Democracy we were told was the government of the people, a practice where at prescribed period, the electorate decides who lead them, and have the power to recall the elected leader in case of a wrong choice, that one is left to wonder if it is the same democracy we have in Nigeria, where leadership produced from elections negates the agitation of the people?
The above question was informed by an over bearing political god father, who long ago requested the total sum of a government’s income, after installing his god son in office, he supported this demand by saying. “The electorate does not matter”. Though nobody takes Him serious at the time, it sound like a big joke, but the political situation of the country tends to amplify this claim.
Many instances abound, in Oyo to start with, where Adedibu use to impose the governor, and half the state legislatures, and He can impeach the governor if he chooses, likewise, Saraki of Kwara the Baba Oloye himself, whose family tree, from Bukola, to his sister and other loyalist were governor, senator, and assembly members respectively, then the bloodline of the Lamido who held sway in Sokoto state. If the situation is now different it is only because these strong men are late.
New in the trade is the Andy Uba in Anambra, who once god fathered a man old enough to be his father, and lately Tinubu of Lagos, whose wife, in-laws, cousins, all held political offices, and branding his son for governor, and these hereditary offices was for no other reason but to serve the selfish interest of few, how can this be on the watch of intelligent electorate?
The voting in Nigeria has always followed a particular pattern, the South West always vote a Pseudo welfares party, the South East the Intellectual party, while the North votes a moderate conservative, this later perpetuate talakawani and alimanjeri system, cushioning it with charity.
It is the Conservative party supported by the North that had always ruled Nigeria, and the constant decimal is the depletion of the country, and no matter what, the same government has returned to power, raising this question, ‘does the electorate then matter?’
Things are no different in the current political dispensation, the successive government in Nigeria betrayed the obsessive aspiration of the electorate, starting with OBJ outright failure in the first term, and won the second term bid, on the back drop of millions of Nigeria undergraduate languishing under ASSU strike, rising youth unemployment, unfulfilled electoral promises, and looming fuel crisis. Another big question, if the electorate matter?
The next government, was ushered in after the ruling party had diminished the sovereignty of the country by loosing Bakkasi to Cameroun, the eventual president was out of the country and was absence for most of the campaign rally, not that he couldn’t have won with that, when his party men even win election from prison, but the worst scenario was when he was call on the telephone, “Umoru are you dead?”, his illness was obvious, yet this person become the president, little wonder the man died, but does this show an electorate which matters?
The current government inherited a government, and completed a year left in the government of the late Yar’ dua, with a seven point agenda down the drain, the campaign went on without a reference to the care free attitude of the president to be to the urgent situation of the country, besides, the foreign reserve was disappearing, oil crisis was looming, the president like magic, won with a landslide victory. Will an electorate which matters do this?
Nigeria is at the same spot it was in 2002, 2006 and 2010, a country whose visions are unfulfilled, trailing less blessed nation in advancement, a government screened away at the Aso Rock villa for the better part of three years, paying lip service to nation building, while the public poise for a seemingly showdown, poorly researched or media commentary not research at all, leading to an election, which always return the same voting pattern, and begging this question ‘will history repeat itself, will the electorate matter?’
Above everything else, will you, who are going to comment on the merit or demerit of this opinion matters? In the coming election, will the powerless conscience of the masses be traded for money, while the conscienceless power of the people in position of influence, like press, civil society, business groups, and labour, go to the highest bidder? If the same thing happens this time, the government been criticized the way it is, it is certainly because we all sell out at last.
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