When you ponder on the ingredients of democracy and a nation that has come to flourish in freedom of choices and expression, you immediately find the rhyme between bullies in power and a man that leads according to the rule of law.
When Nigeria ‘migrated’ from dictatorship to democracy in 1999, the nation had the rule of law mostly in words and in the textbooks. One of the most suppressed signposts of our brand of democracy then was one defined by suppressing of the citizens’ rights.
In comparing between Nigeria of the dictatorship era and Nigeria of today, it was just akin to Leo Tolstoy’s Europe. And concerning that world then, Tolstoy said: “Vienna is an isolation prison where you are permitted to scream, and Prussia is a place you are free to walk the streets with your mouth gagged.”
Our movement to a new lease of life in a kind of governance where the people decided their leader was one that kept us gagged while we walked the streets ‘free’. Those were the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo when opposition, dissent and divergent views were totally muffled, stifled and denied.
Just recently, while watching a major government television station and during its national news broadcast, there were jingles of the opposition presidential candidate. I wondered that this would have remained in dream world in the days of Obasanjo. Then government media agencies were platforms for government propaganda and nothing more.
It was a tradition derived from, and carried over from the dictatorial days when the like of General Muhammadu Buhari, General Sani Abacha and the rest were in charge.
When the dawn of democracy set in, the agents of terror in dictatorial days brought over the highhandedness and all had to fall in line or be mowed down.
Unfortunately, today, while people clamour and sing change like a mantra from heaven never heard among men before, they tend to overlook the truth that they enjoying the privilege of sustaining their slogan and campaign is the outcome of someone’s liberal attitude to the real model of democracy.
President Goodluck Jonathan may be rated anyhow in every other aspect of governance, but in upholding the freedom of the citizens to speak their mind, he remains one of the best in the whole world. Jonathan, in the records of this nation must be rated at any generation as someone that actually gave Nigerians a new lease of life by allowing them express their feelings.That is even the reason many have taken advantage of this to call him names. He in the past years as the president has never lost his cool to muffle or muzzle anybody.
So, what is actually change other than allowing people enjoy those rights in law that had been denied them earlier. That leader that allows you to say your mind even when you abuse him is actually tolerant. I bet you that only a tolerant leader can boast of being a good leader.
Even today, the campaign team of General Muhammadu Buhari has written so many media houses threatening them already with suits, and claims in damages for publishing or broadcasting some information about their principal. With such incredulous intolerance, I still wonder the extent of change that would come with them in power. In Abuja recently, Gen. Buhari clarified on the poisonous Decree 4 of 1984 with which he killed and interred the right of the media and indeed the citizens to express themselves.
But when this promise of planning to create a good relationship with the media if he wins comes from the general, I so much doubt how he would implement it because the people that would run the administration with him if he becomes President are already threatening and breathing down the neck of the media houses. It casts a pall of doubt on their depth of the knowledge of democracy if a major contender to a great office as that of the president of Nigeria should not be criticized even by other parties in their campaigns.
Now to Jonathan: there is no president Nigeria can have in this generation that would be as liberal and open minded to attacks and criticisms like the sitting president. Regarding tolerance and the ability to allow others say their mind, he is a role model and should be commended for that.
One can confidently say that the change needed in fostering a society where the citizens speak their minds has already been actualised. President Jonathan has given Nigeria and Nigerians that needed lift. So when they tell you about change, please kindly ask them how you would know it has come or be part of it when you are not sure you would be allowed to speak your mind. Apart from Jonathan, there is no major contender to the presidential seat that has that pedigree and quality. Others are traditional agents of suppression of the views of Nigerians.
The language they understand better and the leadership they know is coercion. And you can’t change them now.The truth no leader would escape is that criticism helps bring out the best in a people and in leadership. It is only when the people speak out that you know whether they are part of the governance or not. No true leader loves leading mutes that have gags over their lips. The reason for Jonathan’s openness is his understanding that if the people vote you into power, their relevance does not expire after the election. The same power that makes them elect a leader is the same that would endow on them further wisdom to tell the leader where he errs and what their expectations are.
The current political campaigns have actually shown that difference where President Jonathan has made it a duty to meet corpers, traders, artisans, entertainers, sports persons, the jobless youths, elders, women bodies and many more in private audiences.
He knows that power resides with the people to decide who governs them. He never took them for granted or behaved like they never matter. In so many fora, the president has hosted the citizens to Town Hall meetings, to a point that his initiative remains the most comprehensive campaign tour of the nation in recent times. The high, the mighty, the low, the depraved and all have been guests of the president at various places. They have all got the sense of importance as a President of Nigeria, a position reserved for uncouth arrogance, would come down low to the people to convince them that he needs their votes.
If President Jonathan had denied them that basic right to express themselves, he would never have had that courage to come to them, parley one on one and look them in the face and canvass that they vote him because he would remain their friend.
Come to think of it; what progress would a society make when the citizens would have to watch their backs before uttering a word?Just because the President guaranteed this basic right and allows the rest to campaign, many have taken it for granted even when we know time was when even the most important citizens just because they said no were taken out of circulation and some silenced forever. Those days, the maximum rulers were gods that could not stand any dissenting voice. They were gods whose words were the only words of wisdom. But today, we have an open society where the least powerful citizen matters because his basic freedom is not trampled upon.
Let’s say kudos to Jonathan for such enviable openness and uncommon leadership quality. Because people have had their rights to free speech restored, we have walked away from the days of political killings where even the body language of those that said no brought them to an unholy end.
While the opposition clamours for a false change, those with discerning minds know that the right change has been entrenched already. It is the right of Nigerians to speak their minds without fear of being hounded. That is the major reason why bloodshed in our politics has abated.The opposition should join Nigerians in candid acknowledgement of the truth that Nigerians can talk to their president and won’t get axed for that.
You can’t imagine a better change than when the citizens would be watchdogs on the fate of the nation their own country to. Their freedom to speak has created an atmosphere where public officers understand they are not gods, but accountable to the people.He demonstrated that much with his assent to and passage of the Freedom of Information Bill into law.
Nothing says the opposition can’t for once accept a fact and praise a fellow contender. If the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill remained in the National Assembly for about 11 years when the leaders would never tolerate any passage of it, that person that took a different and exceptional step to make it a law to enable his people have their voice must remain a champion.
SUN
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