Democracy Day 2013: Celebrating mediocrity?

I know certain persons will chastise me for having the courage or is it temerity to describe the celebrations of 2013 Democracy Day by some states as mediocre. But I only asked a question, “if we are celebrating mediocrity?” The tragedy of our national development is that many people hate to be told the truth. And without entrenching and ingraining the truth in our national consciousness, we are doomed. Going by all that has happened in the 14-year history of our current democracy, then it is only a fool that does not see the writing on the wall.

My assessment of our performance as a democracy since 1999 was hinged on what one could see and perceive. I did not base it on any clannish or selfish platform. It was an assessment that stemmed from conviction and belief. We may have recorded some flashing successes under President Goodluck Jonathan, but that is a drop in the ocean compared to the expectations of Nigerians and the international community. 

As the giant of Africa, the expectation has been that by now Nigeria should have been self-sufficient in electric power, food, security, employment and infrastructure. But what we have currently is a mockery of our position in global affairs.

As the 6th largest producer of oil in the world, it is the expectation that Nigeria should not be lagging behind in the fundamental indices of development. Sadly and going by the assessment of the World Bank, Nigeria is still many kilometres away from attaining her Millennium Development Goals – less than two years to the 2015 timeline. While small countries such as Seychelles and Senegal have advanced impressively in this regard, Nigeria is still grappling with basic demands of the initiative. In other words, we are still at the foundational level when we should be rounding off the entire programme by now.

What many of us, probably, did not know or pretend not to know is that Nigeria is a sick nation – suffering and bleeding under the weight of corruption, ethnicity, nepotism, crimes and religious fundamentalism. I wrote in this column last month that if Nigeria had been a human being it would have bled to death. Everything points to this position. Which other nation under the sun, if not Nigeria, would have survived the pillaging and looting of treasury that Nigeria had gone through in the past 30 years? None as far as my memory can carry me!

Therefore, it is a miracle that despite all these self-inflicted problems, it still exists as a united nation. There is no question that some Nigerians, for reason that borders on greed and clannishness, would want Nigeria to die. What other interpretation can any person give to their volatile utterances, threats and even actions? From East to West, North to South – everywhere is infested with the virus of criminality. It is Boko Haram in the North, Niger Delta militants in the South, OPC in the West and MASSOB in the East. What are these sectional groups fighting for? Is it greater autonomy for their people or the self-centred interests of a few? Which?

Kidnappers, armed robbers and pen-robbers, scammers, ritual killers, cultists, child-traffickers, and other evil men and women have overrun the land – worsening the already hopeless situation. It seems everybody has assumed responsibility for his own security. This is true, because there is no Nigerian of note who does not parade a retinue of security men wherever he or she goes. Those who have no access to official security personnel hire private security guards or settle for members of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence. The reason that almost every Nigerian seeks security cover is because of the level of lawlessness we have at present. Death is no longer a big deal in Nigeria; which means it is easier to die than to live.

I read a recent story that tore my heart. It was an incident that happened in Lagos last weekend, involving two contending groups of youth on the Island area of Lagos. The story had it that the two youth groups had assembled for a football exercise. But along the line, an argument broke out as to which of the two groups owned the land on which they had assembled for the football practice. Tension rose and within minutes hell was let loose as they clashed. They used dangerous weapons on one another and when the dust had settled six of them lay dead, with several others severely injured. Now the question is: From where did they get the dangerous weapons (knives, cudgels, daggers etc.) they used. Or did they envisage there was going to be trouble and armed themselves beforehand? I have asked these questions because I am worried about the degeneration of morals among the youth of this country. If people could be killed so easily during a friendly football practice what then will happen in 2015 when politicians, out of desperation, may arm the youths to assist them in realizing their electoral ambitions? This development portends grave danger for our nation and fledgling democracy.

Not only that: We read of the recent deadly incident that took place in Eggon Local Government Council of Nasarawa State in which some security personnel were eliminated by a dreaded cult – Ombatse. They were murdered in cold blood for daring to confront the cult. Regrettably, these innocent security men died in the line of duty and for a nation that has no value for human life. What will compensate for their loss? For the first time there was no reprisal operation after the incident. Kudos to the police and men of the security service for their restraint! However, my fear is that such docility might embolden other miscreants to toe the same infamous path.

What the security outfits whose men were felled should do is to fish out the perpetrators and punish them. They should not be allowed to get away with this heinous crime. It is not enough for the director-general of SS to openly declare that the perpetrators had been forgiven. What the cult committed was a crime which should be punished in accordance with extant laws.

