It is just as impossible to achieve equalization in wealth as it is to achieve equalization in abilities, but legal rights must be equal among those who live as fellow-citizens in the same state. The law can hold a community together in harmony without resort to any form of coercion on one condition only – that the justice embodied in it is the same for everyone, for the rulers as well as for the governed; only then will it command voluntary acceptance and obedience from all; it will otherwise cultivate a sense of disrespect and outright revolt, making coercion necessary for the maintenance of order.
The use of force as a means of maintaining order has been the rule, without exception, during the days of colonialism and throughout our existence as an independent nation. This has culminated in the emergence of a culture of violence in all aspects of everyday life in the country – political murders, police brutality, extra judicial killings, kidnappings by secret agents, robberies (armed and otherwise), inter-communal strife, ethnic fighting, area-boysing [and bossing], ritual killings, assassination, arson etc are all direct products of lawlessness that runs through the veins of the nation right from the highest office to the school children that sometimes assault their teachers and burn the classrooms to ashes. What moral authority do leaders who rigged elections have to tackle these anomalies that are fast bringing our nation to ruin? We cannot allow this malady to continue getting in the way of our dignified life [present and future] as a nation; we must all put our hands together in a TRUESAID to bring an end to this disgraceful enslavement of our people.
Our laws may not be described as draconian, but they have definitely been tilted in favour of public functionaries who impose on the people laws which they themselves do not [have to] obey – especially by the inclusion of the immunity granted to them. We must be governed by worth; by leaders who are not driven by the acquisition of wealth at all costs and at anybody’s expense; by leaders who embrace the values they preach and whose lives stand tall before their fellows as a code of conduct; by leaders that are held accountable to the people – leaders that can be hired and fired whenever found wanting in their service to the nation. This can only happen when the leaders are actually elected directly by the people.
THE TOP-DOWN TRADITION
The world has been conned into believing and, as a matter of fact, virtually accepting that freedom and equal rights are synonymous with democracy. Wherever you find a community holding itself together, you will find that the bond results from common interest and not from the absence of divergent opinions and desires. The moment the word democracy, as generally understood and toted around, is applied to the affairs of any cohesive community, it is expected, and thus unduly compelled, to split into numerous conflicting “parties” to satisfy the conditions demanded by the intentionally misconstrued and successfully sold vile definition of “democracy”. It defies all logic that a community must thus pit its otherwise cohesive members against each other before qualifying as a democracy, defeating the very essence of true democracy – good governance in accordance to the wishes and aspiration of the people.
No one outsider can determine what the wishes and aspiration of a community are better than its members. This cogent argument, therefore, holds the key to our approach in the search for a sustainable dynamic system of self governance that can cope with the fast track changes – including objectionable naked greed for the accumulation of wealth, super power aggression and oppression – within the emerging global village community.
Again looking at the dynamics of the history of power structural changes that our Nation has come through – from three (3) regional governments to thirty six (36) state governments and over seven hundred (700) local governments to match – one cannot help but conclude that the drive to satisfy the aspiration of all the diverse (again and again) elemental communities (especially the proverbial minorities) of which the country is made, has all along been the major factor militating against large – for want of a better word – “power tussle” blocks. Any proposal for reform in the political institutions must therefore incline to further devolution of power from all centers – all tiers of government – to community level in the most sincere, dignified and just manner so that real power will reach the hands of members of the community elected by the community to serve and not to lord over it.
From the days of colonialism to this moment the political process has always been hurled down from the top to the bottom – by the British unto the natives; by the political parties of the 1st (thru’ the last and the “incumbent”) Republic as well as the intermittent military dictatorships onto the downtrodden mass of subdued Nigerian masses – and the citizens were only laden with voting, in sham elections, for parties each with akin agendas drawn [actually cloned] “on their behalf” by the annoying anointed few.
