This simple question got me thinking lately. I needed to get to the root of the political plague in modern day Nigeria. Naturally blessed with riches beyond measures, comfortably sitting on major world's resources, we have continued to live in poverty and as ethnic minorities in foreign nations.
So when we go to cast our votes every four years, what are we voting for? The terrible answer is "Nothing". We vote for hoax promises of infrastructure and material gains rather than a 'way of human existence' or an 'ideology of life in itself'. We are blackmailed into false promises of infrastructural development, political positions and provisions of the basic necessities of life.
Nigeria has been robbed of its identity as a nation, its respect as home to a people but most importantly, it has been robbed of its mind. What the politicians really stole, I believe was the youthful mind of the population. They kept us in a box, stripped away all avenues for any intellectual development of the mind so they could, inevitably go on unchallenged. Although Nigerians want to think they challenge their government, the reality is that just a handful of Nigerians are asking the right questions.
Firstly, at its heart, is the question of what type of political system do we have in Nigeria. We are constantly being lied to that we operate in a democratic system. Let's clarify this error with an understanding of what a 'democratic state' should be.
"A democratic state is a system of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections."
The supreme power in most Nigerian political regimes are not vested in the peoples' interests, the power is not exercised directly or indirectly by the people as most representations do not reflect the mindsets or interests of the people who they claim to represent.
Secondly, according to the African Journal of Political Sciences, an African democratic state should exhibit four characteristics:
1. A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections.
One might choose to argue the credibility of the Nigerian elections, but let's just pretend the process is fair so we can check number one off this list. However, the real question is;
"who decides who can run as candidates in political elections?"
Yes, this is a fundamental problem in the Nigerian political system. We are not free as 'acclaimed people in a free nation' to express our political ideas. The political parties and candidates that can run are privately decided prior to suit private interests via the exploitation of the public. So why must we vote for APC or PDP? Why can't we have a new party, that is representative of the population's interests and dedicated to ideological change? Why must our state and local political seats be plagued with second grade semi educated old people who really belong in a retirement home?
2. The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life.
The median age of the Nigerian population is 18 years and the median age of the Nigerian politician is 63 years. I fail to see how the ideas of a 63 years old man can reflect that of an 18 year old. As a Nigerian youth, I do not believe that any current leader or the 360 political leaders at the house of representatives represent my ideas or my interests. We are ruled by men who still believe they are slaves to the white man as they continue to steal our nation's resources, make positive impacts everywhere else but Nigeria.
Slavery does not necessary mean chains and whips. It is a systematic exploitation of a group people by any means necessary for the privilege of another. The nation is a slave to multi-millionaire tycoons who control and distribute power, our politicians are slaves to these tycoons and foreign nations and we, sheep at the bottom of the food chain are slaves to the government. Unfortunately, we ourselves have allowed this happen and go unpunished for decades that we have come to convince ourselves that it is a culture.
3. Protection of human rights for all citizens.
Let's revisit the basic human rights that were established after the second world war. a) The freedom of religion; b) The freedom of speech; c) The freedom from fear; d) The freedom from want. Surely, you can see the joke. To say Nigerian's human rights are protected, is to say 'You are all fools and you will believe what i tell you to believe'. The freedom of religion is freedom of people, an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest any religion, faith or belief of their choosing. This freedom, to be truly implemented, fundamentally requires religion or any faith system to be separate from state and state laws. Simply, an individual should not be awarded a promotion in a public civil service office based on what God they decide to worship and our presidency should not be rotated on religious basis.
The freedom of speech is the freedom of one to voice one's opinions publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. We can choose to deceive ourselves and claim that we have true freedom of speech when in reality it is non-existent.
"How can we begin to challenge current societal norms in a way that protects individuals' rights as human beings and in a way that drives positive change?"
The last two Freedom definitions stand to address the way in which Nigerians are treated internationally when we visit or live in foreign nation. Unfortunately, our government have not seized to be slaves to foreign nations for their personal profits. Consequently, we carry this vibe with us. This is completely independent from the arguments on race and race relations. There is this special pedestal of dishonesty that is reserved for no other nation but Nigeria. It is the feeling you get from others that you are probably in this for the money. It cannot possibly be anything else but the money. They silently laugh at us. We claim to be an educated bunch but are govern by men who had to fake secondary school leaving certificates to loathe money. They laugh not at our stupidity but at how pathetic the people may be. You sell out your country for a few years supply of a devalued currency and move on to the next devil who can provide it when that is over. Consequently, we are seen to stand for nothing. A people with no identity, no morals and dedicated to nothing but lining their personal pockets.
The danger of this perception is that we are left behind in the intellectual development of the world and are most often excluded from the intelligent debates except we are needed for exploitation.
4. A rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.
We certainly have no 'rule of law' by which we abide so addressing this point would be endless. I will try to break this down so we are all on the same page. Why are Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Lucky Igbenedion, David Mark, Alison Madueke and so many others allowed to walk the country as free people, operating their businesses in Nigeria but Ibori and the bank managers were tried. The crimes are substantially the same regardless of the amount of money stolen. Or do we also begin to vary prison sentences for rapists based on beauty of their victims? Understandably, state procedures would differ, however even within states all citizens are not equal under the law. All citizen in Nigeria are equal under how much they pay for silence.
Yes. Silence is a very sought after commodity.
We believe the crucial error in society is the silencing of the people. We might be talking, but nothing. So somethings are left to slide by unchallenged because no one is asking. We must ensure that we are saying the right things. We must be ready to look beyond ourselves and be drive an open minded population to true change. Not for us but for the reputation and the existence of the future generations. We do not want to belong to a society associated with failure, shame, dishonesty and poverty. We must ensure that the power for change is with the people not a privilege few. Our futures depend on this.
Enlightened Nations is a youth platform dedicated to driving progressive change in Africa by knowledge discovery and dissemination. Please get involved by writing to Elightened Nations @ theenlightenednations@gmail.com to get involved.
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