The 1986 Noble Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka puts it well when he said, "The man dies in all, who keep silent in the face of tyranny."
Based on this cowardice that has engulfed us, many have taken to being mawkish towards a devastated government, some growing livid and even taking bellicose postures as if they are going to visit the government with mayhem in order to have their rights given to them, only in the safety of their own homes. Few others upon being helpless and hapless have taken to religion but only as an opium.
This article is therefore meant to re-awaken the learned and opulent that have frivolously compromised their consciences at the expense of their future generation; taking up the role of squealers in order to satisfy their egoistic interest.
Others are those who kept quiet, swallowing silently the bitter pills, lest they join their fore fathers. I wish that all of us may rise as true Nigerian citizens and say "NO" to structures that have been rendered unjust by unfit personnel, leave off selfish interests, fight for the future of our subsequent generations with self-abnegation and together eradicate this hydro-headed monster, corruption and bad governance in our country.
Abraham Lincoln, a popular renowned erstwhile President of America said at Gettysburg battlefield that: "Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people." In like manner,
Roosevelt Franklin in his address to his fellow Americans in 1932, after being sworn in as President said: "I look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms: freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear."
However, if what we have above are definitions to reckon with, it implies that we have another notion of democracy, and perhaps a "Made in Nigeria" democracy. A glance at some structures in Nigeria and recent trends clearly indicate a misconstrued form of democracy, unstable government and in fact, "personal", "family" and "ethnic" democracy. Our government does not treasure the four human essential freedoms, which are at the heart of democracy. The purported freedom we claim to have is only a sham.
From North to South, East to West, Nigeria's battered bureaucracy is trailed by a rancid smell of dung. Many of her structures are regarded as mired, delusive and wallowing in squalor because they have failed the citizenry. Nigerians have almost exhausted their patience in discharging their duties.
One of such structures is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) charged with the responsibility of conducting elections in a credible manner, in order to ensure equity, understanding and fairness in electoral processes and matters.
One would begin to imagine if such a body even exist in Nigeria when our elections are packed – full of frauds and rigged "to the blind mans seeing". Being reliably informed and having observed with keen interest about what had happened in our past elections, especially the last April 2003
elections that saw the incumbent into power, I felt sorry for the people.
The hands of INEC officials were filled with money and other goodies in order to overlook surreptitious movements and certain manipulations that would be made. Making fools of us, they riled the whole nation into a state of hullabaloo in order to perpetuate their evil plans. And as if it was not enough, poor masses were hoodwinked into going to vote, thereby denying them their franchise. People have observed that politics is now a game of "survival of the fittest".
Unspeakable is the germane body, the nitty-gritty of our economy, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Prior to the change in their leadership, it was reported by Tell Magazine, Nov. 17th 2003 edition that out of what started like a casual conversation during a game of golf, the former Group Managing Director (GMD), Jackson Gaius Obaseki signed a $3 million contract with Eni (AGIP), Chevron / Texaco and Conophilips over a second liquefied natural gas project to be located in Brass, Bayelsa State and other similar cases of non payment to the nations foreign reserve by the leadership of the organization.
It is obvious that our economy is rendered comatose because our leaders use it for jamboree. Without passing through necessary formalities as good democrats, Gaius Obaseki went to sign agreement worth more than three million dollars!
This ugly trend even raises questions of confidence in the so-called Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) charged with the responsibility of checking such excesses.
If we are to open another can of worms, it is also suspected that one of those appointed by the Presidency does not hold a Secondary School Certificate. Besides the allegations of financial misappropriation, NNPC have been accused of being a haven of corruption and embezzlement. An instance for this development was the recent missing of billions from NNPC to the Nigeria foreign reserve as reported by the Federal Ministry of Finance and some other funds being lost to illegal operation of oil wells by some top members of NNPC board, top politicians, government officials and members of the military hierarchy partaking in the bunkering mafia of which panels have been set up by the President to clear the ground.
Furthermore, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Process (PRSP), which is run under the Economic Policy Coordinating Committee (EPCC) headed by the Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, it was meant to assure high level of participation among Nigerian citizens but the dubious mark it carries lies on the fact that the poor masses have not felt the impacts. Even when it has been funded and supported by multinationals and foreign agencies like the World Bank, it has not reduced the high level of poverty in the land, instead it has increased rich people's wealth and exacerbates the masses meagre resources.
According to Tell Magazine report of 15th September, Ibim Sermnitare reported practices going on in his office, which gives room for veritable suspicions. In an interview with Osunsade, the second in command in the committee after the Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, he was asked as to whether he could render a summarized account of what they receive monthly and roughly how they spend the resources. In reply he said that government normally offers N2 million monthly, but that he could not account for the expenditures. To show the parlous state of affairs in his office, when his co-workers were approached, they flipped his
"Pandora's box" open. They reported that he collects money from the government and donor agencies for the same project. He was
accused of lack of transparency and impropriety in discharging his duties.
Upon seeing the future of Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP), The National Poverty Eradication Project (NAPEP) was instituted by President Obasanjo. Since then, almost the same group of people continues to benefit and gain from their dividends. While they gleefully announce to the public that they are embarking on projects to help the poor out of poverty, the same poor people they talk about are there in the streets uneducated, bemused and suffering from poverty and hunger.
The poor are not seen in projects for the poor instead, one finds the rich people struggling to make decisions and influence policies for the poor to
adapt and obey.
Another issue at stake is that corruption at the high level by the President Olusegun Obasanjo and his pet project: Presidential Library Project in Ota, which they dare not like to hear as the fundraising, was forced on the Nigerian people to make in order to "belong" and "Chair". An act that is not supposed to exist within the ambience of a
democratic government.
In fact, justice which is defined as the quality of being fair and just has to do with legal preceding the paradoxical nature of law in our nation, is conspicuous such that it cannot be hidden from the
masses. One may be tempted to ask, "Where is justice when those at the helm of affairs embezzle funds for the public good, thereby making their pockets and bank accounts reap the dividends of democracy?
Where is justice when the populaces are deprived of their right to vote leaders of their choice?
Where is justice when the seats of the Central Bank Governor, Auditor-general, Accountant General and Attorney General, Group Managing Directors, Managing Directors, INEC Chairman, Inspector General of Police, DG – State Security Service and many other sensitive posts are occupied by those of the same orientation with the Presidency?
Where is the fair play when people unscrupulously clamp on the rights of others?
We shall continue to have an berated form of government and democracy, recalcitrant military personnel as long as we continue to be resilient, accepting all bitter pills, uncivil treatments and
unjustified deprivations meted out to us; unless we rise above this attitude of "absolute calmness" and cowardice.
It is a fact that we have been threatened by war, unstable governments and even death since after Independence, not because we are the worst set of sinners or bad people, but because we are bad
managers and are lacking in the single principle of good governance.
For us to progress further as a nation, and as a people, we must embark on a reconnaissance mission to the den of those hoodlums that threaten our justice and peace. We are naturally endowed with virtues of justice, love and peace and this should not be denied of us. The old Nigeria has failed and the new Nigeria that we hope will emerge, would hang on the pivotal point of
justice, if we are to succeed…"
The national ethics shall be Discipline, Integrity, Dignity of Labour, Social Justice, Resourcefulness, Tolerance, Enterprise and Patriotism."
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