By Sharon Faliya Cham
They said "the worst democratic government is better than the best military regime."
And did you believe them?
If you believe them I don't, and here is why:
1. All the military coups in Nigeria, except that of 1966 and 1976,
were bloodless. But even when conducting local councils election in
Nigeria civilians will murder people they perceive as hostile to their
ambition and agenda. In fact, many civilian politicians in Nigeria
always arm their thugs with sophisticated weapons to kill people, and to
snatch election materials for falsification of election results!
The number of people killed in one local government election alone in
Nigeria have already surpassed the number of people killed by military
coupists in 1966, 1976 and any other coup that had any loss of life
combined together!
2. Military regimes in Nigeria united
Nigerians more than the civilian regimes. For example, Muslim military
rulers posted Christian military officers to be governors of Muslim
dominated states like Bauchi, Gongola, Kano, Borno, Gombe, etc. And in
the same manner they posted Muslims to be governors of some Christian
dominated states, and nobody complained. But today, corrupt civilian
rulers and their evil collaborators in religious corridors will always
emphasize ethno-religious sentiments for voters manipulations, which
always leave their supporters looking foolish and stupid because they
end up looting, looting and looting coupled with promoting demonic
agendas that will help sustain their looting penchant.
Here, I
must not fail to point out the fact that most church going tribes in
northern Nigeria accuse all the former military rulers from the north
and all northern leaders that are Muslims of marginalising them, but I
find it cheap just as much as the allegations contain a lot of untruth.
If those Muslim military rulers or northern leaders, as they are often
called, have wanted marginalising northern minorities then I wonder how
they could have posted Christians to be governors in states like Kano,
Borno, Bauchi, Gombe and the old Gongola state. The current Plateau
state governor, Pastor Jonah David Jang, who is now among the frontline
ethno-religious bigots in Nigeria, was posted to be military governor in
a Muslim dominated state by a Muslim military Head of State, and
thereafter posted to govern Benue state. So also Professor Jerry Gana
who is equally a frontline champion among those who always work to
divide the people along ethno-religious lines was made what he is today
by Generals IBB and Abacha but today he is among the most divisive
elements in Nigeria, always leading the orchestra choir of
ethno-religious sentiments and sectionalism.
If it were democracy
all the way someone should kindly tell me how Christian soldiers that
were of ethnic minorities could have become governors in predominantly
Muslim states! Tell me how people like Colonel Yohanna Madaki, Col. John
Madaki, Brigadier Chris Garuba, Col. Atukum, Lawrence Onoja, Group
Captain Dan Suleiman, Wing Commander James Yana Kalau, Brigadier Dominic
Oneya, Brigadier David Mark, Col. John Shagaya, etc, etc, etc, could
have governed Muslim states. At best they could have been governors only
in Benue, Kaduna and Plateau states if it were democracy, and even at
that, how many years will they take in a queue to become governors, plus
would other tribes in their own states even allow them become governors
through popular votes? However, it is common sight these days to see
people like Jonah Jang and Lawrence Onoja leading the vocals of the
marginalisation choir! As a matter of fact, there were more Christian
military governors and cabinet ministers under Muslim military Heads of
State, and most of them were from ethnic minorities. In fact, when
General Sani Abacha created Gombe state in 1996 the first governor he
posted there was Wing Commander Joseph Orji, an Igbo and a Christian!
Talk about national unity in practice! However, I mustn't forget to add
that if General Sani Abacha were alive today, and wants to contest for
the Presidency, the issues that will be brought up against him will not
be about corruption or competence or incompetence but wild propaganda
about an Islamic agenda because of his religious belief and the usual
stuff about marginalisation of ethnic minorities.
Anyone who
knows how to be a hypocrite or unthoughtful will be deceiving themselves
that the Muslim Heads of State that posted these people to be governors
in Muslim dominated states harbour an Islamic agenda against Nigeria,
which is as baffling as it is ludicrous as much as it is laughable. At
its best and its worst, it is mere falsehood and propaganda by
entrenched bigots who want to perpetuate and perpetrate their bigotry
that neither does them any good nor for anybody else.
