People will always tell you that democracy is the best government and so I thought, but after 14 years of democracy in Nigeria I came to the conclusion that we don't need democracy atleast for now in Nigeria and most likely Africa,

In Nigeria democracy means getting my or our own share of the national common wealth, democracy in Africa breeds nepotism and further divide the people instead of unity, since the return of democracy to Nigeria Nigerians keep getting apart and poorer they are being divided and ruled by gang of criminals disguised as democrats, there was increase in tribal and sectional militia to achieve their selfish aim.

What I believe Nigeria need is a beneovolent dictatorship for atleast the next 30 years before we fashion our own system government which may not necessarily be democracy, take a look at countries like Singapore,malasia,UAE, saudi and even south africa they are rule or are being ruled by benovolent dictators with vision for development.

Kindly give your own opinion on the need to have a benovolent dictator in Nigeria

Cheers

Singapore Leads the Good Life Under a Benevolent Dictator

Singapore has achieved the American dream, but not in the American way. It is a prosperous, clean city, with imposing skyscrapers and glittering shopping centers. The multinational corporations of the world are welcome here; you can buy any brand name you've ever heard of. The highways are lined with tropical flowers and crowded with BMWs. And at the head of this thriving free-market state is a clever, socialist dictator.

Just forty years ago Singapore was a war-battered British port on an island off the southern tip of Malaysia. It had a rapidly growing, poor, uneducated population living mostly in slums and houseboats. Singapore struggled along until 1965, when it became an independent nation with Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in firm control.

In the next twenty years Singapore's economy grew eightfold. Average income per capita rose more than fourfold. The percentage of families living in poverty dropped to 0.3% (in the U.S. it is near 20%). Singaporeans' average life expectancy is now 71 years. No one is homeless. Population has stabilized. Virtually everyone has a job. The place runs like a Swiss watch.

Lee Kuan Yew would appreciate that analogy. Switzerland is his model. Singapore Airlines aims to outdo Swissair. Singapore likes to list its statistics alongside Switzerland's (its divorce rate is one-third that of Switzerland, its per capita calorie supply is equal, its movie attendance rate is six times higher). Lee's chief economic goal is to reach the per capita GNP of Switzerland, which will happen in one more economic doubling -- about 10 years, if past growth rates continue.

To produce his economic miracle, Lee Kuan Yew has interfered with every aspect of Singaporean life. To control population growth he set up free family planning clinics. Then he mounted education campaigns ("Plan your family small" and decreed that women having third-or-more babies would get shorter maternity leave, higher hospital charges, and less income tax relief. There is a $5000 reward for mothers who agree to be sterilized after their second child. Sterilized parents get top priority for public housing, and their children get into desirable schools.

Singaporeans now accept that two is the right number of children. When I asked one woman how she felt about that, she told me she'd like to have three or four. "But," she said brightly, "I understand why I shouldn't have that many. We are a small, crowded island." In fact the birth rate has fallen so low among highly-educated women, that Lee now offers incentives to "educated mothers" to have three children or more.

Singapore requires all workers to save 25% of their salaries. Their employers match that amount (after the recession of 1985, the employers' share was cut to 10%). The workers can claim the money only after the age of 55. This enormous forced savings rate is one of the secrets of Singapore's incredible economic growth. The money goes into a Central Provident Fund, with which the government builds roads, schools, hospitals, and especially housing.

All over the city identical 16-story housing blocks rise, each with its recreation center, swimming pool, shopping center, community center, and school. The apartments are well-built and spacious. Now that there are enough of them, the government lets people tap their savings before age 55 to buy their own flats. At present 74% of families own their homes; the goal is 100%.

Anti-social behavior is not permitted in Singapore. The fine for littering is $250. Jaywalking, spitting, and smoking in government offices are also fined $250. Gambling, except for the state lottery, is illegal. The punishment for drug trafficking is death.

Recently Lee Kuan Yew declared war on smoking. During a recent Smoke-Free Week there were signs everywhere, "Stub it Out, Singapore!" In the shopping centers electronic billboards grimly toted up the city's smoking deaths, about 10 per day. Smiling teenagers roamed the streets with baskets of apples and collared anyone with a cigarette, offering to trade an apple for a pack. The percentage of smokers in the population has gone down from 23% to 13%.

I tried to find Singaporeans who are unhappy with their paternalistic government. In a week of searching, I found none. People think the regulations make sense. No one seems to fear the government; most feel they can bring complaints to it. One economics professor thought the 25% forced savings policy was too high. I asked him if he intended to write the newspapers or make a speech about it. He was shocked. He would never disrupt the social harmony, he said. He was assembling the facts he needed; then he would go make a reasoned argument directly to the ministry.

Singapore just doesn't fit the world's categories. It's a dictatorship with free speech, no fear, and no corruption. It's an economy that uses capitalist means to attain socialist ends. Singapore University scholars call it a "meritocratic, elitist, Confucianist, bureaucratic state".

Whatever you call it, by all appearances and measures it works astoundingly well -- so far, anyway. Everyone wonders, of course, what will happen after Lee Kuan Yew. Some Singaporeans are nervous about their dependence on the rest of the world for water, food, and energy. Perhaps a greater worry, though no one in Singapore seems to be thinking about it, is what will motivate the nation, what kinds of goal will there be, what challenges will Singapore put its well-organized energy to, after everyone becomes as rich as the Swiss.

Copyright Sustainability Institute
This article from The Donella Meadows Archive is available for use in research, teaching, and private study. For other uses, please contact Sustainability Institute, 3 Linden Road, Hartland, VT 05048, (802) 436-1277.

