By Iliyasu Gadu
Ilgad2009@gmail.com, 08035355706 (Texts only)
Those who have lived long enough to witness what is happening in Nigeria’s political firmament, will surely recognize the danger signals.
The head long, uncompromising moves at total political capture using all means fair or foul. It is a known fact that our institutions of state that are expected by the constitutions to be neutral in their roles in guarding our democracy now seem to have come under the undue and interfering influence of the party in power. It is not a coincidence to many Nigerians that the institutions hardly guard their independence as they are expected where and when it pertains to their roles in political and governance process.
The principle of separation of powers and independence of the arms of government as enshrined in the constitution is increasing looking irrelevant as the two arms, the judiciary and the legislature look more like the legal and legislative departments of the Executive branch of government.
Critical institutions of government like the anti-corruption agencies and the security institutions now pander to the demands of the government in power readily and uncritically without regards to their constitutional mandate and the larger interests of the Nigerian state. They now willingly chose to simply act to advance and implement the wishes of the government in most situations whether the issue or issues at stake requires them to stay neutral and perform according to the provisions of the constitution.
A glance into the state of the opposition does not offer encouraging signs either. The opposition is ravaged by individuals whose abiding interest is more about the self than the need to provide a robust platform for checkmating some of the excesses of the government in power and showing Nigerians the alternative to the dire conditions that the government has forced on us all. Some of the leading opposition individuals have gladly settled into the role of political moles and double agents offering themselves as willing agents for the destruction of the political parties they belong to and the individuals that show some backbone in standing firm for vigorous political activism.
What is happening currently in the political space is hardly new. In fact we have been there before. If you take out the names and the locations and compare the present situation with the past political trajectory of Nigeria, you will find striking similarities. The ‘’Landslide’’ ‘’Moonslide’’ proclamations of the second republic by prominent politicians of that era is uncannily bears similar intentions of the present political dispensation where we see the dangerous tendency towards coercing governors to ditch the parties they belong, to the ruling party.
The attempt at ‘’scattering’’ the opposition parties of those days through the use of willing agents inside those parties bears the same way that opposition parties are now being rent asunder through elements within the parties and through the use of the heavy hand of outside interference. The detention of prominent opposition members done to silence them and to stop or distract the momentum of the opposition is similar to what happened in the first and second republics.
The use of institutions os state power to advance partisan political interest and denying level playing field for opposition political parties and individual also happened in the past as it is happening now.
What should alarm Nigerians is that in both the first and second republics these unwholesome political shenanigans eventually led to unpalatable consequences inevitably. Just as one cannot drink alcohol and stay sober, we cannot continue with the political practices of the past under supposedly new dispensations and not reap the same consequences.
Just as in the past, those who are now dealing the political blows of the moment to their opponents see nothing untoward in what they were doing. They are dubiously attributing it to their ‘’political sagacity’’ and ‘’the love and popularity’’ among the populace. In the process they are taking things for granted and neglecting to learn the lessons and consequences of the past where it led Nigeria.
We talk glibly about democracy but we hardly act or observe its tenets. By our actions over the years we have tended to convince to the world all these years that we have neither understood what the concept means nor are we ready to even observe what it demands of us. Democracy is not just about votes or voting process. It is much more than that. Its about a construct that evolves and blends with culture, beliefs and practices over the years and generations.
In our own experience on democracy, we have proven that the culture and practices that we have do not blend with the demands and discipline that democracy entails. Where adherence to the rule of law is required we default towards rule of the ‘’Oga’’. Where transparent observance of the provisions of the constitution is called we are found diverting and tending towards convenience of the powerful and well placed in society rather than justice.
Even the voting that we tend to place more emphasis on in our selective observance of the tenets of democracy, we turn it into a ‘’do or die’’ slugfest in which rules and procedure are trampled underfoot.
We persist in thinking that we have been transiting to democracy all these years when we have not shown the inclination to even observe the minutest of the requirements of democracy.
From the objective signs on the horizon, the current political trajectory does not encourage hope that what we are going to have with the elections of next year will produce a democratic outcome. From the preparations, to the political shenanigans of the political figures in both the ruling party and the opposition, it is the incurably optimist that can expect anything other than what we have seen and witnessed in our past political experience.
This is not pessimism but the reality based on past experience and present happenngs. I challenge the political actors to prove me wrong on this empirically and practically.
Iliyasu Gadu, a former Foreign Service Officer who served at the Nigerian Missions in Germany and the United Kingdom (UK), is also a columnist with Daily Trust