By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Democracy has become a game of blackmail in Nigeria.
It is only in Nigeria that some characters are making the mad magic of believing that there can ever be democracy without the presence of democrats.
It does appear that the Nigerian politicians and their toadies are quite desperate to eviscerate the normal rule of law that ought to be the hallmark of a true democracy.
Nobody, no matter how highly placed, should be allowed the impunity of suborning the due process.
The current issue of the ruling party running totalitarianism in the name of democracy is a clear and present danger. It is even celebrated in certain quarters that the president in a so-called democracy can do and undo like an emperor.
There are no checks as there are no balances, only the pathetic showcasing of naked power in all its immorality immodesty.
It has to be stressed that the only difference between military rule and democracy is the presence of the legislative arm. After every coup, what the military sacks is the parliament while the executive and judicial arms are allowed to still be in place.
Now the parliament is nowhere to be found, and the head of the class is a bumbling clown.
Of course this serves the intents and purposes of the authors of democracy as diabolicl dictatorship.
There are some commentators who aver that attention should be paid to pressing issues in the country such as changing the constitution instead of wasting time on insisting on the proper conduct of democracy. For me, the crucial issue is that there can be no greater damage to the constitution than the imperial compromising of democracy.
The ground rules of democracy ought to be in place for this country to ever crow in the comity of nations about being democratic. The sad matter is that our ruling politicians are exempt from the rules of mere mortals, and we claim to be practicing democracy. It’s an act of shamelessness to break the rules simply because one is beholden to the sacred cow syndrome that is known as the Nigerian Factor.
There appears to be no end in a very dark tunnel cloaked by ethnicity and religion.
When General Ibrahim Babangida and his fellow arrangers in the military decided to draft General Olusegun Obasanjo into the presidential contest at the inception of civil rule in 1999, all the ground rules were broken with impunity so as to have their way. The drive obviously was to ensure that no law should stand in the way of Obasanjo becoming the president. It’s akin to the dictatorship of democracy, whence impunity is law.
The attitude of the military to the return of democracy in 1999 could be decoded from General TY Danjuma’s statement that he would go into exile if Obasanjo was defeated in the 1999 contest!
Curiously, when Obasanjo undertook his Third Term plot to perpetuate his tenancy as Nigeria’s democratic president, the selfsame General Danjuma thundered: “We did not fight the Nigerian Civil War for one man!” Talk of Nigeria’s democratic presidency as war booty…
Of course we do get to learn everyday that our politicians have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. It conduces to the phantasmagoria of the land where democracy is orchestrated via dictatorial fiat and abject totalitarianism.
History teaches that even this too shall pass…
Let’s end by recalling the damning words of Oliver Cromwell when he sacked the Rump Parliament of England on April 20, 1653: “It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.
“Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money. Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God.
“Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? Ye sordid prostitutes, have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.
“Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.
“I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place. Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble (mace) there, and lock up the doors.
“In the name of God, go!”
