While considering, the democratic journey of Nigeria in the over two decades of unbroken democratic rule in the country, from 1999 to date, leader of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Chief Ayo Opadokun and the President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Dr. Obayuwana Osagie have identified military incursion and poverty as threat to democracy in Nigeria.
According to Opadokun in a chat with our reporter, noted that the colossal damage made to by the military is still evident and the military has refused to disengage from governance even after many years that it has been forced back to the barracks.
He said, “We forced them to the barracks with the expiration of General Sani Abacha. General Abdulsalami Abubakar organized a very short transition programme but what did the military do? It didn’t trust the civilians to take over governance. It rallied round its people, those in uniform and those who have retired, and imposed on us one of its former commander in chief, General Olusegun Obasanjo as the civilian president of Nigeria.
“The command structure which they were used to was evident in everything that Obasanjo did throughout his eight years tenure. He did not do anything to advance the course of democracy. In fact he disregarded the normal features of democracy, namely the respect that is normally given to the will of the people.
“You cannot point to one thing that Obasanjo did to advance the course of democracy or popularize democratization, expand the base of democratic features at any time. What we found was his exhibition of the military command structure. Illegally he removed the late Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.
“He used his power to corner less than 10 members of the State House of Assembly, took them to an obscure place to impeach Alamasiegha and as soon as he was impeached the securities were waiting to arrest him, and he was arrested.
“He did the same thing in Plateau State when he removed Joshua Dariye, Also in Ekiti State, he removed Ayo Fayose as governor.
“Everything that the military did under dictatorship was what Obasanjo did. To show you that the military having captured Nigeria in January 1966 have not relented. It remains firmly in control until tomorrow.
“This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that something different will happen. President Bola Tinubu, is the first president who is not of the stock of the military since 1966. The others were in between, like President Umar Musa Yar’adua and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan were nominees, sympathizers.
“Obasanjo thought that because the late President Yar Adua was not fairly okay medically, he could rule by proxy. The man beside him was Jonathan who had no political consistency anywhere. Another man who took over was a former military head of State, in the name of General Muhammadu Buhari.
“If you look at the trajectory, you will see that we have not really had democracy. It is a hybrid in the name. There were too many violations to the constitutional framework, it is in the attitude of the military whenever they capture any territory anything within the geographical emirate becomes part of the spoil of war, humane and material.
“They substituted that unique, suitable constitution with the arrangement with their various decrees which they have unitarized Nigeria since then.
Speaking about the possibility of making any meaningful progress under the leadership of Tinubu, he said, “I believe there could be progress, but let me put this caveat, he has a herculean task given what the military has constructed. The current arrangement in Nigeria is a skewed, warped, totally disproportionate national structure that will make it difficult for any meaningful changes to be made. This structure is unsustainable. We have to return to what we had and turn it around to meet the challenges of the moment,” Opadokun said.
On his part, Dr. Osagie told our reporter that poverty is a threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
He said, “Nigeria is presently the poverty capital of the world in the sense that the number of those living under the poverty line measured by the size of our population is huge. It has been established that over 75 percent of the populace are living under multidimensional poverty, lack of housing, poor quality of meals, extreme unemployment, extreme low literacy level, poor access to healthcare on the part of the majority of our citizens, declining life expectancy, denial of opportunities to make decisive imputes into the process of management of public affairs.
“Dating as far back as the colonial time till date what we have witnessed is rule of cabals. The rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. That was how it had been during the military dictatorship. It was also the experience during colonial domination. Since the so-called return to democracy.
“Before June 12, the struggle for equality of life in Nigeria has been. We can talk of the struggle of Herbert Macaulay, the great Zik, Obafemi Awolowo, Tony Enahoro, Michael Imodu, Gani Fawehnmi and a host of others. They have been advocates for a just Nigeria where our children will be entitled to the right to education, roof over their heads, and access to medical care on the basis of need and not ability to pay.
“We have had advocates for a just Nigeria and unfortunately one cannot beat his or her chest that the dreams and aspirations of these patriots have been realised. People are resorting to all kinds of desperate avenues to put body and soul together. As far as we are concerned these are threats to our democracy,” Osagie said.
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