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Democracy is said to be the best form of government that has successfully elevated man from the State of nature: where every man is to himself,life was short and brutal, anarchy and reckless , survival of the fittest was the other of the day.
Democracy was a system coined out by political thinkers like Abraham Lincoln to mean a system that was delivered on the premises of the consciousness and agreement by the people to elect representatives (a Government), those elected will in turn provide them most especially their funder mental basic needs, which include security,welfare services and other infrastructural facilities that will make life meaningful and of greater value.In fact it is solely based and viewed as a social contract between the governed and the government.
From the above, it is clear that the present administration in the Kogi state headed by Yahaya Bello is a negation of the principle, theories as well as the practice of democracy in totality. This because it was a government setup not by the consciousness or collective agreement by the people via a legally conducted election, but an artificial creation and imposition by the judiciary, and that is why 98% of Kogites believe that it is a government with a stolen mandate. And just as the saying goes “no matter how sweet a soup is, once it is stolen it must have a sour taste”. As a result, there is a complete vacuum, dislocation between governance and government,the people and the government are engage in the act and game of Rat and Cats. A situation that has given rise to high rate of anarchy, mis-appropriation and mal-administration in the state.
Seriously speaking, Kogi state at the moment is highly in need of Operation ‘Democracy Dance’, because all indices and indication of a healthy democratic setting/ society has been thrown into the winds by the administration of Yahaya Bello. For example;
One of the cardinal principle of democracy is Accountability. Here in Kogi state it is no longer news that resources but financial, political or otherwise collected on behalf of the people cannot be accounted for. Over 44 billion Naira collected in bailouts, Paris club refunds and other refunds by the administration cannot be accounted for, as the intention in which those money were realized were not achieved. Those refunds were meant for payment of salaries and intervention in some vital areas. But we are faced with a situation where workers are on perceptual strike because of non- payment of salaries for almost 20 months, decay and collapse of vital sectors of the state like health, security, education and infrastructures. What about the Budget, which is suppose to be a financial and social tools in which the government communicates to the people. The budget has been thrown into the political and administrative dustbins, with an average performance put at less than 30%. Hence hunger, poverty and humanitarian crises becomes the order of the day in the state.
Another vital ingredient in the soup pot of democracy is Freedom of Speech, Movement and Association. In Kogi state under the leadership of Yahaya Bello, the above mentioned attributes only exist in the dream world. A situation in which in the past months about 4 journalists have been mal-treated, beaten up by security aides attached to the Governor, the recent been the de-humanizing treatment meted on a journalist from Daily Post. It no longer news that Kogi state has now become the deadliest place for journalist to practice their profession in Nigeria because of the fear of the government of the day.
Also, opposition leaders, critics or those who are termed as enemies of Yahaya Bello administration are been chased about, arrested, assassinated or attempted to be murdered. A situation whereby the government have formed an un-holy alliance with the security forces to clamp down on oppositions and critics in the state. A Situation where by any presumed anti-government rally, occasion or event is not been given approval, in fact most of presumed anti-government rallies are held outside the state because of either non-approval by the security agencies or fear of disruption of such rallies by political thugs sponsored by the government.
In fact Kogi state is submerged in the realm of anarchy. A situation where sitting of the State house of assembly that is pre-summed to be anti-Yahaya Bello was disrupted and the members beaten. A situation where the government will order battalions of Army to invade student campus and beat up and terrorize students because they organize a protest. A situation where a government encourages double INEC voters cards registration, (the governor himself engaging in the act of double registration) which is against the constitution of the land.
In fact one will not be wrong if he says that the constitution of Nigeria has been suspended and replaced by a worthless and direction less blueprint called the new direction blue print.
The only visible socio-economic and political trend in Kogi state now is Executive Recklessness, Mis-approprition, Fraud, Lies, Hunger, Poverty, Insecurity and Infrastructural decay.
Conclusively, we need Operation ‘Democracy Dance’ in Kogi state so that; human dignity, respect, freedo, accountability, good governance, socio-economic and infrastructural development can return back to the polity.
The only option left is for all Kogites to play a beautiful democratic music with their PVC’s come 2019, so that democracy as a concept and way of governance can come and display its Dance steps of progress and development in our land.
Lugard House must be dis-infected!
– Sam Enemama Akubor
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