I am very new to writing articles but not new
to publications, I believe individuals are molded by what they read, hear and
what they have experienced. The truth is most of the time hidden and it's up to
us as individuals to Differentiate fact from fiction if we live in a society
that we potentially have an influence based on by our votes. The above question
is what I have always pondered and I thought by means of this article I can
understand the thoughts of my fellow Nigerians or Africans.
Democracy
is defined as government by the people; a form of government in which the
supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their
elected agents under a free electoral system.
In a true democratic
society like the west, elections are conducted with a fair amount of success yet
there is still a small number of fraudulent activities during elections, in
other words there is always the issue of inappropriate activities during any
election. We could argue that Democracy is not perfect, but near enough perfect
for the west because it suits their citizens based on a number of facts, one
mainly most of them are educated and are potential leaders themselves. Democracy
could be argued to be promoted by the West to 3rd world countries, to ensure
that citizens of Nation are lead by the person who wins majority of the votes
(as the above definition implies) or as tool of Imperialism. it can be assumed
that the latter is the reason behind promoting democracy based on the events
that are happening in the Middle East at present and from history in most
African nations. If this is the case can democracy in 3rd world countries be
understood as modern day colonisation?, We can also look at things from a
different angle and assume if Africa were the super powers of the world like the
west, would they use democracy as modern day colonisation tool? Maybe so. The
main responsibility of any ailing 3rd world country is to enlighten it's citizen
for them to enligten themselves even more and if this is not a priority then
there will always have leaders who come and sell its citizens all sorts of
false promises, embezzle government funds for their personal use, while their
citizens scrap for what they can get short term. I don't believe that it would
be to general if we said that majority of African leaders play on the ignorance
of majority of their citizen (ignorance we could argue in africa could be "one
not educated and not educated on affairs of their nation or one that is educated
but not educated on affairs of their nation).
Democracy is very important
in any Nation if its citizen know exactly what it means, but also disastrous if
its citizens do not understand the impact of their votes. It could be argued
that majority of voters in Africa vote based on a number of criteria that does
not have anything to do with the true meaning of democracy or do not vote at
all, some vote based on friends and family, knowing they will get some reward as
it's a family or friend (or Friend to a close friend), some votes are based on
money they have received from potential leaders and others do not vote at all
because they have either lost hope based on experiences with past leaders or are
scared for their lives. The above is where majority of useful or potential
nation changing votes go to, the chances of this changing in the near future is
very slim, as far as this is the case we will always have leaders that do not
satisfy our yearnings of a better life as this is what our corrupt leaders
thrive on. We all or majority of us in Nigeria (and in Africa) should have the
responsibility of educating ourselves in areas of Politics and History as these
two are important to the way the world has evolved and how we need to make a
positive changes to our society. What amazes me as a Nigerian and an African is
the way our leaders continously feed off our nonchalant attitudes that they have
subjected us to which in turn reduces the self confidence of the majority or in turn
pushes some to carry out inhumane acts; it's almost as if we are subjects of
slave superiors (African Leaders) that are managed by slave masters (The West).
How is democracy to work in these conditions? Are we agreeing that "democracy"
based on the terminology is for us or are we agreeing to being subjected to how
it works in our ailing nation?, The foundation of a true democratic nation
should be based on its fair amount of potential "leaders" not "slave
supervisors".
How can we break out of these leaders that thrive on the
weakness of its citizens remains probably a mystery, I believe that change has
to be made, I believe change can be achieved, I believe we can be a better
people if we only understood that change can occur only if we speak as one and
not as indivduals, groups,tribes or based on Religous beliefs. If anything we
owe our unity to our children or future generation or they will turn to be even
bitter than we currently are towards each other. We also should learn the art of
reconciliation so we can endeavour to ensure that events that push us apart do
not repeat itself, we need to understand that we are different in our cultures
and respecting each others cultures (no matter how small) is important to the
peace of our Nation. If we grasp this then we would probably be on our way to being a
successful democratic Nation, if we don't the west will continue (as they do at
the moment) to use our weaknesses to achieve their own goals and satisfaction
and once in a while raise funds for our starving children when they feel like
it.
It is not a nice when African children are shown on TV in the west dying
from malnutrition, there are different ways to read into the scenes. For the
average joe in the west he is thinking "what poor children", for some a bit
enlightened they say "it's corruption in Africa thats the cause", for others that
aware they know the truth or the story behind the scenes. The West are always
playing along with the "CORRUPT LEADER", because that way they can wash their
hands clean of any wrong doing by pointing at the unscrupulous individual they
supported as leader as the cause of the suffering. Many African countries are in
serious need of a leader who can play the political game both home and away, one
who is not afraid to make change. As we partially criticize the West for our
ailing nation, we also should take positives from them in their attitude to
achieve success or goals for example Portugese began sailing to discover other
nations, from the very first time they tried to set sail, i bet they lost their
ship or crew but that didn't discourage them they probably kept on trying till
they eventually achieved their goal to set sail across the world, another
achievement that cost lives was the apollo disaster, that didn't stop them from
trying again. The west have learnt the art of achieving success based on their
failings. We need a leader of a similar character, one who is not afraid to fail
and one who also admitts defeat to achieve success, that way his citizen can see
with him. We can go on with what is expected from a leader but there are very
few about in our continent.
Is democracy for us? To a degree every
system has some democracy in it, but democracy should be tailored to a nation based on carefully thought criteria, e.g the economic state of the nation, level of
education and tribal issues within a nation etc. Forcing the democratic type
of system on other as practiced in the West is not the way forward as it
has failed over and over again and caused conflicts in most nations in Africa.
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