By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.
In developed democracies, like USA, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc, otherwise known as the western world, one hardly hears about the opposition until during or near elections.
The UK operates what is called ‘Parliamentary Democracy’, where the members of the ruling party sit with members of the opposition parties in the parliament to discuss matters of the state whenever there is a sitting.
Russia and the rest of the pretentious democracies still have a hang over of dictatorship, and so do not allow the opposition to operate freely.
China, North Korea and others are not pretentious about any democracy, so it is little wonder that they do not suffer opposition lightly.
But in our shores, where we pretend to operate free democracies like they do in the western world, from the federal government to the state governments we try to KILL the opposition parties with a view to making the nation or state a one party entity, for reasons that have nothing to do with service delivery to the people.
They want to make the entity a one party-affair so that they can do as they wish without challenge from any quarters. They want their words to be final, encouraged by the ‘yes or you are right Your Excellency’ people.
These people encourage their excellencies to do what is not always right, which is not their concern as long as they remain relevant with the government or and have their pockets full all the time with money illegally gotten from the commonwealth.
All the states, including the federal government, are guilty of this offence. I should therefore not be tasked with mentioning the names of the alleged perpetrators. Despite the promises they made to the people during campaigns, they go back on these promises once elected into office. But killing the opposition is not one of the promises they made to the people, and it is not a good option too.
In some countries like China where, as stated earlier in the article, they have no pretence to a democratic governance, the punishment for self enrichment with ill gotten benefit is most often death or a life imprisonment.
What do we do here but to celebrate any wealth, including that which sources are not known or uncertain, which is why the elected rulers on our continent want to remain in power for ‘ever’, only giving up reluctantly or by force.
An alleged celebrated kidnap kingpin was recently hailed in his north central state when he was released from prison after serving a jail term. The emir of the kidnap kingpin’s hometown was among the celebrants, who hailed the return of the so-called ‘philanthropist’ as a blessing to the people of the area.
Recently, a state government in the north western part of the country, is alleged to be behind the suspension of the National Chairman of the ruling party in the country, Dr. AbdulLhi Umar Ganduje, allegedly by the party officials of his ward.
The national chairman is one of the sponsors of his party in the state. Those who are alleged to be involved in the supposed suspension ought to have been proud that ‘their son’ is the national chairman of ruling party in the country.
Besides, as the national chairman of the ruling party in the country, he can influence the citing of a project to whatever area he wants in his state. What of the ward officials of the party?
What these people fail to understand or are incapable of understanding is the fact that they can only decide what goes into their individual pocket, not any meaningful project in their ward, because the federal government has the last say in where projects are cited, even if they are by state governments.
Now, if this shenanigan was allowed to succeed, the people of the chairman’s home state and, especially, ward, would be losers too, as it is not about the national chairman alone.
Above all, democracy will be the greatest loser,
because we are not yet ripe for a one-party society where the people will not have a good representation, when there is no alternative party to fight for them.
On these shores, we operate not democracy for the good of everyone, but what is known as ‘the winner takes all’ system, where the ‘winner’ takes everything and gives whatever to whoever he deems it fit to give to.
Malam Malumfashi wrote from Abuja.
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