Thoughts on Nigeria’s democracy

What we have in Nigeria at the moment is not democracy per se. It can only be described as “packaged politics”. Democracy is supposed to bring absolute freedom but such freedom has not been in existence in our dear country. Those who command wealth and power are the ones who determine the level of freedom usually to the detriment of the poor.

Ours is a democracy where the powerful have better food on their tables, better health facilities than the downtrodden, better transportation, better clothing, better education, better home and freedom from humiliation and intimidation. A democracy where the masses are starving and serving without the quid pro quo. A democracy where the poor can not provide for their families because of lack of financial empowerment. A democracy that encourages prostitution among young girls . A democracy that places imbeciles side by side with professors. A democracy where our graduates are okada riders. A democracy where the masses eat what they can get and not what they desire. A democracy where what you know in terms of education and skills do not matter, what matters here is who you know. A democracy where leaders are not elected by the masses but selected by the powerful. A democracy that subjects the masses to unavoidable poverty and abysmal squalor.

But, are Nigerians hopelessly devoted to the supposed democracy or were they miserably created to die in the supposed democratic environment ? Are those in power having problems noticing the lucid expressions of distress on the faces of the masses or are they deliberately forcing Nigerians to a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens their most basic freedoms?

From 1999 till date, events have shown that most of our leaders have elevated their parochial personal interest above national interest. For example, evidence abound that the 1999, 2003 and 2007 general elections were marred with irregularities. The one of 2007 supervised by Maurice Iwu has been described as the worst. The security men were used to concoct figures It was not the test of the electoral will of the Nigerian people .

The practice of democracy in Nigeria has gone awry and that is why many politicians in Nigeria are out to kill and loot the treasury.

According to Ayikwei Amah, “ the beautiful ones are not yet born.” How can they be born when the ugly ones refuse to die ? How can Nigeria’s democracy be refined when we keep recycling leaders who have become old and unproductive. How long would this situation linger on in Nigeria ? What would Nigerians do to bring the necessary reform in the system ? How can we effect the needed societal change?

Our roads are bad, our education system has deteriorated, while thousands of students are graduating every year without job opportunities. Who will lead us to our cannan land? Who is the Messiah that will take us out of Egypt?

Oh God, the masses are suffering day and night. Who is the Moses of our time that will bring the desired change to our land? Can President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua bring the desired solution to our suffering ? Is Yar’Adua our Moses?

Olayiwola Adedapo Fire,
National Co-ordinator,
Operation Save The Oppressed,
Ekiti State.

Are we ready for these fires?

When the World Trade Centre was attacked some few years back, the first set of people that appeared on the scene of the attack were the fire fighters. When a plane crash happened recently in London, the fire fighters were also the first people that responded and appeared at the airport. When the same event took place in Tokyo, Japan the fire fighters responded and saved the situation. But can the same thing be said of Nigeria? It appears we are ready for everything but not emergencies. The truth is that, no matter how positive our thinking or planning is, we must make room for emergencies and not until they happen.

One great man said that while planning that we should put up one mindset that "whatever may go wrong will go wrong". If we have such mindset, I do believe most of the emergencies would be taken care of. Nobody builds a house, shopping mall or open market having in mind that it would be gutted down by fire immediately after completion. But we have seen houses, cars, shopping malls, corporate and private multi-storey buildings and many markets razed down by different degrees of fire. In most cases, it appeared that the people who built those houses never thought or factored fire outbreaks into their plans.

We all know that if you light a candle or lantern in an open place or inside the house, air from our fan, our mouth or the environment can put it out. When a car or house is on fire, we need fire extinguishers or the help of men of the fire service to put it out.

There are different degrees of fire and fire outbreaks. Each of them needs different techniques or equipment to curtail. We have seen fire raze buildings and there was little or nothing the fire fighters could do about the situation . Many would attribute their inability to put out the fires to obsolete equipment, inadequate personnel, late response, inaccessibility to the building on fire, lack of technical know-how on the side of the fire fighters and the degree of fire outbreaks.

It is said that, the more unrealistic our ideas appear, the harder it is to attain goals. It looks like the government or the relevant authorities find it hard to attain goals in the area of fire and emergency management because our ideas appear to be unrealistic. Life is only a mirror, what it finds in your heart, it reflects back in your circumstance. The heart is reflecting back neglect or lack of genuine interest to tackle fire outbreaks.What is therefore needed is genuine interest on the side of the relevant authorities. Many issues have been politicised.

Of recent, fire has ravaged many buildings, markets and property running into billions of Naira and many lives have been lost to the infernos. There was little or nothing our fire fighters could do to salvage the situation.

Do we, as big as we claim to be, have enough helicopters for the police not to talk of the fire service? We are building mega cities and even some places that used to be rural areas are becoming cities. But do we have the fire service that can effectively manage or tackle mega fires in those cities?

Arinze Alinnor A.,
P. O. Box 17985,
Ikeja, Lagos.