I have cited these incidents to underscore the level of crisis that our dear nation has been immersed. It is the view of many an analyst that the forthcoming national elections in 2015 might be volatile and compromised. One of such analysts even feared that if the elections were allowed to hold that Nigeria would be blood-soaked at the end of the day. I wouldn’t want to dismiss their views as alarmist because there are ominous signs everywhere that all is not well with Nigeria. If the situation is allowed to go on unabated then we are in a very serious trouble.

But something in me tells me that Nigeria will not boil over in 2015. Things may be rough today, but tomorrow looks better. I am glad that the President has bared his fangs to deal deadly blows on terrorism and other crimes. The declaration of emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa is going on well and by the time the chips are down, terrorism might have been brought to the lowest ebb, if not exterminated.

Let me, however, warn: We should not because we are winning the war on terrorism (with the pounding of the bases of Boko Haram) then lower our guards. We should rather intensify effort to ensure that those crimes tormenting our nation and its people are totally annihilated. Not only crimes. What about infrastructural decay? We need to design a master plan to foster even and faster development across the country. 

 Nigeria, as it is today, is an eyesore. The roads are impassable; power supply is epileptic: many of our graduates – churned out in their thousands annually – are either not employed or unemployable; food and water supply is inadequate for the millions of hungry mouths that groan for it; our hospitals are few in number and lack basic equipment and drugs, forcing some Nigerians to seek medical care abroad; a majority of Nigerians live in abject poverty and penury yet Nigeria is not a poor nation; injustice and inequality rule our land, making the rich richer and the poor poorer; our universities and other tertiary institutions look like secondary schools without adequate equipment for cognitive, skill, and moral development; housing is no longer a necessity but a luxury to many Nigerians; and, above all, most of our leaders are apathetic to the sufferings of the people. As if to add salt to injury, many of these incompetent leaders are angling to come back to office in 2015. What a tragedy!

It was in the midst of these woes that some state rolled out the drums to celebrate. Celebrate what? To the best of my knowledge, what they rolled out the drums to celebrate was mediocrity. I make this assertion because I know there was nothing on ground to celebrate. Now let me ask: Can any of those celebrating swear that what he achieved in the last two years was commensurate with the billions of naira received? I am sure none of them can take such an oath since the gods might strike him dead. If they tell me that they rolled out the drums to celebrate their bloated bank accounts, then, I will doff my hat for them.

Nigeria has reached a stage in her advancement that some of the inanities our leaders engage in should cease. How would a leader who has stolen his people blind have the boldness to walk the streets unperturbed? This is unbelievable. It can only happen in Nigeria; it is outlawed in other climes.

For Nigeria to survive, we need a national reorientation, a new constitution that will outline the way we should be governed, extermination of crimes, provision of functional basic infrastructure, re-equipping and restructuring of our tertiary institutions to bring them at par with their peers abroad; boost agriculture to provide more food for millions of hungry Nigerians, and destroy the bug of ethnicity.

Again, the new constitution must make provisions for the streamlining of the powers of the executive to curtail the growing incidents of abuse of office occasioned by the leverage the constitution gave to it. Immunity Clause, Security Vote and the like are some of the provisions of the present constitution that encourage high-handedness, corruption and self-perpetuating tendencies. Similarly, I do not see any need for the continued retention of some clauses that divide instead of unite us. These obnoxious clauses should be abrogated and replaced with more people-driven clauses that advance the cause of national development and democracy.

In the same vein, we should design a process of assessing each elected leader, involving the masses whom he is called to serve. It is not enough for a leader to emerge, go into office, achieve nothing and walk away unscathed. That is not fair. When a leader has compromised his position, the proper thing to do is to call him to order and sanction him. Our current leaders do as they like because nobody challenges them. Painfully, even the masses who suffer under the weight of their profligacy and maladministration are benumbed and lack the courage to speak out for fear of vendetta. This should not be the case in a democracy.

This is why I commend President Goodluck Jonathan for the mid-term report he presented to Nigerians on Wednesday. It is now left for Nigerians to digest the report and give their verdict. Each elected leader should be made to give account of his stewardship, at least, periodically.

As for those celebrating when they have nothing concrete to show for it, they should desist from their deceit and treachery against their people. They may think nobody is seeing them, but God who sees everything, everywhere is watching them. They may fool some people some time, but not all the people all the time. Evil has an expiry date: at the nick of time their sins shall find them out and they will be taunted and disgraced.

Our democracy is on course anyhow. There is no doubt about that. Nevertheless, it behoves every Nigerian to play his part in ensuring it is not aborted midway, which is the plan of the enemies of Nigeria.