Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn
their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit
on their blisters.”
― Abraham Lincoln
As I watched the return of James Onanefe Ibori, the former Delta State governor who became the international symbol of Nigerian corruption, tried and jailed in the United Kingdom in 2012 welcomed back to Nigeria with such intense excitement and happiness from his Delta people, I concluded that Democracy is dead in Nigeria. I know that the same excitement will reign if any other Nigerian politician came back to his people with such ignominy as a thief. All that matter is for the politician or leader to share his loot with his people. I think of all the political sycophants in the last 16 years celebrated by their ethnic and regional folks, it begs the question as to why democracy in Nigeria?
Democracy is dangerous when the power to vote is placed on the hands of illiterates or functional illiterates who really do not understand the consequences of a failed democracy. Isaac Asimov stated that “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'” Such is applicable in Nigeria, where there is a cult of ignorance, and it has always been so. The strain of anti-intellectualism is pervasive and has been a constant thread winding its way through Nigerian political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. There is not much difference between the uneducated and the educated regarding democratic principles. Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education (Franklin D. Roosevelt).
PDP destroyed Nigeria’s nascent democracy. The foundation of Democracy in Nigeria is referenced through Nigerian experience of PDP rule. Therefore as corrupt and anti intellectual as it represent, so goes Nigerian understanding of democratic expectations. When you think of how much the Federal and State governments under PDP rule borrowed and stole and worse, refused to prepare Nigeria for a future when the golden days of oil will no longer be present, you have to wonder why they can even complain of the present government slow progress towards arresting the economic crisis of the country. Nigerians expect miracles to happen; a wand, or God performing miracles over night and they wake up in the morning to see that the Naira is equal to the dollar or Euro and they can go back to their unearned flagrant ways. Nigerians actually believe that the current president is the impediment to Nigeria’s glory as a powerful economic giant. They absolve themselves from the crisis and they absolutely refuse to look at the data or completely ignorant of the fact that the last government of Goodluck Jonathan borrowed about $50 billion at a time when oil was at its highest market level of over $100 a barrel, even using borrowed money to pay government salaries. Nigerians during these periods lived on borrowed money and high oil returns and enjoyed the falsity of a dependent economy. Developed countries borrowed Nigeria money because Nigerians spend it on imports from these countries. Nigeria could not and cannot feed without food import in a country with abundant green vegetation where the illiterate farmer in the village is more productive than a Nigerian graduate.
TODAY THE PROBLEM IS: HOW DO YOU CONVINCE A DEPENDENT POPULATION TO NOW WORK
HARD AND EARN THEIR WAY RATHER THAN LIVE A LIFE WHERE THE GOVERNMENT OPERATES
ON SUBSIDY AND BORROWED WEALTH? A lot of Nigerians will not buy local
products but rely on imported goods which require foreign exchange.
Unfortunately, the ones who have nothing to contribute to the economy use
social media to vent and at the end make no contribution. To make democracy
work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers.― Abraham Lincoln
As I watched the return of James Onanefe Ibori, the former Delta State governor who became the international symbol of Nigerian corruption, tried and jailed in the United Kingdom in 2012 welcomed back to Nigeria with such intense excitement and happiness from his Delta people, I concluded that Democracy is dead in Nigeria. I know that the same excitement will reign if any other Nigerian politician came back to his people with such ignominy as a thief. All that matter is for the politician or leader to share his loot with his people. I think of all the political sycophants in the last 16 years celebrated by their ethnic and regional folks, it begs the question as to why democracy in Nigeria?
Democracy is dangerous when the power to vote is placed on the hands of illiterates or functional illiterates who really do not understand the consequences of a failed democracy. Isaac Asimov stated that “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'” Such is applicable in Nigeria, where there is a cult of ignorance, and it has always been so. The strain of anti-intellectualism is pervasive and has been a constant thread winding its way through Nigerian political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. There is not much difference between the uneducated and the educated regarding democratic principles. Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education (Franklin D. Roosevelt).
PDP destroyed Nigeria’s nascent democracy. The foundation of Democracy in Nigeria is referenced through Nigerian experience of PDP rule. Therefore as corrupt and anti intellectual as it represent, so goes Nigerian understanding of democratic expectations. When you think of how much the Federal and State governments under PDP rule borrowed and stole and worse, refused to prepare Nigeria for a future when the golden days of oil will no longer be present, you have to wonder why they can even complain of the present government slow progress towards arresting the economic crisis of the country. Nigerians expect miracles to happen; a wand, or God performing miracles over night and they wake up in the morning to see that the Naira is equal to the dollar or Euro and they can go back to their unearned flagrant ways. Nigerians actually believe that the current president is the impediment to Nigeria’s glory as a powerful economic giant. They absolve themselves from the crisis and they absolutely refuse to look at the data or completely ignorant of the fact that the last government of Goodluck Jonathan borrowed about $50 billion at a time when oil was at its highest market level of over $100 a barrel, even using borrowed money to pay government salaries. Nigerians during these periods lived on borrowed money and high oil returns and enjoyed the falsity of a dependent economy. Developed countries borrowed Nigeria money because Nigerians spend it on imports from these countries. Nigeria could not and cannot feed without food import in a country with abundant green vegetation where the illiterate farmer in the village is more productive than a Nigerian graduate.
Nigeria can learn a lesson from Charlie Chaplin who articulated the following:
I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I
don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if
possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another.
Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by
each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this
world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide
for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the
way. Greed has poisoned men's souls and has barricaded the world with hate, and
goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we
have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our
knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too
much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than
cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will
be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us
closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness
in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now
my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men,
women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and
imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The
misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men
who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die,
and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long
as men die, liberty will never perish.
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders
itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide (John Adams).
