WHY WE SUFFER WHAT WE SUFFER (PART 2).
By Kazeem Azeez Idowu
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Democracy is one of the greatest forms of government man has ever conceived. It is good; it is based on the ideal that all the citizens of a nation determine together the laws or actions of their state, either directly or through their elected representatives; it requires that all citizens have an equal opportunity to express their conscience and their will and in practice, "democracy" is the extent to which a given system verge on these ideals, and a given political system is referred to as "a democracy" if it allows a certain approximation to ideal democracy.
To deliberately limit ‘democracy’ to the above ideals to assess the system in my country, in simply language the Nigeria democracy has, since, ceased from being the government of the people. It is not even the government by the people. In the face of serious brandishing of expertise at election rigging, the so called ‘justice’ of the Election Petition Tribunal and the subsequent appellate courts’ verdicts, the dimension of our democracy has been successfully changed to another system of government. And there appears now, an imminent prophecy that before Nigeria can be sailed to the Promised Land, its harbor, some people must inevitably get out of the system.
Apart from the fact that the system has been channeled in form of a vicious circle, the same sets of people have been rotating within the circumferences of the circle - when one evil gets out, another evil steps in, the citizens continue expecting angelic productivity - and the rotation continues and we continue to suffering what we are suffering.
Being Nigerians does not imply that we are sentenced to eternal torture and pain resulting out of our ugly deeds or that we are naturally unfortunate, we indeed have the Judicial Arm of the Government as the last hope of the common man and we have Nigeria Police Force to protect us. The Judiciary is highly respected and seriously commended. But it is quite unfortunate, that the judiciary has allowed its throne where justice is delivered to be painted with mud and the threshold of justice is decorated with corruption. The members of the Nigeria Police are really trying as well even though they are regarded as licensed thieves because of what people perceived as their expertise in collecting their own share of the National-Cake at various Check Points, on road. The hope is now erosive. We are nearly despondent, and what can we do except to bark and keep quite when we get tired.
If it is unfortunate already, it should not be totally unfortunate. Thus, amongst anti-graft agencies combating corruption, we have Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practice and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). These two bodies have made tremendous achievement over the years. They are indeed highly commendable. Conversely, I was in Nigeria when Mallam Huhu Ribadu, the Chairman of EFCC was sent on a compulsory study leave to Jos at a time when EFCC was closer to recording tremendous achievement and at the time when the country needed him the most as the EFCC Chairman. But far beyond this point several funny heart-warming events took place when he was close to completing his study at Kuru, Jos in Nigeria. However, it is too hilarious and amusing to discuss such in this piece. In fact, this is not even the point the point is, he was replaced by Ibrahim Lamorde although that alone does not conjure any negativity on the person of Ibrahim Lamorde.
I was still in Nigeria when Ibrahim Lamorde was replaced by Farida Waziri and I can vividly recollect that one of her first remarks when she was appointed as the EFCC chairman was; I will not mind stepping on toes. Portraying her in the form of a caricature in the nation News Paper, somebody wrote ‘be careful some toes are finger-nailed’. Now that she is removed after several cacophonies, one would have no doubt that she has, indeed succeeded in stepping on toes and not just ordinary toes but finger-nailed toes. It is not funny that Ibrahim Lamorde is now the new EFCC chairman after Farida Waziri was removed. What a circle! Vicious circle!
It is probably understandable, had the embers of corruption not been extended beyond the realm of politics, since politics itself is a dirty game. The combustion has extended to our educational sectors and beyond. Employment is now the popular song in the mouths of both Graduates and Undergraduates but the fact remains that some graduates are unemployable. We appear to have the best system of education, yet poor in quality service delivery. An average Nigeria graduate spends not less than or exactly 16 years of schooling – 6 years in Primary School, 6 years in Secondary School and at least 4 years in University – yet graduates end up being unemployable.
The ugly fact is not unconnected with the fact that favouritism and sometime despotism surround both the appointment of lectures and the admission of students in to tertiary institutions of learning. The Curriculum Vitae (CV) of competent lecturers are probably thrown in the trash can or alternatively in the garbage – they do not get beyond the school gate after submitting their CVs – just because the Vice Chancellor thought they are not from his home town or perhaps the Dean of the Faculty turns it down because they are not his loyalists. The incompetent ones who are from the Vice Chancellor’s home or the Dean’s loyalists get employment and what becomes the fate of the students? Nemo dat quod non habet, meaning you cannot give what you don’t have. The graduates remain poor and end up being job seekers rather than job makers
Corruption is bad; it is not good; it destroys any system of government it finds its way in; it hinders development of the society as well as manpower and every Nigerian hates it even our leaders hate it as well. But the point of question is why we celebrate corrupt people when we indeed hate corruption? My dear reader(s), I am in this country when Bode George, the former Chairman of the board of Nigerian Ports Authority, was given heroic welcome from Kirikiri Prison, Lagos after serving a sentence for misappropriation of public funds (80 billion naira). It would have probably been understandable had the celebration been organized by his devoted family, instead some members of the top echelon of the Presidency and the so called ‘elites’ visibly participated at the programme which took place at a time President Goodluck Jonathan was busy hawking anti-corruption campaign promises. President Goodluck Jonathan himself allegedly has a representative present at the occasion and some other high profile people like the former president Olusegun Obasanjo were in attendance. Then at this point one must ask what the society would make out of the whole scenario or in the alternative what signal is being sent to the citizenry particularly the youth. We make our heroes, public rogues and fraudsters and we outcast and victimize the honest ones.
Throughout the globe, regardless of culture, Integrity and truthfulness are virtues to be desired but to politicians in my country, they are trash bags to be thrown away in the realm of politics. The cumulative effects of all these are that the unemployment raises every day, with looting of public treasury at the front role, kidnapping accompanies them, terrorism ushers them in breeds and corruption host them all. The paradox of Nigeria is in the attitude of its citizens and the leaders. And until we learn to change our attitude, the better Nigeria is yet to come. But I must ask you, is Nigeria destined to fail? Watch out for part three of this piece.

Kazeem Azeez Idowu
He is a freelance writer based in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. You can reach him on Kazdan01@gmail.com.He Blogs in immunityview..com