TDThe annual observance of Democracy Day in Nigeria is a mockery of democracy. It’s an occasion to mark the hypocrisy of democracy. It is hypocrisy because there’s discrepancy between what democracy promises and the lived experiences of Nigerians. Every government in Nigeria suffers from accusations and counter-accusations of hypocrisy of democracy.
The 1999 Constitution as amended is not a democratic document. It’s a decree written by feudalist military generals totally alien to what democracy is all about. We the Nigerian people had no input in the constitution. Anocracy is a hybrid form of government that mixes democratic and autocratic features. It allows for some public participation but lacks strict institutional checks and balances. This is the kind of democracy practiced in Nigeria characterized by manipulated elections, weak rule of law, and shifting power dynamics.
In anocracy, government holds multiparty elections, but the state heavily restricts the opposition, controls the media, and constraints civil liberties. Nigeria holds elections every four years, but the system lacks institutional constraints to prevent the ruling party from entrenching its power through election rigging by vote buying, by offering rice, gari and kulikuli, money, and other ridiculous forms of bribery to voters.
The political process is not democratized enough to allow for democratic competition. For example, only the corrupt, the rich, and the powerful have the financial resources to contest for political office. The nomination forms to contest for political offices cost millions of Naira far beyond the reach of the poor.
In our democracy, there’s nothing like separation of power. The National Assembly- House of Representatives and Senate- are mere rubber stamps of the executive.
The Nigerian democracy does not guarantee our children the right to learn in a safe school without being kidnapped or killed. Their teachers are at risk of being abducted and slaughtered at any moment.
Our democracy doesn’t allow freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of peaceful protest. Government critics and dissidents are hounded like game animals and carted into jail. Nigerians cannot peacefully protest without being arrested or shot by the police.
In our brand of democracy, our youths are denied job opportunities. Majority of them have been unemployed for years. Our senior citizens died while waiting to collect their legitimate pension. There are no provisions for healthcare. Citizens cannot afford hospital bills, prescription drugs, and other medical services. Our democracy legalized corruption. The corrupt ruling elite (CRE) swims in opulence while Nigerians who elected them die everyday from poverty, hunger, disease, and homelessness.
Our form of democracy gives right to Fulani terrorists to unleash genocide on Christians. The freedom of movement guaranteed by democracy is curtailed by Boko Haram and kidnappers who strike at will and at everywhere.
Our criminal justice system is a complete farce. It is corrupt, expensive, discriminating, painfully slow, and full of double standard – one for the rich and one for the poor. More often than not, justice is delayed and denied.
Paul Sartre, the French philosopher, emphasized importance of actions over promises: “Commitment is an act, not a word. Every word has consequences. Every silence, too.” President Bola Tinubu’s address on Democracy Day is a hollow ritual. It’s hypocritical. It’s empty meaningless noise. It is Anocracy Day, not Democracy Day!
Bayo Oluwasanmi; blessings@gmail.com
