Nigeria in a Disco Dance
Nigeria’s return to the current democratic dispensation was welcomed with hopes and aspirations. Nigerians wanted a total establishment of a democratic hold and adequate provision of the dividends of democracy. Hundreds of thousands of political actors have evolved in the last 24 years across the length and breadth of Nigeria at the local, state and national levels.
In all these years, the stronghold of Nigeria on democracy has been sustained through seven elections: 1999, 2023, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023. Some of the election years like Goodluck Jonathan’s transition to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 was predicted with doom. Behold it came and passed that we disappointed nay sayers that civilian rule has come to stay in Nigeria. At least, that is the good news 24 years later.
The second part of that expectation; dividends of democracy is where we can raise variables for argument. The fact as it stands is that most of the masses have become more impoverished than they were 24 years ago. This civilian rule has come with disguised corruption never before seen in the history of the nation.
The dividends have come, no doubt, but the national cake has ended up in the mouths of a microscopic few who have the privileges at one point or the other to belong to the ruling class or through some family ties, friendships or acquaintances.
The class that control the economy today is dominated by people who came from very poor background. In Benue State for instance, only a few names were household names economically; the Tilley Gyados and the Denen Tofis, to mention but only two I can justify.
Today, corrupt induced politicians have seized the stage and the rest is history. Instead of providing the expected dividends of democracy, corrupt ruling elites have succeeded in killing public institutions like schools and hospitals.
How many of our kids can proudly attend government owned schools at the elementary levels like some of us did before the current democratic dispensation? Why are the institutions going into extinction? The answers can be better imagined, because year in and out, there are bogus budget pronouncements on these institutions, but we are still at ground zero.
Different political elites passed through elective positions; chairmen, Governors; President; name it. The unyielding results have been the case in majority of cases like Benue. How many council areas even have makeshift hospitals and road infrastructure? Well, many of these exist only on the papers in government files. Someone told me there are Anti corruption agencies in Nigeria. And I ask, is there really any?
Currently, we the people are battling with the cost of living crisis occasioned by brutal governmental self seeking policies by our leaders both past and present. But it is democracy and whether we live or die, this too shall come to pass.
It is high time we started looking at matters of leadership and governance separately. So far, we have more leaders than there is actual governance in Nigeria. That is why we are more in a disco dance, in which the dancer rings and rolls in the same spot, without going backward or forward.
Well, I am not a pessimist. I know we will get it right someday. Maybe in the next crop of generations, who may consider collective growth against s selfish primitive accumulation of corrupt amasked wealth.
Naija, I hail oh!
