I am amused whenever I hear oyinbo people talk about sustaining democracy in Nigeria. Surely, they do not know us. Which democracy? It is true that what they sold to us (or are trying to sell to us) is democracy by western democracy. And that, in simple terms, means government of the people, by the people, for the people. But they have no idea what we are practising. If they think it is their brand of democracy, then they deserve an award for being so credulous. Tell me, what is democratic about voting someone into office who you cannot vote out when you do not want him anymore? What is democratic about selecting rascals at parties’ primaries who must win elections by hook or crook and deliver local, state and national treasuries to their parties? What is democratic about having voters’ registration machines in private houses (and I believe in party secretariats) when you cannot find a place to register on the street? What is democratic about unearthing large scale fraud in government establishments and rewarding its perpetrators with juicy appointments? Every time we usher elected officials into our polity with pomp and pageantry, I really do not know whether to join in the jamboree or weep. I was not around during the first republic, but I was old enough to compare what transpired in the second republic to the little I was taught about democracy in the secondary school.
I remember vividly my uncle grinning from ear to ear one evening during the 1979 elections. He was simply ecstatic. “This is the first time I am enjoying the fruit of this thing they call democracy,” he said. “I pray that God would spare my life to enjoy more of this!” Well, what was the fruit? Five naira was a lot of money at the time, and a young man in the village who was vying for an elective post was going around distributing money to all and sundry. My uncle got five naira! I cannot remember if the young man eventually won the elections, but that was the first time my uncle, a fifty-year-old at the time, was enjoying the dividend of democracy. He was not bothered about the deplorable state of the only road in the village. He was not bothered that the taps that used to bring water to the village had gone dry. He was not bothered that there was no electricity in the village. Nobody made reference to what the young man was expected to do for the community if he was voted into office. No one raised a question as to what he was going to the local council to do. It was enough he had settled as many people as he could settle. He could thereafter help himself to the treasury and no one would bat an eyelid.
I remember an intending legislator in 2003 who took bags of rice to a police barracks, to be distributed among the officers’ wives. Of course, the top officers’ wives got a bag each with five hundred naira. The younger officers’ wives got less. Needless to say she won the elections; she even became a chief whip subsequently. And that has been the trend in every democratic dispensation. Those who have no conscience and want to loot the treasury simply look for the gullible few to settle with peanuts. These then constitute an army of terrorists and defenders of the truth who would do anything to ensure that their benefactors win elections. And once they get to government, no one can remove them except through foul or diabolical means. That is our brand of democracy.
Now some of the old horses who have perpetrated this deceit over the years are employing new ways to continue their trick. They hire jobless young men, make them sign ridiculous undertakings and sponsor their candidacy to any position of influence where they know they can siphon public funds. These funds are then put at the call and beckon of these political godfathers by the young men once the get to office. As long as the young men dance to the tune of their godfathers, all is at peace; otherwise, there is trouble. Recently, I attended a seminar organised by an international organisation for women in politics. One of the speakers was a highly placed government official who said she saw nothing wrong in godfatherism. In fact, she was a beneficiary of such a gesture. She recounted how she helped install the wife of a top serving police officer in public office because that was the kind of person they needed to silence the opposition. That, to her, was mentoring. She went on and on that the journalists at the gathering could not but take her on.
The annoying thing is that we have vibrant intelligent young men and women who have what it takes to rescue this country from the abyss it has been plunged into; but the powers that be, the same old foxes that have spoilt the vine all these decades, will not allow them to get close to the corridors of power. Somehow, I was encouraged by the fate of the third term agenda. For once, I thought we had found the solution to the bondage our illiterate and semi-literate rulers have held us in for so long. Although that defeat of evil was by default, I felt we could use it as a springboard to make a point. I started trying to wake people up from their slumber and make them change their sidon-look attitude. This country belongs to all of us. We can make some difference by at least going out there and voting for our preferred candidates. Election rigging or not, we can have what we want if we vote and also protect our votes. But the voters’ registration exercise seems to be a ploy by the ruling class to thwart all that.
As a rule, people are required to register where they live so that they can vote during the elections. Apart from the fact that a good number of people have not been able to register, I reckon that half the number of those who have registered did so in places so far away from where they live that going to vote on election day would be impossible. Of course, those were the only places they could find registration centres. So if you register and cannot vote, it is just as good as not registering. The only reason such people made frantic efforts to register then was just to avoid being penalised for not having a voter’s card. In some sense, we are back to where we started from: you are not a threat to anybody if you will not or cannot vote. Period! And whether or not you vote, there will be elections and results will be announced. Never mind that most eligible voters have been technically disqualified. Let me say this is our brand of democracy. Or what else do you call it? Until we decide what we really want for ourselves, whatever system of government is imposed on us from above or abroad will be circumvented by the powers that be – the few who have nothing but ill-gotten wealth to subjugate the rest of us.
I am not a prophet, but I know that things will not remain like this forever. Soon, and very soon, the people of Nigeria shall have what they deserve: a government of the people, by the people, for the people. If indeed the country belongs to all of us, then we must refuse to be subjugated by a few, whether or not they are civilians.
Source: Nigeria Village Square