As Nigerians wring their hands, seemingly resigned that neither of the two national political parties they are asked to choose from in 2019 may offer nothing else but more of massive unemployment and growing gaps between the rich and poor in the country, with innuendos that some corrupt politicians may resort to human sacrifices and other forms of violence to boost their electoral chances, the words of Isabel Allende in her famous autobiography, PAULA, reminiscing about her post-1973, terror-stricken Chile under Augusto Pinochet, echo parallels that may just help Nigerians remember that organization against evil in any form is key to arresting it:
“We are all accomplices. The whole society went crazy. I am not clean; no one is; under each of us lurks a monster; we all have our dark malevolent sides…”.
Thus aware, we need demonize no one but must choose to validate our good sides and ensure that we do not sell our votes to any but cast them as a forthright demand for the type of free, non-corrupt and prosperous country we want…. And we must start organizing now, long before the vote itself and even afterwards. Any demons lurking within or without must be bound immediately and kept arrested for life.
If we want a society where character counts for more than money, we must revisit electoral rules that are currently rigged in favour of the extremely rich, some of whom rather than serve us seek to buy our votes only to later reap their «investments » manifold by plundering our well-known plush public treasury; we must choose activism over complacency.
Asking a presidential nominee to register for more than 100 million Naira, is to effectively deny the right to run to those with either less than opulent lifestyles or whose political base may be less than affluent. And we must stop fawning over the wealthy, especially those who earned their riches by stealth!
Let us make no mistake, we are each and all responsible for the current type of society in which Nigerians daily live and from which many daily flee or are poised to flee. If it is to change, we must stop blaming some corrupt politicians somewhere and instead act in concert to craft a better, more humane polity. The evil in and around us cannot be allowed to triumph over the good in and about us.
The polarization that plunged Chile into its darkest period, (1973-1990), including loss of its democratic institutions had deep historical roots of gaping socio-economic inequities between the landed gentry, industrialists, peasants and workers.
Frustration with the status quo which pitted peasants and workers against the ruling classes of land owners and industrialists, led to the unexpected election of the communist government of Salvador Allende.
The sabotage by the extreme right against that government and the latter’s own political mistakes unleashed a cataclysm that deepened rather than eliminated social divides.
Starting in the form of a right wing rebellion that culminated in the September 11 1973 coup that forcibly wrenched power from an otherwise legitimate if socialist government, the resulting chaos took almost two decades to reverse with an unconscionable human toll.
By nearly wiping out the middle class, corrupt practices in Nigeria that siphon funds abroad, negating domestic investment in education, health, energy and agriculture threaten similar vengeance between the poor and rich.
Did David Cameron of Britain really say that if the amount of money stolen from Nigeria over the past 30 years were stolen from Britain, Britain would cease to exist? Let us for all that not unduly abusé our resiliency.
Accordingly, Nigerians must work against extreme inequities that could dash to pieces any positive gains we might have made since our choice of civilian over military rule.
Agency is needed now to pre-empt a similar type of Pinochet-driven sombreness in our national welfare. From now on rather than sigh, complain or wring our hands helplessly, we must, as Stephen Covey suggests in his THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF HIGHLY SUCCSSFUL PEOPLE begin with the end in mind, work to widen our circle of influence, and sharpen our analytical axe to develop safe communal bases for our individual and collective security…..
If we need a revolution it cannot be in the form of a bloodbath à la Revolution Française nor the Bolshevik equivalent; those destroyed rather than built. Instead we need to reform our image into active rather than passive shapers of our own destiny through non-violent but firm, decisive, strategic and dynamic action….
We cannot take our democratic institutions for granted. The experiences of Chile, pre-revolution France and our own military dictatorships are ample warnings that unless nurtured, those institutions could vanish but in a blink of an eye.
