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Ideally, sovereign territories and their governments exist for the best good of the greatest number of the citizens. We have never had a country in the geographical territory recognised globally as Nigeria. Nigeria is an artificial nation created by the forced marriage of several independent tribal mini--nations by the British Colonial Masters purely for their own selfish reasons. The experimental project has always failed the people of Nigeria, except those in power and their cronies from onset. It did benefit only the civilian rulers and their cohorts 1960 - 1966. 1966 - 1979, it satisfied the interests of the military rulers and their partners-in-crime. In the four years of civilian rule by Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the country only took care of the needs of the corrupt politicians and their associates. The masses only bore the consequences of their maladministration, corruption and profligacy.
In the same vein, the military regimes of Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, Sani Abacha and Abdusalaami Abubakar from 31 December 1983 to 29 May 1999 benefited only the military rulers and their cohorts in and outside the military circles. Nigeria has been a country where criminals have been exercising sovereign power for most time. There has hardly been a legitimate government, freely elected by the people of the country since 1960.
The election that restored the country to Civilian Rule on 29 May 1999 was a charade as it was manipulated by the military rulers and the power brokers to ensure Chief Olusegun Obasanjo became the "elected" President of the Republic as he was believed by them to be a "moderate" Southerner of Yorùbá extraction. Note that the country was only returned to the government by civilians, and never to a democratic rule. We are very far from meeting the minimum threshold of a truly democratic nation. We have the institutions in place, but practicing something else. Ours is an Hypocritical Democracy!
The 2003 and 2007 Federal and State Elections conducted by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo's Administration were deliberately comprised to ensure preferred candidates emerged as winners. Also, the 2011 and 2015 Federal and State Elections organised by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan were anything, but free and fair. He was outsmarted by a powerful conglomerate of power brokers in the 2015 General Elections in which he was a candidate.
Elections conducted by Major General Muhammadu Buhari (Retd) too in 2019 and 2023 are a mockery of democratic elections. In summary, Nigeria is about to be governed by a set of criminals who willingly broke all the rules and regulations put in place to guarantee free and fair elections in their desperation to have access to the resources of the land. I make bold to say that Nigeria had never been governed by rulers with true legitimacy. Even the Independence Elections were manipulated in favour of a particular tribe in Nigeria by the outgoing Colonial Masters then.
We have never had a country!
- Adéwọlé Ọmọ́sébí Ẹ́gbọdọ̀fọ̀
+2348037199056
(A Gubernatorial Hopeful for Ondo State 2024 on the platform of Labour Party)
Sunday 19 March 2023
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