And shame died. On July 9, 2013, they
put shame to shame and gave impunity a new meaning on the eve of the 10th
anniversary of the dramatic abduction of then Governor of Anambra State, Chris
Ngige, by hooligans in association with officers of the Nigeria Police and the
acquiescent nudge of approval of the Obasanjo’s Presidency. That took Nigeria
to pre-coup Wild, Wild West battles in the old Western Region. The Rivers State
House of Assembly which degenerated to a Hobbesian state of nature, when the
Peoples Democratic Party crisis went further south seemed set to win the Shame
Olympics. Blood was shed, mayhem was on display and even the Chief Security
Officer of the state, Governor Chibuike Amaechi, was believed to have been
threatened as an order for him to be shot rang out from those opposed to him.
How did we sink so low and why is our democracy being sabotaged by those who
have profited so much from its abuse, the politicians, and what are the
consequences of the grooving loss of legitimacy by Nigeria’s fledgling
democracy? The answers may not be blowing in the wind.
Perfecting the ugly comes with
practice. See what practice they may have had. Obasanjo’s era removal of the
Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and the siege on Ngige
matched so closely, in terms of outrage and damage to the rule of law by the
Umaru Yar’Adua gang abuse of the constitution in “presiding” over the country
in the name of the then vegetative president, and now by the PDP’s insult on
the Nigerian people in trying to subvert the outcome of the chairmanship
election of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. We have steadily declined from ego-tripping
military men assaulting the dignity of road users, to the impunity of wilful
damage of public property with no consequences as with the Anambra scorched
earth destruction of all what was valuable in government structures, and then
the coup of the Yar’Adua mafia that held Goodluck Jonathan in the No Man’s Land
as the man who could act but could not be called Acting President, so that
others could govern over him, in the name of a man in the land of the living
dead to this present state.
Jonathan clearly has learnt much in
the art of making the ugly robe, then stripping a helpless Nigerian people in
the market place. The dance of the naked is far from erotic. Make no mistake
about it, the dance in the Rivers House of Assembly which may spill into a mini
civil war, in a state where there are enough arms floating around to sink the
Titanic, is only a dress rehearsal for the worse to come.
Our democracy and the governing of a
people in desperate need of government, has fallen into the hands of people who
are neither democrats nor people grounded in governance. More frightfully
though is that our country has fallen into the hands of people who do not have
the breeding to understand the consequences of their actions for history.
I doubt that any of the players in
this macabre game desire the coming anarchy they are setting us up for but the
limitation of their exposure is such that the consequence escapes them. Not
even signals like the US President Barack Obama’s snub of Nigeria in the recent
tour of Africa has been translated into knowledge for action that will better
serve the people. So, where do we go from here?
Weak and now almost comatose civic
society in Nigeria must quickly look up to the extent of the damage being
inflicted on the core of the Nigerian essence. Egypt tells of the possibilities
of concerned citizenship behaviour in the people being taken for granted.
Unless the people organize, the churches, mosques and other institutions of socialization
motivate citizen action, I fear the quality of current politicians in the
country is such we can be led down the track of the predicted coming anarchy
without their realizing what they are doing.
But we must learn lessons from all
this. The first lesson is that we still have not developed good institutional
memory and so keep repeating yesterday’s mistakes. Maybe, it is because of the
failure of consequence management.
Many who have abused the system seem
to get away with it. Vertical accountability structures are so not in place and
the generally hushed up idea that elections are rigged, damages the ultimate
legitimating construct of democratic society. This crisis of legitimacy needs
further reflection and is ultimately traceable to the absence of ideas and
contestation over ideas remains critical.
We need to stop the politicians of
Ghandi’s Politics without Principles before we lose this process and find that
the rule of law we currently see in recession is lost forever as we fall off
the 21st century. As lawmakers become warring lawbreakers in Port Harcourt and
provide great feedstock to our creative entertainment industry, the more
fundamental solution lies in making politics less materially lucrative and
enormously costly for those who are rash, violent and lacking in decency.
Increasingly, it seems to me that a revolution may be required to save us from
this collapse of culture of which the Rivers experience is symptomatic.
The greater tragedy is the failure of
elders to act. No African society should be lacking in elders who speak truth
to power. What a sad time for Nigeria!
•Utomi, political economist and Professor of
Entrepreneurship, is founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership
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