Democracy Day: Nigeria Turning Into A Graveyard By Buhari Olanrewaju Ahmed
A marathon of four years has begun with the propagation of hatred and arrogance of a self-acclaimed demigod whose ambition seemingly supersedes the interest of Nigeria.
Democracy in Nigeria is a toxicity of manipulation and a war waged against oppressed people. A brutal life of servitude in the political realm of our lives has been entrapped with indecisions.
We are moving far away from reality. Shamefully, majority of the oppressed have become praise-singers of their oppressors despite the agonies many of them presently undergo. They made politicians who have no idea their demigod.
Democracy in Nigeria is designed as a camouflage. It has never produced good fruits for the citizens. Nigerians have been subjected to hardship and the country has become a war zone where terrorists operate freely and with unprecedented impunity without the intervention of security forces.
Many people have become homeless; hundreds of children are orphans as a result of terrorism. The situation has plunged the country into different kinds of atrocities that have dented the image of the country at the international level.
Poverty is on a consistent rise, millions of innocent children have dropped out of school because of the decline in business and hostile economic situation in the country.
Social injustice, intimidation and harassment of innocent citizens by those who are saddled with the responsibility of protecting citizens are rife. Many have been killed over little argument with security operatives that are paid and trained with taxpayers money to maintain sanity in the society.
Religion has been the principal tool used to fuel crisis and divide the oppressed people when politicians choose to accomplish their anti-people missions. A lot of innocent people have been sent to their early graves because of blasphemy. Here is a country that does not care about human lives but fight over religion.
Terrorists and so-called “unknown gunmen” have spread across the length and breath of the country. The Nigerian security architecture has been hijacked by top officials that conspire with terrorists for monetary gains. They allow their selfish interests to override the interest of the country and citizens.
Kidnapping and banditry have been commercialised – a hidden agenda that some individuals are desperate to accomplish. Hundreds of people have lost their farmlands which is their only means of livelihood because of the invasion of the Fulani herdsmen.
I could recall the unfortunate incident that happened in Igangan, Oyo State, which claimed several lives and left properties worth millions of Naira destroyed. I wept as a journalist when Afrika Eyes met the victims and families who lost their loved ones and properties to the attack.
People resort to violence because of frustration and the inability of the government to secure lives and properties of the people. Citizens take laws into their hands because of the failure of the government.
After 62 years of this miserable journey, Nigerians are still under the shackles of darkness. There’s absolutely no doubt that the country is on a life support. Dictator Buhari’s regime has been hell on earth.
People are dying on a daily basis, whereas Dictator Muhammadu Buhari is aware of the killings and kidnappings in the country but is totally unconcerned about these calamities.
Obviously, this forceful marriage of 62 years has lost thousands of lives. People are dying of hunger, travellers are being kidnapped, businesses are also being shut down, the cost of living in the country has skyrocketed. Everything has crumbled because of disunity and failed leadership in this hopeless marriage.
Those who know the ills of darkness should not dare to harm the moon. As a country, we’ve moved away from reality and we all pretend as if the country is moving forward. Nigerians have been humiliated, assaulted and molested by those who are in charge of our Commonwealth.
It is an irony that life has become harder to live in a country that is blessed with abundant resources. We have become slaves in our own country and our rights have been violated for decades, and we are now bleeding from the pain and agony meted on us by our cruel oppressors.
As the hackneyed saying goes, an idle man is the devil’s workshop. Almost a year now, schools have been on strike. Students are at home roaming round the streets. Many of them have joined bad gangs because the system failed them.
Meanwhile, politicians’ children are studying abroad while they abandon our education system to be in a moribund condition because they do not want poor people’s children to compete with their own children. So they deliberately pillaged our resources and killed the education sector.
Both religious and political leaders make decisions on our behalf – decisions that have divided the country. The South-West is agitating for Oduduwa Nation whilst South-East wants Biafra as a country. The unity of the country has been broken into tiny pieces.
Owo Church attack is one of the most horrific attacks in recent times by terrorists who claim to be herdsmen. Despite the killings that claimed over 50 lives inside the church, dictator Buhari and his cohorts still went ahead to organise a convention. That’s to tell you that politicians are unmoved and unconcerned about the killings of innocent citizens.
To them, their ambitions are more important than the lives of the people that were killed. Now that the country is heading towards Afghanistan, Nigerians need to wake up and build a strong bridge of connectivity that would retire and uproot bad leadership from the country.
We need to ambush these bad rulers with our Permanent Voter’s Card [PVC]. We also need to prove to them that money cannot buy our conscience. Over the years we have been enduring, with the level of insecurity in the country. People can’t afford three square meals in a day.
Mothers have become prostitutes just to put food on the table for their children who are dying of hunger. Fathers, on the other hand, have become pickpockets in order to fulfill their obligations as head of the family. It is even worse in most cases.
We cannot continue like this. 2023 election will be a ballot revolution. It is time for us, as patriotic citizens to defend the country with our PVC. We need to use our last weapons which is our PVC to rescue the country and send these people out of power. It is time to vote for competent people into power – people who will represent us well.