A benevolent dictatorship, no one will agree to that. Nigeria's democracy is a messed up democracy, our problem is not the democracy but how we can about being in this democracy. Nigerians did not chose to be Nigerians, they were carved out by the British and authority over them given to the least contributor of them all who proceeded to maltreat and exploit them, they are not happy in this union but when they want to leave they are not allowed to, proceed to conflict, resentment and hatred of one another. It doesn't matter what kind of government system we have as long as this is the basis of our union we will never progress.

The constitution review is not helping because people do not get what they want from it, those that are exploiting others(north) have the upper hand in these negotiations, a fair deal can only be agreed upon if everybody is on equal footing.

Here is my solution, to achieve equal footing everybody Biafra, Niger-Delta, Oduduwa, Arewa including all 36 states and FCT respectively have to be represented at a state of being in the union conference where after the meetings are done anybody who can not agree to be here be allowed to leave, that way we will hear all sides and take them seriously. As it stands the north doesn't need to hear what the south says since there is no real consequence, if they try to leave they know what happens, the north has negotiating power and many people in Nigeria are not given a fair deal.

Under the terms that are agreed a workable constitution should then be drafted, all of this should be mediated by a separate nation, I suggest the United States because:

- Theirs is the oldest democracy, they have had the longest time to deal with its pros and cons and understand it.
- Theirs is the one of the most diverse countries in the world so they will understand what it will take to form a stable and multicultural nation.
- They have experience with helping other countries draft up workable constitutions( the Japanese constitution was written with help from the United States and within 20 years Japan was the second richest country and they have never needed to amend it.
- The United States has great experience with nation building, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the United States participated in nation building in all of them and today they are world leaders.

The north will not agree with this probably, citing some silly excuse like they did before and now there is polio in Nigeria, if they do we should go on at it without them and leave them to their silliness. We cannot all be held back by one region.

Yes Nigeria is a creation of the colonialist, there is nothing wrong with our constitution the only problem we have is with our attitute and as long as our attitute remain the same even if you balkanise Nigeria there may be no changes.

Today people complain of northern dominance even if the north goes somebody will still complain within the new entity of maginalization because the so called democracy is not about development but what comes to me.

Now attitute change is not easy and can be very difficult to achieve under this so called democracy,that is why I sopport a benevolent dictator that will change our mindset from seeing ourself from southerners or northerners to Nigerians, a leader that will see religion as a personal and private business

If there is no poverty, and only prosperity like singapore nobody will talk of Biafra, Oduduwa or Arewa and even if you do the people will see you as a madman

HAH:

If there is no poverty, and only prosperity like singapore nobody will talk of Biafra, Oduduwa or Arewa and even if you do the people will see you as a madman

That is true but there is a reason why there is no prosperity, people will always be people, it is easier to write a constitution that suits them than ask them to change to suite the constitution. This in Nigeria, we are talking about things Nigeria is facing, given a different time or nation certain actions become stupid that doesn't make them stupid here.

There are many things wrong with our constitution, that is why there is a constitution review, constitutions must be tailored to the land they are meant for, you cannot ask people to conform to them, no conflict free country does., the Nigerian constitution does not take into consideration the people is meant for, it screws everybody over in one way or another and some of us don't like it. Nigeria was the work of the British, Nigerians did not have a say in the matter, the second they got their own voice they made it clear they don't want to be here and you don't let them go, resentment grows and conflict arises. The Nigerian constitution is not Gods document, it is not the end of the world if Nigeria doesn't work, it has been changed a few times already, stop your stupid and unreasonable zealotry. There are greedy people everywhere, Nigerians are not an exception, why is it then that there are countries that work?

People are told what to do all the time, whether it is in Nigeria or France, they do not do it if they chose not to, you cannot enforce a one sided law on people who never had a say in the matter and blame them when things go wrong, Jesus, what is wrong with you people. Benevolent Dictator, Benevolent Dictator, who is going to decide who the Benevolent Dictator is? Do not suggest stupid things, No matter which part of the country he comes from some one will not like it.

You people are like Hitler and Dönitz, things were not working out, everybody knew it and told them but they continued saying "no no, it must work" until all was lost. You have a problem when you cannot tell that something has failed. Nigeria as it is has failed, we either reset or split.

Do you think spliting Nigeria will bring prosperity and development ? Well I doubt cos you can take that from the way state are being governed internally, presently in many state some part are disgruntled some feel marginalized,some want to have a state of their own not for real development but to get their share of the cake.

I don't think you understand the situation Nigeria is in. Nigeria could work of course but its just the whole sharia business, absolute/extreme Islamism doesn't go well with democracy, its only a matter of time before they force it on the rest of us so when I say Nigeria should break up I really only mean the states that have embraced sharia should go. Look at the Muslim world, how many other religions thrive there? They don't allow for it and the stronger sharia gets in Nigeria the more aggressive they will be in their campaign to dominate us, they actively work against the southern governors, keeping our states down and their states are not developed, they have set up a system whereby the federal government gives yearly budget to the states, subsidizing them with money made in the south at the expense of the south then whenever the south ask for anything they complain that "it is suspicious". Its always a north/south thing in Nigeria and the Sharia Muslims haven't even started dominating us yet, boko haram is a first crude effort, they will get braver as the years go by.

The difference in the south in Nigeria is language, people overcome that all the time but Ideologies cannot be overcome and they don't change easily especially for Extremist Muslims, they have spent the better part of forever expanding by force and killing people, Sudan for one and now they have take root in northern mali by force burning schools to keep people stupid. It is irrational to expect that the Ideology will change especially since there are so little of them going to school in northern Nigeria and that is by design.