By
Rahman Owokoniran
The idea of the world as a global village is a great example of the concept of a community where the people can share resources and interact freely without fear or suspicion. This concept is not limited to one particular group or region. It can also apply to all other areas.
First, permit me to share my view on the basics of the practice of democracy and the importance of the Constitution. The Constitution is not a political document but a political statement based upon the principles of liberty and justice. The principles of democracy constitute the foundation laid for the existence of the Constitution. To have an understanding of how democracy works in our country and what it means to govern the people, we need a system that respects the rights of citizens to choose their representatives and for their rights to be respected by their elected officials. This system will help us to create a better society for our citizens to thrive as a country.
United communities, having common values and sense of belongingness, are essential for the success of our nation, and indeed any nation. They will not only be beneficial for our people’s collective wellbeing but also allow us to enjoy freedom to move forward in life without fear or worry about our future.
We have to make the necessary sacrifices to secure the greater future for our country. Democracy best offers us that great future. Thus, the most fundamental goal is to nurture our democracy and sustain it. We must ensure that our citizens are at the forefront of our efforts for a better future for our country. This will bring about strong commitment from our people. In other words, our people’s patriotism will be guaranteed in an atmosphere where they enjoy their rights and freedoms. And we will be able to make the most of our freedom by doing our part to protect our own rights as well as our national security and sovereignty.
For me, the best way to protect our nation is by rallying against the threat to our democracy and the Constitution of our great nation. We need to collectively stand together to defend and protect all processes and systems that will guarantee the successful administration of a democratic society and the rule of law. This includes all aspects of human rights as well as human dignity.
We have come this far in our democratic experiment. Unfortunately, we have learned little about democracy. Compared to the nation’s founding fathers, our generation of politicians has not been able to make a difference in the way of upholding our national ethos, values and beliefs. In their time, communities and people were at the centre of all decisions.
Today, however, the contrary is the case. The people who are supposed to be the centre of our democratic system are completely estranged from it. Rather, the slave mentality has become the dominant factor in our democratic society. It has become safer to invite police to protect our ballot boxes than to trust the community leaders to declare free and fair results of votes.
Politicians have embraced the satanic the notion that it is better to invest billions of naira in INEC (states’ SIECS) to perform “abracadabra” in changing results to suit the paymasters.
Result? The disillusioned people have abandoned the polls for lack of trust in the umpire, INEC.
Unfortunately, even the courts offer little hope. Once seen as the last hope of the commoner, our Judiciary has chosen to frolic adulterously with conscience-dead politicians against the overriding interest of the nation.
And today’s ruling party continues to blatantly ignore the people and the media who have been advocating for the right of free expression and freedom for the people. The public’s opinion counts for nothing in this country; and the system continues to suffer untold consequences.
How long will this continue? How long will the empty promises last, with no benefits for majority of the people? How long will the fabrication of misinformation continue to dominate our world?
Moving forward, it will be better for the people to demand the fulfillment of the lofty promise democracy offers: Government of the people, by the people, for the people. The people must be part of the process. Let the community leaders be responsible for declarations of the results in their various communities. Let us invest in the communities and depend on them to sustain our democracy. After all, the communities are the slices of the nation. We don’t need strangers posted to carry out their bosses’ nefarious instructions in our communities. Our community leaders have their integrity at stake in carrying out these tasks than people who are unknown to the communities where they wreak havoc. Communities’ leaders can be trained to become experts over time instead of ad hoc staffers who fizzle away after an assignment.
Examples abound in the numbers of residential estates, communities and clubs conducting their elections in a free and fair manner nationwide. Since the singular demand of the people is about making their votes count, they must be ready to contribute towards addressing this very serious issue. And the issue must be given attention in order to ensure free and fair elections.
Aside from that, we have many people who want their integrity intact in the various communities. They will be glad to be remembered for their contributions to the electoral health of and in their communities.
We can break the wards into an average of 4 to 6 districts and use them as voting centres. The result of each centre can be released spontaneously to the different constituencies for collation. While the results for the Senate elections will go to the relevant constituencies for collation, those for the House of Representatives, and the President will equally go to their respective centres for collation at the same time. Same goes for the State House of Assembly and Governor’s elections carried out on the same day. The results do not have to change from many hands to many hands before being announced.
After all, if the ATM cards works for the banks, why can’t the same system work for our accreditation of voters –if our government is serious about conducting free and fair elections?
This country’s faith in democracy is being diminished over time for the reckless abandonment. To what do we owe these undemocratic leaders who have, over the years, hijacked our democracy for their personal aggrandizement? They can do better than this if only they can govern by the ideals, principles and values that are the basic tenets of our democracy.
Nigerians cannot wait forever for these marauding leaders to do the right thing. The people must entrench themselves to save our democracy. Nigerians must be united in their demand for equality, justice and good governance in this country.
HON. RAHMAN OWOKONIRAN WROTE FROM LAGOS
