Democracy And The Fury Of The unlettered

Democracy And The Fury Of The unlettered

Abdullah Musa

Many commentators remind us, rather sadistically, that democracy is a game of numbers. Numbers in absolute terms, no qualification! The only requirement that I know for Nigerian democracy is that one should attain the age of eighteen to be able to vote. Others below eighteen are free to canvass for votes; to paste posters; to deface that of the opponents; and even to cause mayhem if so inclined, since apparently, the law is silent.

In a book, titled: Political Theory (by Eddy Asirvatham and K. K Misra), I came across this term: Ochlocracy. This term was simply defined as mob rule! It further explained that this obtains when many rule to promote their own class interests. So, if as is alleged, PDP rules only for the interest of its members not for the good of the nation, PDP’s democracy may be termed Ochlocracy.

Democracy has its strongest tap roots in the evolution of European societies: from feudal, economic, and social system to capitalist production system. Democracy seems to be Capitalism’s strongest allay, even though Capitalism is thriving in China, a known Communist nation. From the little I know of this history, modern European nation states endeavored to create an educated citizenry so that they are able to participate fully in the democratic process.

The rule of law, rather than any hereditary rights or laws of natural selection, should be the bedrock upon which modern democratic practices are based. We thus need two classes to believe in the rule of law: the rulers and the ruled. If the rulers will always come to power through emasculation of the will of the majority, the emasculation of law will also manifest in all other aspects of governance.

As the rulers reel in the intoxication from one ‘success’ to another, they are unable to see the cracks in the structure that will surely one day prove to be fatal, the harbingers of devastating tsunamis. It is these cracks that we are observing and reporting in this discourse. As people ought to be tired of Doomsday scenarios, we may spare readers of speculations of what might happen in the future. More so, amongst the readers will be Muslims to whom what will happen in the next second is highly unpredictable.

The last general election in one of the northern states of Nigeria was full of surprises. Of more ardent concern however was the violence following the announcement of the Presidential election results. The violence was purely a northern affair, and even at that predominantly in the Muslim North. The regionalization and the enthronement of religious divide was a weapon by one candidate in order to consolidate his region behind him.

At the gubernatorial election level, a case of interest was of one northern state where it was observed that those most committed to the electoral process were those who were drug-dependent! The candidate that won that election so far was said to have adopted as his campaign tactic the language suitable for the ears of this particular class of voters!

So in that particular state you certainly have Ochlocracy! How could an otherwise conservative, enterprising society come to this sad end, where drug addicts are to determine who rules an entire state? There may be many reasons, but to my mind, neglect is the principal cause of this tragedy. More tragic is the politician so desperate for power that he will pitch his tent in the company of the deranged!

But what happened to the mainstream society? (That is of course a little naïve on our part, for it seems to be the drug addicts are now main stream, and that politician is politically right to appeal to the majority!) The mainstream is now a minority. A particular pattern of life may be dominant amongst many in a given society such that those who adhere to it are the majority. Whoever wants to shape that society must then go through those classes.

So if the drifters are getting more numerous, you will not go anywhere if you address them in the language of the normal. And since drifting has become the main career option of the youths, it seems drifting must be in the ascendancy, since raw youthful power is behind it. So if there is one thing they disdain, it is law and order, or simply, conforming to authority.

In their Doomsday predictions, Western world commentators are of the opinion that Nigeria is going to crumble. So if a hitherto society that was law-abiding is now dominated by vagabonds, it stands to reason that the nation which has such states in the majority is surely going to fail.

There is no better antidote than public education, to curtail future drifters. There is equally no better remedy for the drifters than employment; and most importantly, drugs rehabilitation. The two approaches need colossal amounts of money and strong political will. Unfortunately Nigeria’s treasury is exclusively reserved for members of National Assembly; as such there cannot be enough funding for Nigeria’s public schools so that they stop producing vagabonds for Nigeria’s streets and politics.

Those who have disdain for Almajiri should pause in order to contemplate this: majority of those who now are vagabonds and anti-rule of law are not those who trained as Almajirai, but those whose appetites were whetted for a slot in the secular establishment but found the door firmly shut. We are now witnessing crises of alarming proportions in the Western and other industrialized areas of the world. Apparently they neither have solution to the unemployment problem, neither any insight how to patch up the global capitalist system.

In the face of this apocalypse, soothsayers might make brisk business, but nobody seems to have grasped the handle on the future. Nigeria, a nation dependent greatly on oil export, may just simply keep on wishing that the present world order continues. The fact that the political future of a particular state is going to be determined by drugs addicts is nothing that will merit the attention of fat cats at the National Assembly: the addicts are their foot soldiers.

With the crumbling global capitalist system, it may be quite rational for many a Muslim parent to haramise Boko to his children, (not the bomb detonating type) but instead let them go the Almajiri way, whose training prepares him neither for the office nor factory (relics of a crumbling system), but for the farms or markets, or even sorcery. And let us see how far the political system based on thugs and drug addicts will take the current political class.