Tell me how
military rulers who had the military power to decree an Islamic agenda
by fiat but didn't do so could turn round and do so in a democracy where
every decision must be vetted and backed by the legislature and other
interest blocs?
Pretty illogical, isn't it?
3. No military
regime in Nigeria ever stole 20 billion dollars per annum. The worst
case scenario was the charge against the IBB regime of looting 12.8
billion dollars in his eight years tenure or the 5 billion dollars
Abacha was said to have looted in his five years regime. But now
civilians have converted public funds into their personal estates or
ATMs and do "not give a damn" about it! Shamelessness and dishonour have
all become fine art, and the more shameless and dishonourable you are
the more you get applauded by stinking hands from the rotten bodies of
walking corpses that assume their walking ability to mean normality!
4. Violent crimes like armed robbery and illicit drugs trade were
effectively checked by military regimes, but civilian regimes not only
multiplied armed robberies and illicit drugs trade, they also added
kidnapping, militancy, cultism, children and women trafficking, baby
factories to produce babies for occultic use, and terrorism! Add to it
the unsavoury fact that under corrupt civilian dictators, kids as many
as close to 300 could be abducted at once by bandits in areas supposedly
under the patrol of some 20, 000 soldiers!
5. No military ruler
ever shut down any airport so that anybody should not fly except if
there was a coup, but today corrupt civilian dictators command soldiers
to shut down airports so that other civilian politicians in the
opposition should not fly, or alternatively if they are already on air
they should not land so that if the aircraft has insufficient fuel it
should crash and kill them, and not only that, we have even reached the
stage whereby a corrupt civilian dictator can order soldiers to stop
some governors from entering another state by road, and the soldiers
could even pointedly tell a governor that they would shoot him if he
didn't comply! Yes, the same soldiers that "Boko Haram" thugs freely
pass through their checkpoints in north-eastern Nigeria! Yes, the same
soldiers who cannot rescue 276 poor schoolgirls from the evil clutches
of some bandits! Yes, these same soldiers are the ones whose checkpoints
are only effective against governors that the corrupt civilian dictator
hates! Yes, the same soldiers that are chasing bombs and "Boko Haram"
in newspaper pages and newspaper vans are the ones that are so effective
against the rule of law and are also effective as "campaign managers"
in a governorship election in a little state like Ekiti in south-west
Nigeria!
6. It was never heard that Nigerian military rulers
withdrew the security cover of any of their colleagues so that they can
be assassinated, but now corrupt civilian dictators withdraw the
security cover of civilian governors opposed to them so that they can be
easily attacked by a killer squad!
7. Military regimes always
present national budgets to the nation on January 1 each year, and they
always try to implement it up to about 80% to 90%. But now, corrupt
civilian dictators present budgets anytime they like, and they hardly
implement more than 30% of their budgets, and you never ever know what
has happened to the remaining money!
8. It was said that military
regimes were against media freedom, and they even locked up some
journalists and occasionally locked up some newspaper houses. That was
true. But now, under civilian regimes, I have lost count of journalists
that have been assassinated or abducted because of investigative
journalism, and now we even see corrupt civilian dictators ordering
soldiers to look for "Boko Haram" inside the pages of newspapers and
hinder their distribution because "Boko Haram" are hiding inside the
pages! Hahaha....
O yes, I remember vividly that a frontline
investigative journalist, Mr. Dele Giwa the founder and publisher of
Newswatch weekly news magazine, was assassinated through a letter bomb
during the General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida regime in 1986. But the
point am making is, several journalists have also been murdered in the
course of this pseudo-democracy in Nigeria. So, what's the difference?
9. Under military regimes, people were known to march on the streets to
protest against bad socio-economic policies of government. Student
unions were known to be vibrant and radical so much that Comrade Labaran
Maku, the President of the University of Jos Students Union way back in
time could lead students to riot on the streets and even burn and
destroy both public and private structures. But now, under civilian
dictatorships, the police and "Boko Haram" could be deployed to
frustrate any protest and Labaran Maku could tag the protesters as
members of the opposition parties who don't see anything good in the
government of the day!
10. Under military regimes, wives of
rulers never ever invited anyone for questioning. But now, under a
corrupt civilian dictatorship, the wife of the President can hold court
and illegally invite persons for questioning over something she has no
power to exercise!
