Does Nigeria Need A Revolution?

In the last two years, I have noticed that discussions about Nigeria frequently end with someone mentioning the word “Rawlings”! If I was a Nigerian political office holder, given the number of times I have heard compatriots conclude, after searching interminably and in vain for a solution to Nigeria’s crisis of governance, that the only way out is the “Rawlings Solution”, I would be afraid to go to bed at night, wondering if that night some middle level officer or group of officers might hearken to their countrymen’s call for a radical way out.
I suspect that our Governors, Ministers, Senators, Members of the House of Representatives may of course not be privy to such discussions. Naturally such conversations may not take place in their vicinity either due to the Nigerian penchant for sycophancy or just timidity. Or perhaps their “excellencies” and “honourables” are not usually in the company of people likely to harbour such “pro-Rawlings” sentiments. They are more likely to be surrounded by their personal assistants, legislative assistants, commissioners, civil servants, and political hangers-on who are at least picking some crumbs from their masters’ tables and may actually wish that the status quo should endure. Unfortunately all political office holders from the local government to the federal level and such hangers-on are not quite up to two million people, less if you care to do the numbers than one percent of our population. Unfortunately too, most military officers, security personnel, policemen, students, youths, farmers, factory workers and para-military personnel are part of the remaining ninety-nine percent along with columnists (such as yours truly!), journalists, the vast number of unemployed people, the 54 percent of Nigerians who officially live in poverty, and the additional 25 percent or so who may live in semi-poverty, all of whom do not benefit from our corrupt and unsustainable status quo.
If our political leadership was previously unaware that more and more Nigerians are loosing faith in the ability of the establishment to transform their circumstances, lives and country and may be looking towards more radical solutions, I thought the “Boko Haram” crisis in Northern Nigeria and the attempted suicide bombing by Farouk Abdul-Mutallab should have caused some introspection on why so many in Northern Nigeria would so lose faith in western education and values (and implicitly secular governance) that they would be prepared to confront and attempt to overthrow the state; or wonder why the well-educated son of a billionaire banker and businessman would be prepared to attempt a suicide bombing.
If these signals still proved remote and obscure, the public declaration by a professor of constitutional law, Ben Nwabueze that Nigeria requires a revolution should have registered in the minds of our political rulers. Professor Nwabueze was never known to be an anarchist. He made his reputation as a pro-establishment intellectual advocating constitutionalism, rule of law, democracy and an end to military rule. He spent part of his working career in the banking sector advising on corporate law. As a post-graduate student of constitutional law in 1988/89, Professor Nwabueze’s articles were my bible (even though he shocked me soon after as he joined Babangida’s transitional military government as Secretary of Education and acted more like a military man than democrat!) and his whole academic career was devoted to constitutional rule and democracy. What would drive such a person to call for a revolution?
Is spite of all these warnings, our political establishment continues to press harder on the self-destruct button! They continue to act as if blissfully unaware of the danger to our democracy from a citizenry becoming more and more disconnected and disaffected from its rulers. Instead they seek to increase their already over-bloated remuneration while poverty increases in the land; they ignore public demands for a freedom of information bill; they regularly dismiss public interest in their ïntra-party affairs” as if the parties are no longer vehicles for engaging the citizenry; and they continue to act as if democracy was instituted for their own benefit while the citizens are spectators. When a provision for independent candidacy is suggested by some to allow excluded persons some room for political participation, they block it showing they don’t understand the principles of democracy; and they increase taxes, duties and charges on citizens and businesses without increasing public transparency, accountability or responsibility! Perhaps this is the case of the Yoruba dog that refuses to hear the hunter’s whistle!!!
I believe democracy represents the best and most rational route to empowering our people and transforming our nation. However unfortunately what we now have is democracy without democrats; democracy without a real political party system; democracy without accountability; and power without responsibility! My review of history and politics tells me such is not sustainable. They also say that those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable! In choosing candidates for 2010, I suggest that all the parties look for credible reformist candidates who understand the need for a democracy centred on people, rather than one that seeks to institutionalise a master-servant relationship with the citizens.