"NIGERIA, WE HAIL THEE!"
Emmanuel Udogu
Opinion
TUESDAY MORNING MUSING
Regrettably, most Nigerians are suffering under the watch of the current administration. There is no visible sign of leadership by example from those who govern the society. Instead, they are told to be patient because succor is on the horizon. To make matters worse, what we hear from members of the ruling party, with a few exceptions, in the LEGISLATURE to the president and his policies is their sycophantic slogan: “ON YOUR MANDATE WE SHALL STAND!”
Please permit me to rejig Seun Okinbaloye’s powerful plea to the PRESIDENT and Nigerians on “Make Nigerians Proud, Mr. President” (Channels TV 6/10/25) that is worth repeating again and again.
TO MR. PRESIDENT
Ignore sycophants.
Surround yourself with thinkers, doers, and patriots - not just loyalists.
TO NIGERIANS
Opposition must rise not just to criticise but to push this country forward
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS must now organize awakening the consciences, and be the VOICE OF THE VOICELESS.
Our people must now stop being docile. [Like NADECO], we need to raise a mass of active [and patriotic] citizens who are willing to fight for their nation and also work hard for its GOOD.
Citizens, your VOICE count [in a Democracy]; don’t lose it!
In my judgment, “If telling the truth is wrong, I don’t want to be right!” The above summary of Seun’s plea to the President and Nigerians is spot-on.
On the matter of Democracy, I must say that I am very disappointed at our practice of democracy in Nigeria. Sadly, the activities of members of political parties have been the bane and source of its decline in the republic (and Africa, too). Witness, for example, the contemporary shenanigans of members of our political parties. Democracy and its appurtenances (respect for the rule of law, free and fair elections, freedom of expression and the press, et cetera) is not the problem per se. What Nigeria is experiencing today is what the late political icon Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe once referred to as “democrazy” during the First Republic when Nigeria was in this kind of situation–i.e. history repeating itself.
Undeniably, a major constitutional faux pas was made by the president when he declared a state of emergency in Rivers State; and when the Supreme Court did not immediately proclaim the act unconstitutional to further or at least restore democratic praxis in Nigeria, it exacerbated the crisis of democracy. Indeed, we saw (koro koro) with our own eyes, Mr Democracy himself suspending the governor and members of the Legislature. He ignored the ruling of the Supreme Court on the issue. Is this leadership by example?
To make the matter of the practice of democracy worse, the president went ahead and appointed a military admiral as sole administrator and swore him in without the consent of the Legislature. This act confirmed the Legislature’s “on your mandate we shall stand” syndrome. As a result of this unconstitutional appointment, Mr. President “unintentionally” established a civilian-cum- military regime of sorts in the federation. Not a word was said about this anomaly on June 12. What an irony?
Even so, given the great works of some of our past intellectual sages–Claude Ake, Adebayo Adedeji, Ali Mazrui, and other contemporary scholars on democracy, there is still hope that it would in whatever form (Wazobia, Ubuntu) survive in Nigeria. After all, what’s in a name? Accordingly, I am convinced that one day, we shall have leaders like the unselfish and immortal Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., just to list a few, that would liberate our marginalized Nigerian citizens from the yoke of our current selfish political entrepreneurs.
Ike Udogu