11. During military regimes, no military ruler
ever appointed the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of
Naval Staff, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of the Nigerian Intelligence
Agency (NIA) and Chief of the State Security Service (SSS) from the same
religion. But now, under a corrupt civilian dictatorship, it has
happened because of an agenda known only to the appointer and
appointees!
12. Under military regimes, we have never ever heard
an instance whereby accounts of a state government will be frozen for
personal political vendetta, but now, under a corrupt civilian
dictatorship, a drunken tyrant can just wake up one morning and order
the EFCC to freeze the accounts of a state because he doesn't like the
governor, or because the governor has factually exposed the truth about
an ongoing genocide couched as War Against Terrorism but of which it is
actually the "terrorists" that are having a field day killing people
daily while uprooting their towns and villages!
13. We have never
ever heard any military ruler training a secret killer squad abroad to
assassinate one thousand people, but we have now heard it under a
corrupt civilian dictatorship, and the signs are all there to see!
Oops! I almost forgot that General Sani Abacha was accused of having a
killer squad named Strike Force, which was believed to have murdered
Mrs. Kudirat M.K.O. Abiola. But between him and the one with a long list
of one thousand people, who is deadlier?
Anyway, note that
thousands of people from just a particular part of the country have
already died, and are still dying from attacks by what they want us to
believe as "Boko Haram"!
14. During military regimes, no cabinet
minister dared use public funds to purchase private bulletproof exotic
cars nor even spend billions of naira on private jets. But now, under a
corrupt civilian dictator, a minister can spend millions of dollars on
just two exotic cars while another can also spend billions of naira on
private jets and still enjoy the protection of the corrupt civilian
dictator!
15. No Nigerian military ruler ever traveled abroad on
official function with outrageous numbers of delegations, but now under a
corrupt civilian dictatorship, Nigeria's delegations that usually
accompany the dictator always surpass that of any country several times
over, which always results in waste of public funds!
16. During
military regimes, universities and colleges were never shut down beyond a
month or two due to strikes over funding, but now under corrupt
civilian dictators universities and colleges can be shut down for up to a
year due to strikes over poor funding while the corrupt rulers will be
busy spending public monies on private jets, private luxurious mansions,
exotic holidays and shopping sprees overseas!
17. We have never
ever heard any military ruler in the history of this country dropping
charges of financial corruption involving hundreds of billions of naira
against anyone, but now our corrupt civilian dictators can just wake up
one morning and announce State Pardon for notorious thieves and even
drop proven charges of financial thefts against certain persons for
their selfish political gains!
18. During military regimes there
were only two arms of government - the executive and the judiciary;
there was no legislative arm to make laws and to perform oversight over
the executive. But now, under corrupt civilian dictatorships, the
legislative arms of government have rendered themselves useless by
basically becoming rubber stamps to the whims and caprices of the
corrupt civilian dictators, which makes the legislative arm as good as
absent as was the case during military regimes!
In other words,
the legislative arms of government that were supposed to ensure checks
and balances to institute accountability and probity in governance at
all levels have failed woefully in Nigeria. What we have masquerading as
lawmakers in Nigeria are a mere bunch of greedy, corrupt and
intellectually lazy buffoons fawning and kowtowing to every thieving
dictator also masquerading as the head of any tier of government!
19. And what is the difference between soldiers who just walk up to the
seats of government power and seize power under the barrel of their
guns and civilians who commandeer soldiers and other security organs to
violently rig elections? They both used force, right? In other words,
they are both dictatorships without legitimacy conferred by votes from
the public, right? The 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections under reference
here.
20. The military regimes of General Gowon, General IBB and
General Abacha were accused of "not honouring their promises" to
organize elections to hand over power to civilians. But what is their
difference with dishonourable civilians who will sit in a room and trash
out a power sharing agreement to alternate presidential political power
between the north and the south, but when it is time to honour their
collective agreement the ones in opportunistic positions will breach
their own agreements without shame but with brazen impunity and dead
conscience? They will tell you that the nation's constitution is supreme
and that it guarantees them the right to contest, but they will not
tell you that the same constitution has not forbidden people or parties
or organizations from making mutual agreements that will engender
inclusiveness and peace in the polity!
