The concept of “African democracy” invokes James and Stuart Rachels’ (2003) treatise against “Cultural Relativism”. That is to say, it is generally assumed that there is democracy relative to Africa and therefore, there is a concept of “African Democracy Relativism”. Due to this, democracy in Africa ought to be different from democracy everywhere else. “Choice” as an ethical value subsists and emanates from autonomy and freedom. When people are free in the democracy, they also have the freedom of “choice” in their functionings. There are many limitations on the right to choose in Africa due to the general limitations placed on freedoms.
Ironically, the history of the post-independent African state is that of monumental democratic and developmental failures. The few exceptions to this have been Botswana and Mauritius, and to a degree, democratic South Africa. After almost six decades of independence, most countries on the continent are characterised by underdevelopment. The evidence for this state of underdevelopment can be found in any social and economic indicators one cares to examine. At any rate, this article is also not about to excuse the failures and inadequacies in our system.
Instructively, the important Latin word animus (very closely related to anima) could mean a great many things having to do with the soul and the emotions, one of them being “anger”. As an English word, animus has generally meant “ill will”, so it isn’t mysterious that animosity means basically the same thing. Animosity can exist between two people, two groups or organizations, or two countries, and can sometimes lie hidden for years before reappearing. The deep animosities that exist between certain ethnic and religious groups sometimes seem as if they will last forever.
In the recent past few months or thereabout, political intolerance, extremism, exuberance and respectful communication systems have changed fundamentally. These changes have major ramifications for the political information environments and the extent to which they aid people in becoming informed citizens. Against this background, the purpose of this article is to review recent trends in our political space (environments) and assess their democratic implications.
Profoundly, this article seeks to encourage Nigerians to focus on choice by conviction, not the other way round of deep-seated animosity. The recent experiences in the Nigeria political space have witnessed a mob of gangsters – chosing the way forward as dictated by their preference, peddling fake news and misinformation, hurling invectives, hate speech and vitriolic assassination of characters of dissenting opinions. Sadly, the mob mentality and unwise majority of our beloved country Nigeria are the real essence of the change that we desire.
This is a radical departure from political civility and what democracy stands for. Unconscionably, the same set of people are averse to divergent opinions that sharply contradicted their argument. The so-called movement constitute the court, appoint themselves judges and brazenly descend into the arena of justice; passing a mob judgment and executing same. Unfortunately, they are taking us back to the dark era of despotism and intolerance, yet they’re advocating for a new Nigeria driven by dictatorial mentality. Such is the trend when the underlaying factor of influence is tribal or religious considerations and sentiments. Unfortunately, the terrible thing about tribalism and religious bigotry is that when it is ingrained and well entrenched the carrier is not aware it is unconsciously influencing his thought process, quietly filtering away reasonableness and soundness .
Flowing from the above, it has been a traumatic experience with the so-called movements particularly the social media warlords, the self-styled “OBIdients” seeking for a change of leadership and governance system. So unfortunately, they don’t seem to understand what it means to change the world. Firstly you must be able to change yourself before you can change the world; secondly, you cannot be doing the same thing again and again, and then expect a different results; thirdly, change comes by deliberate policies, not sentiments and emotion. Finally, sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.
Profoundly, permit me to conclude this article that seeks to discourage ethnic profiling, religious sentiments, intolerance, extremism and exuberance with the admonition from Orji Uzor Kalu, a Nigerian politician and businessperson who is a Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District, the Chief Whip of the 9th Senate, Federal Republic of Nigeria. He previously served as the Governor of Abia State, Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007. The distinguished senator passionately talked about issue of choice by conviction in the video clip. He had said: “Democracy is about choice and people should respect other People’s choices ahead of 2023 presidential election. You can support and vote for your party candidate without disturbing other people. I believe and support my presidential candidate and I encourage you to support yours quietly and respectfully.”
ARISE ‘O COMPATRIOTS
Richard Odusanya is a Social Reform Crusader and the convener of AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE ACRI
