Olawale Samuel
The doctrine of democracy in Nigeria has been plagued with myriad dissenting opinions of those effectively in politics. the reason Is not farfetched, in practice where all political parties agitate and present their opinion and manifestoes as the one suitable for citizenry demand and life. In the course of this, different political parties elbow each other and re-coined personal doctrines of democracy that will best their urge for the position. This urge is not for the service of humanity but for private gains which affect humanity’s somersault against the constitutionalized privileged of the Democrat.
Though in Nigeria, it is no more news that the citizen enjoyed their fundamental human right on paper and not in practice which will be the basis of exploration in this writing backing it with meticulous examples. In a democratic state, one of the core values of democracy, as delineated in the Constitution, n,n is known to be “Guarantee of fundamental human right “which was sectionalized in the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999 constitution as amended, or example, section 40 recognizes; ‘Right to peaceful assembly and association’. This explains that every citizen is entitled to assemble freely anywhere and such assembly could be political, religious, social, economic, cultural, etc.
An individual can assemble with others for either religious worship, for promotion of a political ideal or against a political ideal, cultural and social event, economic reasons, but come to look at the last year protest tagged END SARS, protest is a right of every citizen of a country to organize or associate themselves with the mind of showing their displeasure about particular government doings be it in terms of policy or terms economic backwardness, and the present state of security personnel molesting and trampling upon the privileges of Nigerian has led to the first online protest in 2017 against a particular department of the police namely called special anti-robbery squad before it amounts to occupying of every territory that made up Nigeria in 2020, Lekki toll-gate was occupied and this act stopped the business transaction at the territory within that period. Unfortunately, A curfew was imposed by the state governor to install normalcy but the change time was not communicated to the public and this has led to wrongful enforcement of the law by military personnel in the territory. The action taken by the military personnel claimed so much life and this action portrayed redefined the right of a citizen replacing it with the rites of a citizen. On this account panel was set up to investigate the shooting at the territory amidst contradicting statement released by the active participator of the scene but surprisingly, no tangible conclusion was decided upon by the panel before the resumption of the business transaction at the scene which birthed out another set of protest that led to the arrest of some important personnel among the youth and they were inhumanly maltreated, the act goes against a different section of the constitution but what is democracy if what it preaches is not enforced, that means it is democracy in books but demo-crazy in practice.
The variant of Democracy was known to be direct democracy as postulated by the Athenian political system which serves as the foundation of Nigeria adopted democratic nature, also, representative democracy is another important variant that invests power in people which are directly and indirectly exercise through reprepresentationn Nigeria it is understood that the best variant that is suite her heterogeneity nature is representative democracy which is measure through the free and fair voting system but is our voting system free and fair? , In a country that its populace is afraid of assassination, dehumanization, decapitation during election worthy to be referred to as a country that embraces the principle of democracy or principle of demo-crazy? if the principle of democracy is not practically enforced as it is noted by its philosophical approaches, then it is no more democracy but demo-crazy, standard and value of a democratic state are also embedded in check and balances of the organ of government which are known to be the legislature, executive, and judiciary but in Nigeria, what is the position of our arms of government in the strengthening of democracy, the arrest of a popular comedian in February 2021 by the police on account of the order given by the inspector general of the police to antagonize the then proposed protest which aim was to agitate for justice for the victim engaged in the Lekki massacre denote the position of executive arms of government in the 1999 democratic dispensation.
There should be a conspicuous emphasis on accountability because the public servant is subjected to public scrutiny as a country with democracy but when the public probe into affairs of its government, its received a threat to shut up the demand of the public most especially through their ill policymaking strategy.
THERE IS A NEED TO PRACTICALLY ENFORCE THE DEED OF DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA.ENOUGH OF FEUDAL-DEMO RULE.
