Nigeria Should Embrace Social Change Not Celebrating Democracy Failure

"It is relatively less expensive to manipulate elections than embracing equity and justice''-Uche Okeke.

Another democracy day is here. Nobody knows how much it costs the government to celebrate this occassion anually. No doubt, one of the country's unending litany of wastes and  grand ruse for citizen manipulation for business as usual,  while the majority of the citizens wallow in abject poverty. To a great majority of Nigerians, Democracy is routine theatrerical election every four years- 'amusement and confusion'. Election period is the only time that politicians engage ignorant electorates to buy their votes off them and use them as 'authoritarian thugs'. Elections are not expected to be free and fair.

The truth is there is NO democracy in Nigeria despite acquiring democratic institutions. What we have is just a post military- political system designed to keep them in power permanently while manipulating the rest of the society with lies, propaganda, bribe and bullet to destroy anyone who disagrees.The system is sick driven by ruthless individuals each pursuing their own interests-families, friends and associates. On a daily basis what we witness is "frustration, disappointments, human actions that are 'outrageous, immoral and wicked'.[Understanding Classical Sociology-John A Hughes, etal,..]

 We have just seen a new report by anti-corruption civil society group -Transparency International on Unaccounted funds described as ''Security Votes''. According to the report Nigeria government spends about $670 million dollars on Security votes- "a relic of military rule , mainly disbursed in hard cash and nominally released for dealing with unexpected security issues". In the words of Kathrine Dixon; Transparency International's director for defence and security; "the security votes is one of the most durable forms of corruption operating in Nigeria today"- [Anti-Corruption Group says Nigeria expanding use of opaque $670million 'slash fund'-reuters, May 28 2018]. Its worthy to note that defence takes the largest share of the country's budget till date.

There are many other global reports on insecurity, rule of law, human rights abuse, refugee, migration, HIV/AIDS, education, healthcare services, electricity and other infrastructure,high cost of doing business, lack of access to capital, terrorism, African Development report on poverty, National Bureau of statistics report on unemployment, etc. The Founder of Microsoft. Bill Gate says Nigeria is one of the worst places for child birth.

 We have seen the report on Senators wages as the members of the House of Representatives have declined to make theirs public. Some of these legislators also receieve state pensions and other allowances in their various states. Nobody knows about the wages of the Executives and this is replicated among the three tiers of government, yet jobs not created, pensions are not paid and the various governments cannot implement a living minimum wage, etc.

Democracy in Nigeria is exploitation, discrimination, oppression, exclusion, inequality, poor resource management, corruption, lack of accountability and transparency, no citizen engagement, wastes on white elephant projects, lack of regard for the rule of law, and constitutional checks and balances, kidnapping, killings, selective justice, violent repression of civil liberties and minority rights, opposition clampdown, poor public services including infrastructure, cult-like political party system, Government control of democratic institutions, etc.

 Today, it's worst with the Mistake of Destiny; domination-'reassertion of traditional rights 'instead of reforms, the peril of the herdsmen. The current populist government is totally opposed to ''revolutionary change'' despite 'inequities and injustices' in the system. Its motto is ''unity and continuity''. The government is playing political football with restructuring which was election promise to win the last election in 2015. The  ruling party's position now seems to be restructuring after the next election in 2019. Everyone knows this is not an honest point of view.

The purpose of democracy is to improve the human condition-poverty alleviation, human security, human happiness and human freedom. What's the point of democracy if its not achieving this objective and overseeing a fair and just society?.

In the Golden Age our society needs changing for stability, peace and prosperity. There is urgent need to restructure this dysfunctional political system to ensure greater devolution of resources and responsibilities to create more opportunities for ordinary people especially at the local level. There is no more need for a bogus political system that concentrates economic and political power at the centre-yields only losses, inequality, insecurity and instability. Thinking needs to change. All the societies that have taken this route are peaceful and prosperous, they celebrate democracy everyday.

In a heterogeneous society like our own, there is urgent need for adjustment to address the needs of the 21st century. Our idea of democracy should be emphasis on equity and justice, creativity, individual freedom, human dignity and individual autonomy. In the words of Professor  John A Hughes, "Social change is very important and necessary to eliminate social inequality and address numerous social ills in the society".

We should use today's event as stock taking event to reflect on the issues confronting us as a nation. To celebrate democracy we need people of expertise and experience to be incharge and have the political will to carry out the much needed adjustment. In this regard, we can celebrate democracy on a daily basis. Read More: http://www.theleadprojectfoundation.com/2018/03/nigerias-democracy-and-its-crisis_27.html

Uche Okeke.