2015 Election: The Madness of Democracy continues

2015 Election: The Madness of Democracy Continues
By Felix Adewumi and Marie Sambo

Since the advent of present day democracy, one will think Nigeria is ready to take its place as one of the heavyweights in the world. 15 years after, the reverse is the case; instead Nigeria has retrogressed since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in as Nigeria's first democratically elected President in more than 15 years. This election raised the prospect of Nigeria as Africa's Great Black Hope alas it has been staggering on its way forth.
Understandably, Nigeria was plunged into a downward spiral under the dictatorial rule of General Sani Abacha, who seized power from an illegal Interim Government in what was regarded as a palace coup using threats and terror to control power, until his unexpected death due to a heart attack in June 1998.
It was therefore not surprising that Obasanjo's earnest exhortations to rebuild the country appealed to Nigerians who came out in throngs to vote. Obasanjo won the February 27, 1999 Presidential election with 63% of the vote.
However, the arrival of democracy brought its ‘Demo’ and ‘Craze’ (derived from Democracy), a system of governance all so Nigerian and the madness began.

Burden of Expectations
Nigerians expectations of their leaders is so much that the weight of these expectations seemed to much to bear on Obasanjo as it was with his successor, Late Umaru Yar’Adua and today Goodluck Jonathan, that none of them are said to have achieved much.
As a matter of fact, Obasanjo came into the scene of Nigerian politics like a Messiah; he wanted to be remembered as the person who had pulled the country out of the entire quagmire it was in. So he took the garb of an elder statesman and unofficial spokesman for the African continent. But while he was doing this, the economic situation in Nigeria deteriorated, prices of goods and commodities started to rise with great speed. The days when one Naira could feed a primary school pupil is no more, wit the Naira devalued; one Naira gradually disappeared and the kobo became non-existent, new naira notes were introduced and Nigerians began to really pay the price of its democracy.
The democratically elected leaders seemed to look for opportunities to increase the rice of petroleum goods, and the cost of living began to bite harder. As these were happening, our leaders took time to explain to us that we were still at the rebuilding stage and very soon everything will come back to normal.

Impeachments
Throughout the history of Nigeria, prior to 1999 Election, only Balarabe Musa former Governor of Kaduna State witnessed the case of impeachment. His case being an isolated one at the time made the term “Impeachment” relatively unknown in the sphere of Nigerian Politics; however the case of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky of the United States of America gave it a much needed exposure. The second case of impeachment was that of Salisu Buhari, the first speaker was impeached on certificate and age falsification in August 1999. Not long thereafter, Evans Ewerem, the then Senate President was also impeached on account of inconsistency in his name; His certificate was said to bear Evan while he is known as Evans.
That heralded the era of impeachments; the term became commonly used and served as a weapon for settling scores or blackmails. All through Obasanjo’s era, he had cause to have running battles with the legislative arm of government as they threatened to impeach him on numerous occasions; he also won some battles orchestrating the impeachment of Chuka Okadigbo, Anyim Pius Anyim among others.
The impeachment era continued down to the State and local government level with some governors being impeached among which are Peter Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti, Rasheed Ladoja of Oyo, Deprieye Alaimasegha of Bayelsa and some Deputy governors with Femi Pedro of Lagos State hurriedly impeached barely two weeks to handing over, Enugu Assembly impeaching the deputy governor for rearing chicken. Obviously most impeachment cases are done without any regard for the rule of law, a case study of how 7 lawmakers in Ekiti State House of Assembly were said to have met to impeach their Speaker, or many cases of State House of Assemblies having their plenary sections late in the night or early in the morning to carry out an impeachment. None of the numerous impeachments were regarded as fair and legal, even that of Deprieye Alaimasegha’s impeachment carried illegality with the timing and way it was carried out.
The recent impeachment threat on Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti, who was just sworn in last October, Goodluck Jonathan (by the Legislator) Aminu Tambuwal, David Mark among others shows that impeachment will forever be one of the madness that will be associated with our democracy.

