American President Abraham Lincoln tried to simplify democracy as the “Government of the people, by the people and for the people.” With this, he meant that rather than have (what medieval Europe described as) divine, chosen kings, citizens chose their rulers from among themselves.
But what seems to be happening in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic is the government of a close-knit political elite, anointed by their ilk, to serve the interests of the political elite who also weaponise poverty to keep the masses permanently outside the corridors of power.
However, Nigerian citizens, who appear to be hapless and clueless about governance for the most part, need not accept the raw hand dealt them by the mostly reactionary elite who use political power to advance only their own interests.
The people can make their voices heard, and their votes count in this dreadful democracy that has woefully failed to deliver the proverbial “dividends of democracy” that were promised after the media and the civil society joined the politicians opposed to military rule to fight to return Nigeria to a democratic dispensation.
The various estates─the media, civil society organisations, professional associations, the trade groups of the Organised Private Sector, financial donors to political parties, even teachers’ associations, student unions, traditional rulers and plebeians— of the Nigerian realm should take a principled stand to challenge the rapacious political class.
