Democracy ke?

Do not tell me we have democracy in this country, you may call our system anything you like but please do not insult my intelligence by calling it democracy. I may not have studied “government” in secondary school and neither did I study “political science”, but I always knew this line, as millions of people across the world: “A government of the people, by the people, for the people”. This is what I have always thought democracy to be. I know my fellow waffarians will be laughing hysterically by now; their common expression would be “na who dash us?” My people, nobody “dashed” us, we do not have such a government and therefore, we cannot claim to have democracy. Now, I know some positive people and optimists out there might take offence to such a statement, thus, I have tried, very simply, to break it down.

Now, except I have become blind, I do not see any government of the people. If anybody knows of any minister, senator, governor, that you have rubbed shoulders with on buses, or seen on okadas in the last twenty years, please inform me. The people in the government are not even from our world….they watch CNN and BBC, play golf, and polo. Polo ke? Ah! You are wondering what polo is, you see yourself? Poor man no good oh! Let me continue, they drink champagne and eat hors d’oeuvres (no ask me wetin hors d’oevres mean, na “starter”, I know say una no dey chop dat kain thing, but rich people dem, dem like to tease their tongue first, before the main food go land, na the best explanation I get) they have weekend escapes in Dubai and New York, and have helicopter rides and boat cruises….have you ever done any of that? Are those the kind of people you move around with everyday? Ehen, now you see what I am talking about, they are people of course, but they are not OF you.

A government by the people....this one…na wa. I do not even know where to start here, anybody that voted in the last elections would tell you the insanity that was the elections. Area boys, weapons, missing ballot boxes, closed centers…it was chaos, or as those oyibo people go call am “irregularities”. All in all, they were not fair, and except you count the area boys, the winners were not voted by the people. End of story.

Let us take the next point, FOR the people: I do not need to look too far, our senate is the perfect example. These ones have not yet realized that they are ONLY representatives for their people. In their minds, they think they are there to serve themselves and carry out personal crusades. Some of them do not even know why they are there or how they got there in the first place. Tell me how these people are supposed to serve the people when they are not even aware of “which” people they are supposed to serve? It is no wonder our madam dared to propose such a ridiculous bill and it is no wonder that such a bill is going on to its second reading. Yet, bear in mind, that in all that has been happening, the people have spoken, but please ignore us, carry on with a personal vendetta that has nothing to do with the wishes of the people, after all, we do not have democracy in this country.

Right now, we are all trying to agree on what “transparency” means, after that, we are going to find out what “accountability” means, and then we still have to figure out what the “rule of law” means. The last one is a very tricky thing indeed, devised by our current president; it will go down in history as the phrase that had so many meanings that meant nothing.

P.S: Shebi una know say Ibori still dey outside? Just in case una don forget…..

waffywaffarian@yahoo.com