity to lift ordinary people out of poverty''. Similarly Governor Ajimobi of Oyo State, said "only true federalism can liberate Nigeria. The issue of federalism has nothing to do with ethnicity but a fight between the wealthy and poor people. The APC party promised to practice true federalism but yet to do so".
Most ethnic groups in the country now favour immediate restructuring of the current political system to address their collective development challenges but there seems to be no political will to kick-start the restructuring process as the power holders prefer the status-quo.
So what is the next move ?. Democracy in Nigeria has been made to fail by a number of causes, all of them man- made, "deliberate', avoidable, what a tragedy! , Find out more.
Uche Okeke is a Social Entrepreneur and the Founder of The LEAD Project Foundation.
Read More: http://www.theleadprojectfoundation.com/p/blog-page.html
"If democracy were properly and transparently applied democracy would truly be as Winston Churchil claimed, the least bad of all systems"-A.C. Grayling, London 2017.
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