DemoCrazy Day Celebration in Nigeria!

“Democracy is a difficult kind of government. It requires the highest qualities of self-discipline, restraint, a willingness to make commitments and sacrifices for the general interest, and it also requires knowledge.” John F. Kennedy,  Former American President.

The concept of democracy was born out of the desire to make sacrifices and show commitments to the entire country. In Nigeria today, the story is completely different. It is all about struggling to be in a position where one will participate in milking the country dry. The politicians in Nigeria can not sacrifices for anybody but their pockets and they have so many phrases used to encourage themselves and unjustly justify their actions, these includes; if you can’t beat them you join them, where you work is where you chop, eating the national cake etc. And now that the President is watching the members of his cabinet, friends and relatives are eating the cake in trillions, it is time to put-up a mega celebration – DemoCrazy Day!    

I used to think that celebration is for positive landmark achievements, but in Nigeria the story is different. People celebrate when in the actually sense they are suppose to be mourning! People are celebrated when in the actual sense they are suppose to be prosecuted! While some other people are free when in the actual sense they are suppose to be in the jail! Many Nigerians died because of insecurity in the country (Boko Haram and MEND insurgences), lack of accessibility to their hard-earned pension funds,  lack of good access roads, lack of access to good healthcare facilities, the list is endless. But still the president is sitting tight while innocent Nigerians kept suffering and dying.

Desperate situation needs desperate measures! So we all woke-up in the morning with high expectations to listen to the presidential address on DemoCrazy day. Thinking that Mr. President will announce some desperate steps to save his weak and decaying government. But what did we got? Another show to distract Nigerians from the main issues at hand. He started by recalling the martyrdom of Chief MKO Abiola, whose presume victory in the 1993 Presidential election and death , while in custody, proved to be the catalyst for the people’s pro-democracy uprising. And then ended the address by renaming UNILAG to become Moshood Abiola University, Lagos (MAULAG). Being the President and Commander in Chief of the armed forces he has all the rights to change or rename any Federal institution and I don’t have any problem with that. But the truth of the matter is that, bringing back the memories of June 12 election is a deliberate attempt to distract the attention of Nigerians from the real problems on ground and also from the substance or lies which the address contains. The question is, what are the steps taken by Mr. President to improve the educational sector apart from renaming UNILAG? The 27.5% teachers salary increment and the ASUU 2009 agreements are yet to be implemented by the government. Teacher’s take home pay can not take them to the gates of their various schools. The students are paying exorbitant fees without quality laboratories and other teaching materials.  And yet Mr. President is only interested in changing University nomenclature to score cheap political goals.     

Now lets look at the so-called subsistence in the address. First the economic indicators as presented by Mr. President “In 2011, our economy grew by 7.45%. As at mid-May 2012, our foreign exchange reserves had risen to $37.02 billion, the highest level in 21 months. We have stabilized and improved our fiscal regime. We brought the fiscal deficit down to 2. 85% of GDP from 2.9% in 2011. We reduced recurrent expenditures from 74% to 71% and reduced domestic borrowing from N852 billion in 2011 to N744 billion in 2012. We cut out over N100 billion of non-essential expenditure and increased our internally generated revenue from N200 billion to N467 billion”. Mr. President what would you say about the high rate of inflation caused by your government as a result of fuel subsidy removal policy? The masses don’t want to hear about figures and numbers which they will never see. What they are simply asking for is to be able to afford food, clothes, shelter, kerosene, fuel, electricity and other basic amenities. Mr. president, your citizens are suffering in hunger, they can’t afford cloths and you are here telling them about foreign reserve. Oh, are you not the one that came out last year to tell us that at a point in your life time you do not have even a shoe to wear but you struggle to get a PhD and became successful in life? Mr. President can you please tell us how many Nigerians did you put off the street without a shoe within the past one year?

Secondly, Mr. President also said and I quote “By mid 2010, the national power output was about 2, 800 MW. By the end of 2011, we reached a peak of more than 4, 000 MW. A National Gas Emergency Plan has also been launched to redress the problem of gas supply which are essentially due to poor planning.”  As far as Nigerian citizens are concern this is just another number! Within the said period, what we are witnessing is a drop in electricity output. Can someone please remind Mr. President that his government is also planning to increase the electricity tariff by June 2012. This is a fact because the minister of information Mr. Labaran Makun reaffirms that almost immediately after the presidential address, he said “there will be no going back on the new electricity tariff by June”.

Other things in the address are just mere plans and stories, which of course Nigerians are very familiar with even during the previous administrations. “Democracy means choosing your dictators, after they've told you what it is you want to hear” - Alan Coren (1938).

On the eve of the DemoCrazy Day, Mr. President and some of his cabinet members attended a Church service to pray for Nigerian DemoCrazy. During the prayers, the Preacher offered a prayerful curse against corrupt public office holders. Mr. President and his gangs in front of the cameras intentionally refused to say “amen” to the prayers, a simple four-letter word. The spokesperson for the President, Dr. Reuben Abati later respondent to the accusations by saying that the President have already exhausted the number of “amens”  he can say per Church or Mosque service. We are still waiting for Abati to show us that portion of the constitution that says the President have a fixed number of amens he can offer per service as he claimed.

During the presidential address Nigerians also saw another explanation to why it will be very difficult for Mr. President to say amen to corruption prayers! This is because, in the address he refused to address the recent corruption cases labeled against his administration. For example, the $1.1bn Malabu oil scam, N2.5 trillion of the fuel subsidy scam and N60billion that disappeared in the pension scam. Nigerians hope to have more courageous Preachers that will continue to pour down this type of prayers everywhere you go Mr. President.

Mr. President we wish you well in your effort to restructure this country, but you should also remember that you are writing history for yourself. How did you want to be remembered as a president?

"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). 



God bless Nigeria!