Nigeria’s democracy hijacked by thugs, drug barons

A former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Ogun State, Dr. Niran Malaolu, said that 25 years after, democratic rule has done little or nothing to assuage the pains of citizens

Malaolu lamented that the country’s democracy has been hijacked by thugs, drug barons and conscienceless looters who have continued in the long military rule trajectory of misgovernance and high-level corruption and inefficiency.

He said that the different military dictators who ruled the country from January 1966 to 1999 democratised corruption, formulated unstable economic policies, encouraged a culture of lawlessness, abandoned agriculture for petroleum, among others and left behind a very dysfunctional society.

The former commissioner and one-time Editor of the defunct Diet Newspaper, disclosed this on Friday while delivering a keynote address at the second edition of the Kunle Olubode Lecture Series with the theme, “Democracy, Values System and the Building of a New Society,” in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.

He said that Nigerians have had to endure disastrous economic, political, and social turbulence of the military rules.

Malaolu said, “Under the military juntas, corruption was democratised. Their terrible economic policies created instability and disaffection. Agriculture, our traditional economic mainstay, was abandoned.

“The juntas disdained science and technology. They focused mainly on exports of oil, which is susceptible to frequent fluctuations in prices and that has led to an unstable economy.

“The jackboot regimes were characterised by gross mismanagement, malicious incompetence, unbridled waste, and personalisation of public offices and public resources.

“The foundation of the widespread poverty we experience today was laid by successive military regimes horrible economic policies of the 1980s.”

He regretted that years after chasing the military back to the barracks, the operators of the country’s democracy have continued in the misgovernance of the military rules as “Our  political spaces have been taken over by thugs, drug barons and conscienceless looters.”

Malaolu lamented that elections and democracy in Nigeria are replete with political thuggery, ballot stuffing, ballot snatching, and other forms of electoral malpractice.

He stressed that, “Unfortunately, because of these anomalies, people who get into different political offices are rarely the people’s choices and, as such, they govern without the care and wellbeing of the people at heart.

“The people we gave power to, in our democracy, are now using the powers to harass us, intimidate us and, worst of all, pauperise us.

“We can’t transport ourselves as fuel prices are unaffordable. We can’t travel smoothly on the roads as the roads are not motorable. We can’t move safely about as kidnappers and bandits are lurking around.

“We can’t eat as food prices are beyond the reach of the poor. We can’t do business as taxes are suffocating us. We can’t protest as we are targeted as rebels. What is our democracy for?”

While proffering the way out of this logjam, Malaolu said that the country must agree to do away with present presidential system of government which is too expensive and encourages wasteful spending.

He said that instead of the presidential system of government, the country should embrace a parliamentary system, positing that this will enhance national growth.

He argued that until Nigerian leaders adopt Gesellschaft society as posited by a German sociologist, economist, and philosopher, Ferdinand Tonnie, things would not move in the right direction, and the real definition of democracy would not come into play.

He explained that Gesellschaft society is one in which people come together and are organised based on rational consideration.

Malaolu revealed that “Coming together based on rational consideration is what our society has not been able to do or is afraid to do.

“If we do, then we’ll know that our current presidential system of government is too expensive and needs to be jettisoned for a parliamentary system of representative democracy.”

He also posited that the recurrent expenditure of Nigeria is too high to be sustainable, adding that a society that constantly spends over 70% of its earnings on recurrent expenditure is bound to collapse.

Malaolu concluded that people should jointly present a people’s charter to the government, noting that the “People’s Charter of Demand shall contain requirements for a fundamental change in the way our society is governed.

“Such documents must address the people’s needs in different sectors including education, health, transportation, housing, and security among others.”

In his goodwill message, the Olu of Ilaro and paramount ruler of Yewa land, Oba, Kehinde Olugbenle, encouraged real estate surveyors and valuers to abide by the ethics of the profession.

Oba Olugbenle said that surveyors must always stand to protect the profession irrespective of wherever they find themselves while lamenting over the misconduct of some members on the compensation of Lagos/Calabar Coastal road.

The State Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Pastor Bola Orekoya, called on the government and other stakeholders to start engaging professionals when it comes to estate matters and property valuation and stop using politics or politicising everything.