It’s a democracy! No, it’s like a diarchy!
In far away Brazil, there is a football festival going on right now. Brazil is a carnival country. It has an alluring beauty, with lovely beaches and beautiful people. I haven’t been there, but I have been told and I have seen this on television, with all the strong connotation of hedonism about Brazil. While many people from different parts of the world have congregated for the sake of the football, there are equally very many who have gone there because of the carnival atmosphere, the hedonism, the share pleasure of just being there to soak all that the country has to offer. Ask Olu Maintain, the Nigerian musician who leapt into the conviviality and went to Brazil to do a song and record a musical video, Olu in Brasil.
As the football is being played on the pitch in various stadia in the country, the FIFA World Cup, which all the countries attending are playing for, is turning out to be something else. It is breaking new grounds in terms of the goals that are being scored and the fact that for the first time, a defending champion lost its first two matches and is heading home!
It’s not something for which you’ll scream the Yoruba expression, Oma se o! That’s because it is one of the reasons why this year’s World Cup is turning out to be quite interesting. But there is something about the World Cup and about Africa’s participation in it. During one of the matches involving the Cameroonian team, the world class Barcelona player, Alex Song, did something that was absolutely unprofessional, disrespectful of the effort of his team mates, that got him sent off. He ran to his opponent and deliberately, premeditatingly, consciously hit him with his fist, elbow, arm; warts and all, if I may say. It wasn’t clear if it was out of frustration, but it was totally uncalled for! To have exhibited that kind of behaviour while wearing the colours of Cameroon, an African country, made me wonder why in Africa we like to settle much of our challenges with aggression, with violence!
This is instructive because Alex Song is the same man that once played his football in the United Kingdom with Arsenal. He now plays with Barcelona, but I can tell you that if he had the shirts of those clubs on, he will never condescend to behave so low as if he was in the animal kingdom. It would be considered as disrespect for the club, disrespect for the fans, disrespect for the game and disrespect for his fellow players. There he was putting on the shirt of his country, Cameroon, and all his African aggression comes alive. He completely ignores the different points of respect he usually keeps when he was in the shirt of Arsenal or nowadays, when he is in the shirt of Barcelona. It is the burden that we bear, and it is the shame that is often thrust on us by those who claim to be democrats.
Our aggressive approach, the use of might to resolve issues is one of the good reasons why our democracy is not up to scratch. We do not like to engage in debates, we do not like to confront issues with an analytical mindset; we do not like to make our point and try hard to win the argument. We would rather bulldoze our way, clubber everybody on our path and use our might to suppress our opponents just to have our way.
This is the tragedy that we are presently seeing unfold in our country, Nigeria. Our politicians are afraid to express themselves through words once they are in position to use force to suppress others. They would like to ride roughshod, destroy and maim, create fear and annihilate the opponent or whoever appears to be in the way. It is always intriguing to watch!
This is a democracy. Or is it? Is it really? What kinds of democrats allow the military to appear to be running a parallel government? Aculture of impunity is emerging. The military is taking over and beginning to write a strange kind of script. Across the country, for three days they invaded media businesses (newspapers) and prevented them from undertaking legitimate business. Our so-called democrats kept silent. I don’t want to think this, but I just hope that we are not seeing a situation where the democratic government of this country is unable to act to rein in the military, to take full control of governance structures and be seen to be in charge. It is frightening, very, very frightening to see all of this unfolding. Those of us who understand the workings of democracy in our own little way are concerned to see what is happening. The military going after the media? Is it on behalf of itself or on behalf of the government? Who is using who?
Last week, in Ekiti State, or is it the entrance to the state? The military were again involved, carrying out another hatchet job, on whose behalf we cannot tell. How is it that in a democracy, with democratically elected governments at federal and state levels, the military can move in to stop freedom of movement of ordinary citizens, not to talk of elected governors, without providing any form of explanation for their actions? Is this normal? If this is happening now, are there reasons for us to be afraid as 2015 inches closer? This is leaving all of us students of democracy with mouth agape and eyes wide open! There must be some form of explanation. Why are things beginning to take this turn? Can someone assure us there is no reason to be afraid? Why is the military getting involved and appearing to be quite overzealous in throwing themselves in the fray? We need answers.
Nigerians need some explanations? What is going on? And must aggression really be the only way out of resolving these matters? Can someone please say something? Or should I go to Brazil until the elections are over in 2015?
PHILLIP ISAKPA