By Odumodu Gbulagu
What we practice in Nigeria today is no longer democracy as we know it to be: government of the people, by the people and for the people.
We have moved further apart, and It’s now “demonstration of crace” as the late Afrobeat King, Fela Kuti puts it.
This crazy demonstration has never been seen elsewhere in the world, only in Nigeria.
Our democratic institutions and processes have been bastardized, yet some of our people are applauding it.
Due process and constitutionality are not even considered in anything again as they do not matter.
I have never heard of budget padding anywhere in the world, but it happened in Nigeria.
Homes of judges were raided Gestapo style in the middle of the night.
Their doors broken down and houses ransacked without due process.
Their wives and children harassed, manhandled and intimidated.
Some people justified it and called them corrupt.
Mask wearing and mean looking security men laid siege on the National Assembly for no just cause, yet section of the country were happy calling them criminals, forgetting that laws were been broken.
Innocent until proven guilty doesn’t work in Nigeria anymore.
It only works when one is closely associated with the President and members of the ruling party.
Once there’s evidence of corrupt practices by a member of the ruling party, they would say technology was used to doctor the evidence.
When an opposition is accused without evidence, he will be picked up and humiliated as corrupt person.
Laws are not considered anymore, as illegalities are justified.
Chief Justice Of Nigeria was tried and convicted in the court of public opinion and media trial.
He was unjustly removed with unfounded allegations, just because he was a cog on their wheels of rigging the elections.
Now that they are done, they have quashed the case against him.
Election was militarized and the military and other security agencies even became political parties.
The only difference was there names were not found on the ballot papers.
They maimed and killed wantonly.
They aided and abetted political thugs in carting away ballot boxes.
Our electoral body introduced a new word “INCONCLUSIVE” into the Nigerian political lexicon.
They declared all the states the opposition is winning inconclusive.
They became a pawn in the hands of the ruling party.
They became dependent, and an arm of the ruling party.
The opposition that rejected the results of the elections was urged not to seek redress in court, and concede defeat.
This is how low we have gotten, and I concur with Fela that we are in DEMO-CRAZY.
This is just the demo, imagine how the real tape would be.
Nigerians prefer full blown dictatorship to Democracy.
Odumodu Gbulagu can be reached on: [email protected]
