From liberal to lumpen democracy, By Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf

The intense degeneration of democracy and improvement at the moment is essentially because of the extended years of navy rule. The adoption of the witchcraft neoliberalism of the Worldwide Financial Fund and World Financial institution is, apart the avoidable bloody Civil Conflict and constant mass killings of civil and navy inhabitants by skilled navy coup makers, the best catastrophe that has befallen Nigeria. 

Nigeria operated liberal democracy in the course of the First Republic (1 October, 1960 – 15 January, 1966). Democracy is the negation of all monopoly of energy; the empowerment of the individuals in affairs of the state and society; and the event and humanisation of the political area. Any such democracy didn’t totally reign within the First Republic. However liberal democracy did reign. 

Liberal democracy is one that’s restricted to the political sphere and even so, it’s formal in nature. It doesn’t get rid of the dominance of the ruling courses. The equality it proclaims is in contradiction and irreconcilable with the financial system. Which is why liberal democracy is unrestrictedly loved by the ruling courses, not by the working and susceptible peoples. 

However, the liberal democracy of the First Republic allowed the working and different susceptible plenty to organise, promote and defend their pursuits, with out a lot ado. Ethnic, non secular, regional, provincial and divisional teams fashioned political events to defend and promote their pursuits, whether or not actual or imagined. So additionally did the working plenty.

The First Republic had political events that have been grass-rooted, membership-funded, ideologically-informed, and development-driven. Not so at the moment! Politicians within the First Republic did their greatest to respect the norms, guidelines, procedures and practices of the civil and public providers. The reverse was the case within the Second Republic. This can be very worse in at the moment’s Third Republic. 

Within the Second and Third Republics, celebration formation grew to become legally restricted and intensely monetised. Ethnic minorities and the working plenty are legally discouraged and technically disqualified from forming their very own events. 

Within the First Republic, governments had improvement plans which they religiously carried out. They offered free and obligatory schooling, at the least within the Western and Northern Areas. Universities and different tertiary establishments have been constructed and well-funded by the Federal and Regional/State governments. Educational freedom was revered. Autonomy of the faculties was upheld. Scholarships and grants have been offered to college students. Staff organised independently with out crude oil and direct interference by the state. The reverse was the case within the Second Republic, and continues to be the case at the moment. 

Within the First Republic, factories have been established by governments to modernise the nation, lower down on imports, and supply employment. They didn’t waste state assets flying all around the globe begging  foreigners to return put money into Nigeria. Agriculture was promoted in varied methods, together with analysis, alongside the supply of fertilisers and improved seedlings. 

Capitalising on the lack of the politicians to handle democracy, extremely opportunist, retrograde and divisive parts within the navy terminated each Republics. Thereafter, they stored slaughtering themselves in coups and counter-coups. They threw the nation into an avoidable, mindless and bloody Civil Conflict through which hundreds of thousands of individuals have been killed, and properties destroyed! 

Sure, peasant farmers have been exploited; however they weren’t completely left to the vagaries of market forces. Within the Second Republic, a lot consideration was paid in destroying state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by primitive accumulation. Within the Third Republic, SOEs have been completely destroyed by privatisation and seizures.

Communities within the First Republic, particularly within the South, launched into improvement initiatives. They constructed and ran faculties, hospitals and  halls. They negotiated with their governments to assemble asphalt roads, present electrical energy, set up put up places of work, amongst others. Right now, communities are so impoverished that the depressing and painful existence they’re experiencing has led to the acceptance and glorification of the saying: “Everybody for himself and God for us all.”  

Politicians within the First Republic did their greatest to respect the norms, guidelines, procedures and practices of the civil and public providers. The reverse was the case within the Second Republic, and worse within the Third Republic. 

Just like the First Republic, the Second Republic collapsed due to the lack of the political gladiators to handle the challenges inherent within the democracy they practiced. They didn’t pay sufficient consideration to improvement and the peoples’ welfare and pursuits. So when degenerate parts within the navy struck, the individuals hailed them. 

Capitalising on the lack of the politicians to handle democracy, extremely opportunist, retrograde and divisive parts within the navy terminated each Republics. Thereafter, they stored slaughtering themselves in coups and counter-coups. They threw the nation into an avoidable, mindless and bloody Civil Conflict through which hundreds of thousands of individuals have been killed, and properties destroyed! 

The navy drastically weakened the capability of the state to execute improvement plans, self-discipline wayward servants, examine corruption, and restrain the wealthy. They, greater than the politicians, promoted ethnic, non secular, and primordial politics, whereas creating and consolidating new divides. They devalued human lives, imposed a tradition of worry and silence, humiliated the campuses, and antagonised society greater than the colonial rulers did. They drew constitutions which legalised elections with out selection!  

The First Republic considerably developed the nation as a result of liberal democracy flourished and other people have been extremely politicised. Politicians revered the civil and public providers.

Simply because the Second Republic was designed and programmed to exclude vital forces and people dedicated to emancipatory politics, within the transition to civil rule programme, so was Basic Abdulsalam Abubakar’s political transition programmed to handover energy to lumpen parts.

Basic Yakubu Gowon constructed on the event objectives of the First Republic, partly because of the nation’s oil wealth however primarily on account of the respect and adherence to civil and public service guidelines and traditions.  

Basic Murtala Mohammed firmly cleared the trail to destroying the civil and public providers below the pretext of preventing “indiscipline and corruption.” Basic Ibrahim Babangida accomplished the destruction of the providers. Since then it has been the rising and qualitative destruction of the providers. 

The intense degeneration of democracy and improvement at the moment is essentially because of the extended years of navy rule. The adoption of the witchcraft neoliberalism of the Worldwide Financial Fund and World Financial institution is, apart the avoidable bloody Civil Conflict and constant mass killings of civil and navy inhabitants by skilled navy coup makers, the best catastrophe that has befallen Nigeria. 

As such, navy rule is every part that’s worse than negativity and catastrophe. Which is why these calling on retired skilled coup plotters to politically intervene and “save our democracy” are being intellectually dishonest and politically rascally. Okwudiba Nnoli, the famous political scientist rightly asserted that navy rule, “represents a harkening to the undemocratic rule of the early colonial interval when the individuals have been objects relatively than topics of rule. It contradicts the struggles of Nigerians for political independence and the proper of the person to equality earlier than the regulation, freedom of meeting and affiliation, and freedom of speech… navy rule not solely diverts consideration from additional progress within the battle for full democracy; it abolishes democracy itself and with it, the historic positive aspects of the individuals within the discipline of political relations.”  

Simply because the Second Republic was designed and programmed to exclude vital forces and people dedicated to emancipatory politics, within the transition to civil rule programme, so was Basic Abdulsalam Abubakar’s political transition programmed to handover energy to lumpen parts.

Lumpen parts are these Karl Marx described as, “ruined rogues, with questionable technique of assist and of doubtful origin, degenerate and adventurous scions of the bourgeoisie, … (and) vagabonds, discharged troopers, discharged convicts, runaway galley slaves, swindlers, charlatans, lazzaroni, pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, procurers, brothel keepers, porters, literati, organ grinders, rag-pickers, knife-grinders, tinkers, beggars; in brief, the completely undefined, disintegrating mass, thrown hither and yon, which the French name la bohème.” 

Therefore, the lumpen ‘democracy’ Nigeria is presently working. 

Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf labored as deputy director, Cupboard Affairs Workplace, The Presidency, and retired as Basic Supervisor (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Company, (NiMet). Electronic mail: aaramatuyusuf@yahoo.com