I have
consistently tried to create levels of differentiation between democracy and
dictatorship, especially dictatorships of the military variant as we have had
in Nigeria. I have argued that Nigeria is still very far away from the goal
posts of what could be called a democratic society. In my view, the environment
does not as yet look anything democratic because the actors are largely
strangers to the ethos of democratic governance, and what is more, too many of them are tied to the
old order, not to talk of the fact that the presence of General-presidents
suggest that we are still in the thrall of militarism.
 |
| *Kukah |
Democracy
thrives on debate, consensus building, negotiation, persuasion, argumentation,
rule of law, process and inclusion. The military thrives in a coup culture,
secrecy, betrayal, violence, command structure, exclusion and lack of
transparency. That explains why I have always warned against describing the
current charade of violent elections as democracy.
