Beyond June 12 Democracy Day

Political differences aside, when a leader does something good, I expect him to get his due credit. In all truth, President Mohammadu Buhari got it right with June 12 being declared as national democracy day. I commend him for accomplishing effortlessly what his predecessors could not do for reasons best known to them. Goodluck Jonathan was close to doing it but somehow lost his nerves.
While June 12 is not all about Chief MKO Abiola, the recognition without doubt immortalized the memories of MKO as the symbol and hero of our democratic struggle while President Buhari unwittingly elevated his credential as an apostle of democracy.
While he basks in the glory of the moment, I will further encourage him to imbibe all tenets of democracy, especially with regards to respect for rule of law and human rights, free and fair elections. It’s a contradiction to note that it was the military that had organized our freest and fairest election while under a democratic rule we just emerged from the worst election in history.
I expect the president to be the chief respecter of the constitution and the judiciary by obeying the several orders of the courts with regards to Col. Sambo Dasuki and other political prisoners held by the regime. The detention has become politicized and we must not allow him to suffer a slow and premeditated death in custody.
The president must respect the principle of Separation of Powers. This advice becomes necessary in view of various attempts in the past to use executive powers to undermine the legislature and judiciary. We risk enthroning a full blown dictatorship if the expanding powers of the president remain unchecked. Great leaders are always willing to be little and therefore do not need absolute powers. A true democrat does not become the law but is subject to the law.
The assault on the judiciary and the desperation to enthrone a pliable and amenable National Assembly with subservient leadership is a worrisome sign. We saw in pictures where a member of the new leadership of the National Assembly was kneeling in genuflection before the President. The president is neither an emperor nor kabiyesi for the other arms of government to prostrate before him. If that picture of the Deputy Senate President did not embarrass the president, we the people are deeply embarrassed on his behalf.
Thankfully, the presidency has said that it does not need a rubber stamp legislature as no meaningful progress can be achieved with a legislative arm that is a mere appendage. Democracy requires critical thinking and robust legislative oversight which from every indication will be lacking from the 9th National Assembly except but for a miracle.
I will again urge the president to see the abnormality in pluralistic democracy where the lesser amount of votes gotten from people of a particular religion and ethnic group are used as justification for oppressing, persecuting and marginalizing them. This unfortunate practice has become a new order under this regime. Those who disagree with some policies of government are not enemies that must be hammered or bludgeoned. Critics are like a mirror. They reflect and bring out the alternative view that helps informed decision making.
No matter how we pretend to be politically correct, we must recognize that some parts of Nigeria are not fully represented in this government. As things are, no Igbo man is within an ear shot in the corridor of power. Politics of exclusion should not have a place in our society. No one can convince the Igbo that they are not being persecuted and marginalized by this government. No one will convince the Igbo that they are being treated as equal partners. No one will convince them that the civil war has ended and that they are fully integrated in Nigeria. No one will convince the Christians that there is no widespread agenda to kill and exterminate them in some parts of Nigeria.
The beauty of democracy is that people are allowed their choice and to freely vote according to their conscience. The winner that emerges from such democratic contest has the duty and obligation to ensure that no group is left behind. The democracy we are seeking to promote through June 12 will die if the ruling party and the president continue to single out and punish any zone for voting their conscience. Without choice ,democracy is dead.
Those supporting and justifying the current aberration because it suits them now should realize how we came about the sorry state that we are in today as people without morals and values because at a time in our history we conveniently invented the doctrine of ‘if you can’t beat them, you join them’ rather than stood against corruption.
Evil persist because good people keep quiet . I will continue to talk because Nigeria makes me cry because of her too many lost hopes and opportunities. A lot of people say the country is irredeemable, that corruption has permeated so much into her arteries to the extent that it will be impossible to curb corruption in Nigeria except everyone of its over 180 million people are fumigated or incinerated, so that a new breed of human creatures with no memory of the past is planted here This is probably exaggerated because I know we still have a Noah somewhere. That we don’t know the good ones doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I will call on the good people of this nation to rise and denounce evil wherever it exist.
We are a nation under siege with bandits and terrorists on rampage. Our plethora of security forces has no clue about who the culprits are or they are playing politics with our security hence all the misinformation and disinformation. While the C-in – C informs a bewildered nation the killers are foreigners, his ministers will liken them as our brothers driven by poverty and lack of education.
In-fact the governor of Kaduna state reportedly admitted paying the bandits to buy peace for his state, yet Kaduna has not known peace. And just recently the Zamfara State Commissioner of Police said he will prefer negotiations with the bandits. Whatever the government want to do about our current situation, how they want to do it is no more our concern. Let them do all that is necessary to stem the tide of insecurity in the land. We risk breaking up into smaller nation states if we are not able manage our being a big nation. The alarm bell is sounding and we must avoid another genocide or civil war. Beyond June 12, Nigeria needs a serious conversation so that we can talk about our future as a nation.