NIGERIA'S UNDEMOCRATIC DEMO-CRAZY

By: Aminu Ahmed

As a strong advocate of a better Nigeria, it is with a heavy heart that I post this update.

When General Abdussalami Abubakar announced Nigeria's return to democracy in 1999, there was a lot of jubilation all over the country. Nigerians were apparently discontented with the high-handed manner soldiers were rulling the country.

As a boy then, I didn't know what democracy was all about (haven being born in the much dreaded SAP era), all I knew was that KAKISTOCRACY was not, still is not, ideal for Nigeria.

Fourteen years later, Nigerians have come to realise that the democracy they had agitated for is nothing short of the kakistocracy they had abhorred. A case of what the Hausas call [Ba a rabu da Bukar ba... an haifi Habu].

When we were agitating for democracy, we thought we would have the one defined by Abraham Lincoln as "a government of the people, for the people, by the people". We didn't know that we were going to have OLIGARCHY -- a government of the few, for the few, by the few.

We thought we would have a democratic government with three arms, namely the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. We didn't know that we were going to have an undemocratic government with three arms, namely the execu-thieves, the legis-looters and the judi-cheat-ry.

We thought we would have the kind of democracy practised in UK, U.S, Germany and other western democracies. We didn't know that we were going to have a disguised kakistocracy.

We thought we would have a democracy where credible, free and fair elections will be conducted. We didn't know that we were going to have a demo-crazy where elections will be conducted based on what Malcom X referred to as " the ballot or the bullet" approach.

We thought we would have a democracy with multiple political parties. We didn't know we were going to have a demo-crazy with a single (yes, single) political party. This is because PDP has overshadowed the other parties.

My fellow countrymen, there's nothing to celebrate. We still have a long way to go.

IT'S NOT YET UHURU! 

 
*Aminu Ahmed is a graduate of Accounting from Bayero University, Kano