Nigeria: Is This Democracy?

 By Mike Ikhariale

After the celebratory hype about how the almighty BVAS and PVCs which were coming to revolutionize electioneering and democracy as a whole in Nigeria in the build-up to the current election that is fast turning into an unimaginable nightmare for many, I think we should go back and reflect on the poser we made about democracy in 2019 during the general elections of that year and see how much things have changed for Nigeria politically since then. 

Nigerians were made to believe that the hardship occasioned by the unmitigated collapse of the currency exchange policy was a deliberate design to ensure that there would be no cash available for politicians to “buy votes” and Nigerians were also fooled to believe that they were been called out for a sacrifice that would usher in a better democratic society for them tomorrow, more less like the brave and heroic Kohima epitaph which declares that “ for your tomorrow we gave our today”, but as we are all beginning to see, these politicians have callously taken both our today and tomorrow with them in one fell swoop by terribly discrediting democracy before the same people.

Nigeria: Epitaph To A Dying Republic

 By Mike Ikhariale

Judging by the way things are going presently, it is only those who take pleasure in deceiving themselves that would ignore all the tell-tale signs of the imminent morbidity awaiting the Repub­lic. It is quite sad that Nigeria has rapidly be­come a theatre of unbridled anarchy, a society that is seemingly jinxed to stumble and fall, where government, through defective actions and policies, is actually at the forefront in the ignoble march to national ruination.

*Buhari 

The traditional constitutional schema for separating government powers and functions for the purposes of achieving stability and effectiveness in society, namely the Legisla­ture, the Executive and Judiciary as well as safeguarding us from an overbearingly tyran­nical government in the classic Montesqui­uean sense, ie, checks and balances has been corrupted in Nigeria.

It is, however, worth noting that the doc­trine of Separation of Powers is also a key el­ement in Nigeria’s constitutional architecture which was structurally designed to serve as a ‘feedback stabilization mechanism’ whereby the various organs of government routinely interact with a view to reinforcing their in­dividual and collective stability in moments of crisis and general constitutional/political turbulence.

Nigeria: A Nation On The Brink Of Collapse

            

By Mike Ikhariale

Anyone watching the series of unpleasant events that have taken place in Nigeria in the past few years cannot but conclude that this is a country on a calamitous plunge. The sad part of the whole development is that it does not appear as if the leadership and even the citizens themselves fully appreciate the danger that is looming headlong like an onrushing train as things have, to an exceptionally alarming extent, been treated in the habitual lackadaisical manner of “business as usual” despite the increasingly cataclysmic developments that are manifesting all around them and to which they have no rational answers.

In a way, I feel as if I have the unusual misfortune of talking ceaselessly about the danger being posed to the polity by bad leadership and corruptive political culture with no one in a position to act positively taking notice of them. For those benefiting from the ongoing misfortunes and tragedies of the country, I might have already earned the sobriquet of an alarmist and possibly that of a prophet of doom.