Corruption
Nigerians got wind of how corrupt was as well as how to get away with it or not during the second phase of our democracy. Immediately after the 1999 election it was discovered that Salisu Buhari who was chosen as the speaker had forged his certificate and falsified his age. In order to be able to contest the election the age for contestants was pegged at 30 up, Buhari was 29 but he added five years to his age and also presented a forged certificate which he claimed he obtained from Toronto. He almost got away with it but fate or should I say “demoncrazy” caught up with him.
Another case of certificate forgery followed suit, the sitting governor of Lagos state Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, was also fingered and accused of forging some of his documents, he was however able to get away with it despite the heavy evidences brought forward.
Politicians who tasted democracy may have been amazed at the rate at which they had access to money and greed set in. When news of the amount embezzled by Alaimasegha of Bayelsa became public, Nigerians expressed shock as to how an individual could have access to such a large sum of money. Nigerians never knew that was just a tip of the iceberg. James Ibori of Delta State and other eminent politicians soon followed suit. Many of the supposed leaders had found a way to siphon government’s money into their personal account using various names as cover up. Some got away with it, others got caught. In a state in the south west, a governor diverted fund into his personal account with the pretence of building a poultry farm in the state; the plan failed, he was later arrested and tried. In that same state, another governor took a World Bank loan with the pretence of beautifying the state with flowers and other adornment. He never did any of those and he got away with it.

Strikes
During the military era, the word ‘strike’ was almost non-existent in the mental dictionary of Nigerians, notable Nigerian who were not happy with situation of things held rally and protests. Many of them were arrested and thrown into detention; many fled the country and went on exile. The only groups who risked going on strike then were the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Education Sector
With the advent of democracy, strike became one of the madness associated with democracy. Like impeachment, Strike became a household name, it came at regular intervals. Many associations and unions emerged and strike became the only avenue of making demands which at times were unreasonable and irrational. The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) became the major force in the strike and had recently turned their strike to a periodic event. Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) came on board and in the past five years had turned strike to an annual event.
Recently, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and JOHESU also joined the league of Unions embarking on strike. The NMA went on strike placing a long list of demands some of which are unrealistic or unreasonable to justify putting the live of patients in danger.

Fuel Increase
There was once a time in Nigeria when 100 naira could a fill a tank of a vehicle. All these were during the era of the military, but within that period, price of fuel gradually increased until it got to 22 naira. However, between that time and 2014, the price of fuel had been increased from 22 naira to 97 naira through successive democratic governments.
With the constant increment in fuel which started with Obasanjo with an unjustified fuel increase, taking it from the twenty-two Naira per litre he met it to sixty-five Naira, and there had been strike, protest and complaint which the government refused to acknowledge.
The mother of all strike was during the January 2012 fuel subsidy removal when Nigerians came together for once to make their feelings known. Although, the strike yielded little result, the era of strike had come to stay.


Religious and Civil Unrest
Civil unrest which has long been a common factor in Nigeria intensified during the era of democracy.
Religious unrest reared its ugly head again in October 1999, to the dismay of the mostly Christian southern Nigerians. One of the northern states, Zamfara declared its intention to introduce Islamic Shari‘a law, which bans alcohol and includes such punishments as amputation for those guilty of theft. Ethnic tensions had also erupted into violence that year. To many people’s surprises, Obasanjo’s response to the massive communal and religious unrest across the country had been to use the army to control localised disturbances, a case in study of the Odi Massacre.
Asari Dokubo, Ateke Tom, Boyloaf, Tompolo and other disgruntled Niger Deltans set up the Niger Delta Militants who embarked on kidnapping Expatriates working in the area as well as vandalizing oil company properties among other acts. This was a harbinger of things to come, Nigerians did not feel the effect of the activities of the Militants as they were not targeted at Nigerians hence nobody felt a need to nip any form of unrest in its bud.
Religious unrest was also occurring regularly when killings were reported in Plateau state, Kaduna state and other middle belt states between the Hausa Fulanis and the Indigenes.
The first sign that Nigeria was going the way of conflict ridden and war torn countries started during the tenure of President Umaru Yar’Adua and that of the incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. A sect Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidwa’Awati Wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a number of bomb blasts, raids and killing of citizens in their villages and towns spread across the northern parts of Nigeria.
The sect launched attacks in the north central and north eastern part of Nigeria, increasingly becoming sophisticated and bold enough to attack a number of government organisations like police offices, army barracks. The UN building in Abuja was also targeted, a newspaper house, shopping areas and markets was also bombed in the FCT, Plateau, Gombe, Potiskum, Niger and Maiduguri States as they turned their attacks on house of prayer. Churches and Mosques were targeted on a regular basis, more recently schools have been targeted. The most popular being that of Buni Yadi in Potiskum and the kidnapping of about 200 hundred girls in Chibok that gave birth to the hash tag  Bring Back Our Girls BBOG on twitter.

Looking Ahead
As 2015 election approaches, the atmosphere is already charged. The recent Primaries held in the various political parties showed how Nigerians are preparing for the next political dispensation.
However, it is just an electoral process which will usher in the next set of political office holders, the madness which had became closely associated with democracy still remains.
16 years of democratic rule and Nigeria is not in any way better off than the years of military rules.