― Abraham Lincoln
As I watched the return of James Onanefe Ibori, the former Delta State governor who became the international symbol of Nigerian corruption, tried and jailed in the United Kingdom in 2012 welcomed back to Nigeria with such intense excitement and happiness from his Delta people, I concluded that Democracy is dead in Nigeria. I know that the same excitement will reign if any other Nigerian politician came back to his people with such ignominy as a thief. All that matter is for the politician or leader to share his loot with his people. I think of all the political sycophants in the last 16 years celebrated by their ethnic and regional folks, it begs the
question as to why democracy in Nigeria?Democracy is dangerous when the power to vote is placed on the hands of illiterates or functional illiterates who really do not understand the consequences of a failed democracy. Isaac Asimov stated that “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’” Such is applicable in Nigeria, where there is a cult of ignorance, and it has always been so. The strain of anti-intellectualism is pervasive and has been a constant thread winding its way through Nigerian political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. There is not much difference between the uneducated and the educated regarding democratic principles. Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education (Franklin D. Roosevelt).
PDP destroyed Nigeria’s nascent democracy. The foundation of Democracy in Nigeria is referenced through Nigerian experience of PDP rule. Therefore as corrupt and anti intellectual as it represent, so goes Nigerian understanding of democratic expectations. When you think of how much the Federal and State governments under PDP rule borrowed and stole and worse, refused to prepare Nigeria for a future when the golden days of oil will no longer be present, you have to wonder why they can even complain of the present government slow progress towards arresting the economic crisis of the country. Nigerians expect miracles to happen; a wand, or God performing miracles over night and they wake up in the morning to see that the Naira is equal to the dollar or Euro and they can go back to their unearned flagrant ways. Nigerians actually believe that the current president is the impediment to Nigeria’s glory as a powerful economic giant. They absolve themselves from the crisis and they absolutely refuse to look at the data or completely ignorant of the fact that the last government of Goodluck Jonathan borrowed about $50 billion at a time when oil was at its highest market level of over $100 a barrel, even using borrowed money to pay government salaries. Nigerians during these periods lived on borrowed money and high oil returns and enjoyed the falsity of a dependent economy. Developed countries borrowed Nigeria money because Nigerians spend it on imports from these countries. Nigeria could not and cannot feed without food import in a country with abundant green vegetation where the illiterate farmer in the village is more productive than a Nigerian graduate.
TODAY THE PROBLEM IS: HOW DO YOU CONVINCE A DEPENDENT POPULATION TO NOW WORK HARD AND EARN THEIR WAY RATHER THAN LIVE A LIFE WHERE THE GOVERNMENT OPERATES ON SUBSIDY AND BORROWED WEALTH? A lot of Nigerians will not buy local products but rely on imported goods which require foreign exchange. Unfortunately, the ones who have nothing to contribute to the economy use social media to vent and at the end make no contribution. To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers.
Nigeria can learn a lesson from Charlie Chaplin who articulated the following: