By Alabi Williams
After 18 years of democracy, we do
not need to search very far to know how well the journey has fared. The glaring
evidence of how troubled it has been is the very fact that we are still
discussing the idea of a coup, no matter how embryonic and remote it may have
been. That some people still nurse nostalgia for the salvation procurable via
coups suggests that this democracy is not offering what it was programmed to
deliver. There is sufficient amount of desperation that triggers a search for
alternatives. Unfortunately, the one ready alternative people tucked somewhere
in their psyche, is the military, with capacity to obliterate the present
nonsense and begin afresh. Very tempting.
But many have rushed out to
condemn the thought of a coup because of very ugly past experiences. The
military has so debased itself that its original messianic capacity has been
squandered. At the point it was forced to exit from civil governance, the military
had transformed into a rampaging occupation force, abusing rights of citizens
and stealing their money.