One might argue that top-to-bottom was the best option due to the level of development of the citizenry during all this period of “growing up”. If the level of development has not been stagnant, there is no earthly reason to suppose that the development of our political institutions should remain dormant – just so the totalitarian dictatorship of the oligarchy dressed in the attires of lie-lie democracy may continue to engage every single community of our nation in an endless rat race lai-lai!
Our people throughout the country are now spoiling for and are capable of deciding what is best for them and must be given the chance to do so before they – God forbid – are pushed to the wall and made to seize it the way they best know how! Some of our frustrated brethrens are already taking a swipe at it – at a great cost to our nation and the democracy we are prevented from freely nurturing.
THE BOTTOM – UP OPTION
“Democracy is like the experience of life itself – always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested for adversity.”
(Jimmy Carter Speech to Parliament of India June 2, 1978)
In order to avoid the harmful effects of a proliferation of national parties, it will be desirable for you to work out specific criteria by which their number would be limited. Indeed, if there were means to form government without parties [emphasis mine], that will satisfy the Supreme Military Council.
(Gen. Murtala in his address to the Constitutional Drafting Committee)
“Politicians used to manipulate the two religions in the past, but this coming together is a historical issue that concerns all of us. There is a general sense of concern and anxiety in the nation, but we should have hope when there is a God that can alleviate our fears.”
(Archbishop J. Onaiyekan at Inter-religious conference – 3rd April 2007)
“We have taken the position that our destiny as Nigerians is one and we are determined to pursue it together in unity, for we believe that only the best is good enough for our nation. We expect Nigerians to freely choose those who will lead them, safe-guard their destiny and ensure their collective well-being.”
(Sultan S. Abubakar at Inter-religious conference – 3rd April 2007)
Nigerians are speaking loud and clear in demanding for change – not change for the sake of change alone, but because the status quo and the high price in huwoman suffering is unacceptable in principle and unbearable at this stage.
The time has come and the game is up; the time to change the faulty power structure to suite the Nigerian setting and its people of great multilayered diversity; the time to end divide-and-rule and to put our differences to advantage; the time to plant our Nation of a million communities, like a tree, to take nourishment from its own harmless roots – the people – acting in unison under a constitution they can call their own; the time to place the cup – the people’s cup of yearning and hope for good governance – bottom-up!
What our nation needs is to borrow a leaf from the city-states of classical
This will bring our people to the departure point of mimicking the West, which has reached such level of sophistication that its citizens can vote from anywhere in the world while we are still grappling with the problem of polling violence, vote stuffing or even out-right disappearance ballot boxes – a pointer to the necessary condition of the rule of law that is totally lacking in the conduct of all affairs of the Nation at all levels.
It may be difficult to imagine at first, but the only way to avoid this drift towards anarchy is to “tinker” with the electoral laws to allow true [direct] democracy (all representatives elected at community level for all [concentric] tiers of government) to take root. Major amendments to the constitution can be decided by the directly elected representatives. Constitutional conference is not suggested here for the simple reason that members have, on all occasions in the past, been selected according to wishes and whims of powers unrepresentative of the people.
At the end of the day, when the people’s constitution emerges, the scramble culture that has plagued our journey to true nationhood would have been dealt a death blow along with those who think they have a divine right to sell Nigeria to virtually any bidder and plunder its wealth; to enslave Nigerians and, as kind masters, stuff “bitter pills” down their happy throats; to unashamedly perpetrate a condition of immense suffering throughout the length and breath of the nation – right under the nose of the free world!
Those, and there are many, Nigerians who believe in the capacity of our people to trudge along until the TRUESAID we are embarking upon defeats all forces of evil – internal or otherwise – working against the interest of our nation, are not under any illusion that this enterprise shall exact a tremendous measure of sacrifice to counter the forces of evil that are hell-bent on destroying our nation.
No betta starting point for the TRUESAID than for all genuine and sincere lovers of justice and fair play to converge on this humble proposition so that some alternative shoot of democratic governance may grace the Nigerian polity and turn it into a land of happy hard working people devoid of hate and scramble for [perishable] power and wealth – a sure and true alternative to bitter pills.
