By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
It brings tears to the eyes when one comes to the harsh realisation that our ruling politicians are more interested in keeping power in 2027 than rescuing the kidnapped schoolchildren in Oyo State or pledging justice for their beheaded mathematics teacher Michael Oyedokun.
All the talk is about winning the 2027 elections while the fate of the kidnapped pupils and their teachers is treated as an inconsequential side issue.
Nigeria has indeed come to a very sorry pass where propaganda is seen as the way to go instead of securing human lives.
Some of the vile characters even post on social media that they would prefer to be killed by Fulani bandits than to lose power to the old enemy!
The ultimate damnation is that if the bandits are somehow captured they would instantly get rehabilitated and reintegrated into the federal forces with the tag of repented terrorists.
All this is being done in the name of democracy when in actual fact these politicians are championing the cause of hardcore dictatorship.
Democracy has thus become a game of blackmail in Nigeria.
It is only in Nigeria that some blokes 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 amid all the kidnappings and beheading and general insecurity.
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 while doing next-to-nothing about protecting life and property as demanded by the constitution.
Yet it was in this country that the late dictator, General Sani Abacha, revealed that if insurrection lasted more than 48 hours then the government’s hands must have been in it!
The organs that ought to put the government in check are neither here nor there.
There are no checks as there are no balances, only the pathetic showcasing of naked power in all its immorality and immodesty.
It has to be stressed that the only difference between military rule and civil rule is the presence of the legislative arm in a democracy.
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 buffoon.
Of course, this serves the intents and purposes of the authors of democracy as a diabolical 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.
There needs to be an effective leader to put to effect the inescapable issue of the restructuring of the country for effective governance.
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 kidnapped kids are still wailing in the bush while so-called adults are dwelling on rigging elections and singing like parrots: “On your mandate we shall stand!”
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 utter 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 transformation of dictatorship to 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!
These blighters keep running from their shadows.
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…
Now Nigeria’s civil war leader has released a book of fictions as his autobiography.
Of course, we do get to learn every day 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.
The so-called democracy has grown to this day when someone with righteous indignation can pronounce with all the afflatus at his disposal: “It is my turn to rule!”
But now that he has grabbed the power, what is he doing with it?
The kidnapped schoolchildren are still crying in the bush as demonic bandits keep burning their bodies with hurtful cellophane drips melted by fire!
All the rage for the leader is about retaining power in 2027.
History teaches that even this too shall pass…
Let’s end by recalling the words of the then American President John F. Kennedy on March 13, 1962: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist and author