I am starting out in a traditional Nigerian way of greeting
people on a particular occasion even when not a strand of hair on your body agree
with such greeting. I wonder why a man who hasn't eaten nor has any hope of
getting food in the morning would walk past me and say good morning; in
fairness, there isn't a thing good about the morning except for other hidden
theological things like it’s good to have life but then we still ask, how many people
wish for a life without food? Hypocrisy!
That said, Happy Democracy day.
Yes, today marks 13 years of democracy in Nigeria counting
from May 29, 1999 when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo took the oath of office. While
it is natural for people to always have different views as to how well we have
managed this democracy, there would always be a meeting point on certain issues
bothering on governance in the last thirteen years.
We should place side by side what we are now and what we
were post 1999. I think it won’t be enough to just hold on to the need to have
a democracy without doing this comparison. While I am not an advocate of a
military rule, I have always told my audience that when leadership is true to
her promises and listens to her people, it won’t matter the nomenclature given
to the leadership but because we as a country seem to have lost touch with true
leadership, we get to hide under name.
In my opinion, the most important thing to celebrate today
is the free 24 hours we have which is of alternate benefits to different
people. For the employed, it’s a time to spend with loved ones and stay out of
the mostly unrewarded labour. For the unemployed, it’s a time to fraternize with
their employed mates who can at least stay at home for a day. Besides this, we
have nothing in the real sense to celebrate except we want to quickly adopt the
half a loaf principle.
Government has not just the responsibility of performance
but also reassurance, let the people see that you are on top of your game. That’s
not what we have here in Nigeria. The celebration has been called off today
again like the Independence Day celebration because of the fear of the unknown.
That’s the democracy we have.
A democracy that overnight transforms elected officers into
demi-gods once the electorates cast their votes; it is not to say the votes
actually count in the first place. We have a democracy where those who suffer the
consequences of bad leadership are the people who have actually fought to put
the leaders in place, where what we get after every attack are weak and
never-to-be-redeemed promises.
I am just certain there is something crazy about this
demonstration but would love to have your take on it too.
Let’s take a quick stock:
Health Care Services
Education
Job Creation
Road infrastructure
Security
This is not of the many articles that sets out to nail
anyone to the cross but calls out to our subconscious. Lets every reader do an
appraisal based on his or her understanding and then score our leadership
character in the last 13 years.
The importance of this is that we have to leave the era of “Falana
said” or “Fawehnmi said”, we should be able to say for ourselves based on what prevails
around us, things we have heard of and confirmed, things we have seen and those
that we feel. Let not your emotions run haywire, be as realistic as possible
and you would be shocked how much you have endured in the name of making this
democratic experiment work.
Take out time also to look at behavioural make up the kind
of leaders we have had and still have; that should also help.
I have my opinions of all of these and my opening remarks should give you an insight..
May I just appeal to you that we take this test and drop a
feed-back?
STOP PRESS:
Just when I was about to publish this on my blog and
facebook, I got a message on my old blackberry that the prestigious University
of Lagos, (UNILAG) has been renamed after the late. Moshood Olawale Abiola.
Interestingly, it is possible to just ask whether or not MKO
Abiola deserves such honour, to that I would say, yes, he does. What about the
timing and choice of school? I may want to take time after now to think about
the rationale, but what comes to mind right away is that it won’t be enough for
Mr. President to think that would get him our votes!!! If my memory isn’t
failing me, there’s a polytechnic in Abeokuta, Ogun State that already answers
that name. Could I be missing something? MKO Abiola all of a sudden is GEJ’s
new found hero?!
