Nigeria's Democracy And Its Crisis Deliberate, Avoidable : We live today in a golden age, there is real hope for change in Nigeria

The approach has been :"Don't bother to think at all. Decide first, think later"- Anthony King and Ivor Crewe. Photo: Uche Okeke

Democracy failed in Nigeria because of so many factors, prominent is the deliberate actions of  'the few'- greed, power, the same people celebrated as liberators and heroes. We have our noble roads and institutions named after some of them, some of our reputable universities even honoured them, with the highest degrees in the land,. These are very ruthless people united in our collective sufferings.  Today there is a new peril, hidden cabal agenda, which further threatens our collective rights and future, perhaps conquest. This is why we must not surrender to fate. change is imminent!

Military intervention in domestic politics left sad legacies of 'corruption, poor resource management and political instability', collosial wastes in patronage politics and white elephant projects, poor human rights, repression, etc, which hunts the country till date. The result is social exclusion, expolitation, manipulation, lies, widening inequality, widespread poverty, enviromental damage, infrastructural deficit, epileptic public services, sycophancy, ignorance, insecurity, kidnapping, killings, fraudlent elections, stagnation, etc.

 This dispensation is the worst democratic experience in history- mass propaganda, routinised terror, killings, kidnapping, manipulations, lies and fabricated stories, abduction of Judges, dissent clampdown and abductions,total disregard to seperation of powers, the government and it's principal officers choose the law at will only obey favourable court orders.

There is recruitment of unemployed youths and die-hard party fans to endorse fraudlent and barbaric government policies and attack professionals online who disagree with smear campaign, name calling. We have seen ethnic minority discriminations, fraudlent local elections with under-age voters in some states underminig the crediblity and ability to conduct free and fair elections, public services are hellish with education and healthcare sectors grossly neglected resulting in mass emigration of Nigerian doctors and teachers, massive corruption in history with snakes now eating public funds-money in offices, command economy, mass unemployment, refugee crisis, etc.

 We have seen the ICC report about the killings of SHIA Muslims in Kaduna state and IPOB members in the South-East, the endless stories of horror is a nightmare. The recent horrofic activities of the herdsmen adds to the dilemma. The herdsmen described as the world's fourth terror group has history of illegal occupation and depopulating communities, yet they operate in Nigeria, unopposed. what a country!.

The corruption in the petroleum sector is beyound discription, yet the President is also the petroleum minister. The Senate President says NNPC stinks despite regime, the leading opposition party says the president has remained silent despite abundant evidence of shady oil subsidy deals and illegal lifting of crude oil, because he's desperate for re-election.

This issue of questionable terrorism and war on terror still stare us in the face, one commentator said Nigeria is now the biggest funder of terrorism through ransome payments, etc. The government blunder is endless, thanks to technology they are widely available for everybody to see and share widely. I wrote this blog post last february 2017, virtually all my observations have come true. Read More: http://www.zurumnewsdigest.com/2017/02/buhariology-significant-lesson-in.html

 For the world's best political system to work in Nigeria, it has to be 'properly and transparently applied', to provide a sound government which promotes inclusiveness, accountability, human rights and freedom protected, individual flourishing, human security and freedom which is the ultimate goal of democracy, this requires informed citizenry willing to confront the status-quo.

Ordinary people need to take action. Elected representatives also need to take action whenever constitutional checks and balances is threatened. The ruling ANC Party has just issued 48-hours ultimatum to President Jacob Zuma of South Africa to resign, there is some good lesson to learn from this, however because of pool of identity it may not happen in Nigeria, so this is one major reason for imminent restructuring of the current political structure which makes democracy unworkable in Nigeria.

 For the first time in Nigeria's history, there is now a concensus, ordinary people are beginning to ask important questions about their collective future, virtually all the various ethnic groups now want an end to this dilemma, this is very commendable. This can present a great opportunity to help put Africa's most populous nation on a new path to greatness. Nigeria can be great again with huge young population and market.

 We have been researching what has gone wrong and what can be done about it. This blog is a platform to put together some of our findings from some of the world's best thinkers which we hope will  help inspire confidence so that ordinary people can take action.

In a heterogenous society like Nigeria, the restructuring of the current Stalinist centralist political structure is one sure way to kick-start change. We must be willing to reject Autocracy in the future, we must be willing to reject the 'guns and bribes' to end this endless dilemma. Change of leadership is very important in a democracy to ensure only educated and credible candidates take charge of governance. It's been proven that civilians are better in the art of management  and civility.

Again this blog is an attempt to challenge the way people think about change. Those that benefit from the way things are will always come up with silly narratives to distort facts, people must beware. We must be willing to choose 'hope and opportunity not barbarism and horror', this is 21st century.

Thanks to the internet, today's liberation technology has  the power to completely 'revolutionise government and democracy', despite various government efforts to keep ordinary people in the dark. Today, it's possible for 'widely dispersed' citizens to receieve the information they need to make informed choices. This generation now has the potentials to make change happen.

Uche Okeke is a Social Entrepreneur, the Founder of the LEAD Project Foundation. He lives in London, United Kngdom.