20 Years Unbroken Democracy -By Olanrewaju Osho

Congratulations to Nigeria and Nigerians for achieving 20 years of unbroken democracy. It is a great feat worth celebrating.

Children born when this democracy started with the swearing in of Olusegun Obasanjo are 20 years old now. Many of them are in the final year in universities across the world. Some of them are doing national youth service now. Many of them are dead and long forgotten because of poor medical system, lack of security, road crashes, etc. Some of them committed suicide because of pressures beyond their control and have joined their ancestors in the great beyond.

In these twenty years, many Nigerians who were born before 1999 and who ought to still be alive have died because of excruciating economic hardships or any of the reasons earlier mentioned above.

In 20 years of unbroken democracy, Nigeria is now No 1 in the world for having highest number of children out of school children – over 12 million. No 1 in open defecation because of lack of toilets and public toilets in our villages and cities. The Poverty capital of the world. Blackout champion of the world. One of the most insecure countries in the world. A country where it is easier to meet with death than to meet with opportunities.
There is no inauguration ceremony in Katsina state today because of the high level on insecurity in the state. This is despite the fact that Katsina State is the home state of our president. This is a shame.

In 2015, President Muhammad Buhari urged the people to brace up for tougher days ahead. As we celebrate 20 years of democracy in Nigeria, the special message of the president to Nigerians is to brace up to tougher days ahead Part 2. That cliche had been used by most of the presidents who have ruled Nigeria since 1999.
This is very sad when you consider what nations like Singapore, Malaysia, UAE and so on achieved in twenty years of setting their eyes and minds on progress.

Millions of homes in Nigeria did not watch the national and states inauguration today because of power outage. Millions watched on generator and allow their generator sets to increase the already worsening pollution problem in Nigeria.

Twenty years of unbroken democracy has seen the Naira become a lackey to the dollar and other global currencies. It has seen Naira devalued by over 1000 percent since 1999. Nigerians have suffered continuous slide in their quality / standard of life and unabated rise in the cost of living.

Twenty years of unbroken democracy has given birth to over 100 IDP camps across Nigeria where millions of internally displaced Nigerians are living under deplorable conditions.

In our twenty years of unbroken democracy we have graduated millions of junior and Senior secondary students who can not read or write English language. We have spent over 400 billion naira on basic education and produced children who can not compete with their peers in private schools across Nigeria not to talk of the developed world. We have built schools that are worse than poultry farms. Raised educational infrastructure that kills the desire of our children for education.

We have produced graduates without employment. Over 14 million graduates are jobless. A good chunk of them are unemployable.

The economy has been going south instead of progressing in our twenty years of our unbroken democracy. Several hundreds of companies have closed offices and sent thousands to the unemployment market. Bata, Philips, Leonard Michelin, Dunlop, and hundreds of other global brands are amongst those buried in Nigeria by our democracy. The WAMCO group that came to Nigeria in 1962 signified the intention to sell for 90 billion naira and lead the pack of new companies ready to wave Nigeria good bye and further plunge more Nigerians into the Labour market.

Its not story of negatives all the way. Our political gladiators have perfected the act of treasury pilfering in 20 years of unbroken democracy. They have banished the non courageous culture of stealing in millions and introduced the new culture of stealing in billions and trillions. Our petrol stations are now bigger and much more mega. Amazing duplexes and town houses now adorn our cities and villages even though the cities remain more of urban slums than modern cities. Even Abuja, born to be Nigeria’s global city and pride have stuttered in development under the politicians in these 20 years of her 40 years in development.

We have introduced new vocabularies into our political Lexicon in these Democratic progress. Vote buying towered highly above the new words or phrases. Ballot snatching also began to be replaced with ballot destruction. Votes allocation was introduced. Vote allocation is the practice of counting votes of candidates of “powerless” political parties for the candidates of “Powerful” parties.

Today, more Nigerians are in a state of utter despondency regarding the survival of Nigeria than 20 years ago when this democratic experience began. Professionals are leaving in droves. Millions of Nigerian youth are crying for greener pastures. Waiting for the smallest opportunity to escape from the prison they see Nigeria as.

The picture is gloomy, but all hope is not lost. Things have gone this way because the best of Nigerians have elected to be spectators in these twenty years of unbroken democracy in Nigeria. To arrest this downward slide in the quality of life and hope of greatness of Nigerians and Nigeria, Nigeria’s best men and women must rise up and take ownership of this train of democracy. It is only when we so do, that we can put our hands and heads together to drive Nigeria towards greatness faster, safer and smarter.

Long live Nigeria.

Olanrewaju Osho is a Pastor, development specialist, communication expert and Senatorial Candidate of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) For Senate, FCT during 2019 general elections.