The Barbarian at AGODI
Sometimes when we cowardly
keep quiet and allow evil to trudge and flourish with little or no resistance,
our civilization reverses by a few centuries. The decision to stay neutral or
indifferent in the face of impunity, aberrations and gross violation of rules
and values that ordinarily should shape sane societies will eventually birth
grievous and irrecoverable consequences. What I see unfolding in Nigeria day by
day, is something similar and even despicable when placed side by side the
Athenian democracy (ca. 508 BC). Diligent students of Political History will
bear me witness.
In a few days, this
particular May 2018, the Government of Oyo State, the one superintended by a mere
mortal that has within the last 7 years as Governor “constituted” himself into
an “Immortal Authority,” just like others across the country will be conducting
one of the most shameful and unbelievable Statewide election into local
governments and the newly created local council development areas. Millions of
taxpayers’ money and State revenue will go into this repulsive and
stage-managed local election jamboree. It will be a precursor, an overview, to
the theatrics that will herald the 2019 general elections. It is a foretaste of
the ridicule that will trail future democratic elections in this country if we
all keep quiet because one day, very soon, we will have a president that will
do likewise.
Many people are ignorant
of the fact that manipulating the electoral process in broad daylight and
forging figures to be declared as election result are heinous offences
punishable in the strongest terms in a democracy. The unbelievable act of “cooking
imaginary figures” to back up ‘actual election figures’ and declaring winners
remotely from inside government house is absolutely criminal and satanic. Very
soon Nigerian Presidents will adopt the same style and it will be bye-bye to
democracy. This is the foundation of the political apathy that gave birth the
popular saying in Nigeria that ‘our votes do not count.’ This democratic fraud
starts at the local government level. And this is why Nigerian democracy
appears jinxed.
The international
community will do well to investigate and observe this sham election in Oyo
State as part of the build up to the general elections of 2019 to appreciate
the extent of oppression and suppression that will call democracy. In the build
up to this “bizarre selection,” the State Governor has singlehandedly alongside
his bootlickers selected the candidates from his ruling party who will emerge
as winners at the polls irrespective of voters turnout or choices. The ballot
has been arranged so much that it is the ruling APC contesting against the APC
itself. I have never seen where a one party election is considered
democratically free and fair. The whole arrangement is absolutely antithetical
and pathetic. No party is ready to waste energy on such a venture. The results
are already pre-arranged and one will be a fool to expect any result different
from the one written at AGODI. Yes, this is 2018 and yes, this is happening in
the acclaimed largest democracy in Africa.
I invite those in ply
their trade in the “sane world” to come and see this “9th Wonder of
the World” in a State presumed to be the ‘Cradle of Yoruba Political Civilization
and the Political Headquarters of Southwest Nigeria.’ I also want the US Embassy, British High Commission, Canadian
High Commission, Japanese Embassy, the South Korean Embassy and every other
donor supporting democratic governance and development in Nigeria to note that our domestic version of democracy is not
just an insult but an assault to the global democratic conversation.
The most disturbing point
for me is the fact that the man at the centre of this mockery of democracy
(hocus pocus) claims a little bit of American education. This is one instance
of the dangers of education. I said this in a previous post about the rationale
behind the wife of the State Governor donating an ICT Centre worth hundreds of
millions to a private University in exchange for an Honourary Degree. She has just
recently gone ahead to put up a similar structure at the State owned Polytechnic
in her name and my question was and is still is, ‘What mega business is the
Governor’s wife into? Where did she suddenly get the hundreds of millions of
naira going into her new charity enterprise?’
Nobody is talking about
these things. And again, all this is also happening under the watch of the
Buhari Presidency. This was the same way the democratic structures of State became
a pun in the hands of his predecessor. I had thought Akala and the reckless PDP government that promoted him will be the
last political nemesis of this State until the coming of the Barbarian at AGODI.
Whichever way you look at it, this State is gone to the dogs. Even our elders
are asleep, afraid and vegetative for fear of untimely death.
For me, death will come
whether you stand and speak on the path of truth and justice or eat the
unpleasant morsel of the wicked. For many of us on this unpopular side of the
divide, it is just horrendous. I have never thought a time will come in this
nation when men of conscience will keep quiet and watch Barbarians squander
what our Patriarchs sacrificed so much to birth in pains. This is the worst
appearance of democracy by every development indices and I want it to be on
record that I stood against it.
No one in their wildest
imagination would have nursed the view that our budding democracy can degenerate
within 18 years into such an abyss particularly with the quantum of resources invested
by development partners such as UNDP, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, World Bank, Department for
International Development (DFID), European Union (EU), African Union
Commission, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Association of
African Election Authorities (AAEA), Institute for African Renaissance Studies
(UNISA), Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) e.t.c to strengthen democracy in Nigeria.
What
we have in Nigeria is far from democracy? The whole thing is a huge joke. It is
the most reckless system of governance on earth. The suppression of the human
will to make choices in a free and fair environment. Everything here is practically
skewed from voter registration, voter education, transmission of election results
to the election management process and media work. It is just a huge scam.
I know this ‘selection’
will somehow come and go and we will all cringe and return to the recess of our
bed rooms murmuring that God will punish our oppressors. Some will even pray
silently for God to deliver us from this Barbarian. Then over the next few
days, I will get a barrage of calls from friends to pull down this post with
the argument that the ‘constituted authority’ may be hurt or even send his foot
soldiers to eliminate me if I continue to speak the truth to power. Then we
will also have a ‘platoon of political sycophants’ and career hangers-on who
will come on cyber platforms to display different levels of senility in defense
of this democratic immorality.
It is situations like this
particular one, especially the stupid patronizing litany and arguments that
will trail this post by those blinded by ‘stomach infrastructure’, those suffering
and smiling under the table of this government that reinforces my view that Nigeria
is the only country in the 5th World.
‘Sola Kolawole