21. Some critics will
usually say that the constitution handed over to civilians by the
military is not a reflection of the will of the Nigerian people because
the framers of the constitution were not chosen by the Nigerian publics.
But what is the difference between that type and the attempt to write
another constitution wherein a civilian dictator will chose majority of
delegates that suit his fancy? Example, no delegate in the so called
National Conference organized by President Jonathan was directly chosen
by the Nigerian publics. Consider also that General Babangida's
Constituent Assembly of 1988 had 563 members that were also not chosen
by the Nigerian publics whereas President Jonathan's conference has 492
members also not directly chosen by Nigerians. Which one is more
representative? Also, if the two were to have produced a constitution
each, which one of the constitutions would have been written by "We The
People"? Who voted for the writers to write a constitution for "We The
People"? What is their difference?
22. Finally, which type brings
more psychological trauma? Armed soldiers that seize political power
because they bear arms or 'bloody civilians' who arm their thugs and
miscreants with smuggled weapons to violently rig elections and then
rule with illegitimate mandates, and then be arrogantly and boastfully
lying against God that God gave them power?
That's why even if
dictatorship were to be the form of governance in nations, at least
benevolent dictatorship will be better than the corrupt and selfish
dictatorship that is malevolent.
Do you still believe them when they say "the worst democratic government is better than the best military regime"?
On a final note, if what Nigeria is currently facing under a so called
democratic regime can be attributed to democracy, then does democracy
really serve Nigeria any good? And does the rubbish going on in Nigeria
in the name of democracy do justice to the definition of democracy?
Countries like China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar and Libya
have functioned very well under benevolent dictatorships, and, in fact,
most of the great nations of yesterday and today grew from the roots of
benevolent dictatorships, and, of course, America, Britain, Canada,
Germany, Italy, Japan, France and Australia are good examples of
countries developed under functional democracies even though some of
them had their successful foundations laid by benevolent dictatorships.
Therefore, what does Nigeria really need to be properly run?
But let me contradict myself a little bit to say that democracy is
good, but the reason democracy has failed us in Nigeria is we have
allowed people who should have remained shoeless working as touts in
motor parks to get into our nation's driving seat, and after sitting on
the seat they could not bear the honour and glorious aura of the seat,
which could have probably overwhelmed their sense of propriety and
sobriety, and, in the end, their sense of unworthiness and inferiority
complex has compelled them to think they can only assert authority and
leadership by being bullish, and for anyone who stands in their way they
consider such persons as fodder to be chewed by the bull, and that's
why State Terrorism has become a weapon in the hands of such criminal
bullies.
But then, there are thorns that cannot be chewed by the
bull, and that's why corrupt malevolent dictators cannot always have
their way without stiff resistance from persons eternally committed to
principles of honour and integrity.
We as a nation all bear
collective guilt in the failure of democracy in the sense that we have
thrown overboard all the requirements that are standard in leadership
recruitment. Rather we invented for ourselves factors and requirements
borne out of our bitter souls that engender hatred for others and by
extension for the nation, for when you hate fellow citizens because of
their geography or what they believe in instead of their cultivated
capability, competence and merit, then you are merely demonstrating your
hatred for the nation, because you are all still bound together under
same social conditions without exception.
At the end of it all
you will merely have a nation ruled and governed by crime bosses instead
of our very best citizens that are symbols of propriety, sobriety,
honour and integrity, which becomes a mockery to your professed faith;
your values and your belief systems for being part of the charade, and
if you still have any modicum of conscience and self appraisal left, you
will just realize that the criminal society which you helped to install
has flatly deflated your honour, prestige and ego.
Ask a young
virgin that was brutally raped by an outlaw how she felt after she was
violated. That's how you should feel by being part of the establishment
of a society run by crime bosses.
But then, who will save Nigeria?
I am scared the current roguish Transformation Agenda has breathed some
very poisonous air that is not Fresh Air at all into the nostrils and
lungs of our once vibrant and courageous military, and now they seem to
have everything in common with the purveyor of the morally deficient
agenda.
Somehow, the solution lies with the people being buffeted left, right and center by the same rogues they adore and cheer.
