ZIK GBEMRE PONDERS ON WHY NIGERIANS SHOULD CARE ABOUT OBASANJO’S HYPOCRISY OVER NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY

Who really cares what former President Olusegun Obasanjo thinks of Nigeria’s corrupt democracy?

Obasanjo is part of the reason why democracy doesn’t work in Africa. Obasanjo had the rare privilege of becoming military head of state and elected president for two tenures, like Buhari.

The election that brought him as elected president in 1999 was fairer than the election of 2003 that elected him for his second tenure.

Under him, his party, PDP, forcefully took over all the states of the federation except Lagos state.

Electoral frauds were initiated by him. Few weeks ago, Atiku his Vice for 8 years made it public that he begged Obasanjo to spare Lagos state from being taken over by PDP. Till date Obasanjo pretended and didn’t debunk it. How can democracy work if electoral frauds are allowed and those who are indicted are left Scot free?

What we see today in Nigeria started under Obasanjo in 1999. Then he didn’t see all of this failure. Obasanjo has not said something that is new that some of us had not said in the past. The problem is known. Elections in Nigeria are not free and fair and it is caused by the politicians who want to cling to power to feed on government.

Looting of resources and what have you started in 1999 and is getting worse. The EFCC and ICPC set up by him were not done to bring sanity but to fight people that are not loyal. Do we really need EFCC and ICPC to fight corruption?

EFCC and ICPC are duplication of the police and DSS functions. All that was needed was to enhance the Police and DSS to function well.

Corruption is killing democracy because it is deliberately encouraged.

Is time we stopped taking some of these people serious. What does Obasanjo mean by ‘Liberal Democracy’? Democracy has no shades or variation. It is always liberal and supports a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties and free enterprises.

And that we copied it from the West and have continued with it is not the reason it is not working for us. It is not working because we have deliberately created a culture of practicing a corrupted version of it.

The reason democracy is not working is because power brokers such as Obasanjo have refused to let the people’s genuine votes count. They won’t allow BVAS work, won’t let IREV apply. They want to continue to win by hook and crook.

There is no alternative suggestion than to advocate for stakeholders to change their hearts and minds to embrace democracy with respect for what it truly is, government by popular mandate.

Public institutions, INEC, security agencies, the judiciary and civil society must partake in Nigeria’s democracy with a sense of purpose, honesty and integrity.

Above all, there should be strict consequence action against those bent on corrupting the nation’s democracy for selfish reasons. Politicians and INEC officials caught in vote buying, falsification of results or any form of cheating must be punished by the law.

Judges of courts found to be dishing out racket judgments to subvert the will of the people over election cases should be sanctioned. With consequence actions, we will get it right.

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