It is another Democracy Day without anything to really celebrate about. June 12th is a historic date in the political calendar of Nigeria because of its iconic identity indicative of a momentum that shook Nigeria to its very foundations and will remain relevant to our democratic experience as a people and country for a very long time to come.
In as much as it is commendable that this date has been inducted into our democratic Hall of Fame as Nigeria's Democracy Day, the hope it represents is largely absent. Democracy is useless unless it delivers to the people what makes them fulfilled as citizens of a country that they call theirs. In Nigeria of today, the productive and positive dividends of democracy are far remote from the mass of Nigerians.
The promised and expected hope has become a forlorn one because those in the position of power at the center are disconnected from the plights of the citizens who voted them into power.
Today, our supposed Democracy Day, most Nigerians have been deprived of their capacity to feed themselves and their families, unable to send their children to school, shelter has become mostly unaffordable, formal and informal sector businesses are collapsing, the Naira is at the mercy of other currencies, even African currencies like those of Bénin Republic, Ghana, South Africa and co - not just the dollar.
Our inflation rate of 33.70% is making life unbearable for most Nigerians. Insecurity is burgeoning beyond control as criminals are having a field day and often go unchallenged. Poverty level in the country has quadrupled since the inception of the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu due, principally, to the wicked and wrong timing of the fuel subsidy removal.
All the suffering and retrogression in the land a are solely attributable to the anti-people plus trial-and-error policies of the Tinubu administration. Before contesting, it is now obvious that the president didn't prepare to govern in any way beneficial to Nigerians or the country itself. He only prepared to win the election and, having won, he became clueless as to how to ease the suffering in the land before taking over from his also failed predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari. Rather than relieve the socioeconomic pains of Nigerians, the Tinubu administration has increased same unbearably from his first minute in office.
The only hope that this Democracy Day signifies is the opportunity it provides Nigerians in less than three years hence to make another choice at the ballot for a president who will connect directly with our aspirations and have the blueprint to take Nigeria up the ladder of socioeconomic and developmental heights like the United Arab Emirate, Turkey and, even, Rwanda.
Rwanda, having emerged from a deadly fatricidal war, has retraced its steps from projected demise towards development, peace, security and prosperity through deliberate leadership actions whilst Nigeria continues to stagnate and retrogress as a result of leadership mishap. For Nigeria to reclaim its pride of place in the comity of Nations, we need to recalibrate our leadership recruitment methodology with a view to electing the best leader with the capacity and revolutionary drive to attain the national redirection that we so eagerly crave.
Rather than find the pathway out of the socioeconomic conundrums that the Federal Government's policies have pushed Nigeria into, we have a president who prioritizes return to Nigeria's old national anthem over revamping the economy and security insurance of the people. Will national anthem put food on the table of hungry Nigerians, create job opportunities for our teeming youths, give the desperately needed security to our people, or avail the country the general developmental strides that it lacks? The answer is a resounding no! But as it is the character of Nigeria's ruling cliques from independence till date, they always take us backwards.
While we wish Nigerians a happy democracy day, we also commiserate with all of us for the atrocious environment being created by bad and incompetent leadership.
Sgd.
Comrade Mark Adebayo,
National Spokesperson
Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP
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