PDP and its many omissions
Under the PDP, the country also witnessed gross human rights violations, insecurity with the rise in the spate of kidnappings in the Niger-Delta, Boko Haram killings and the crisis in the Plateau. There was also a numbing frustration, disillusionment and increasingly people’s total loss of confidence with the PDP-led government. The main fundamentals of democracy […]
Under the PDP, the country also witnessed gross human rights violations, insecurity with the rise in the spate of kidnappings in the Niger-Delta, Boko Haram killings and the crisis in the Plateau. There was also a numbing frustration, disillusionment and increasingly people’s total loss of confidence with the PDP-led government.
The main fundamentals of democracy as a government builds on a set of ideals – liberty, personal and civic freedom, government of, for, and by the people, has been changed by the ruling PDP in the last decade to mean government of the few, by the few and run by the selected. The concept of democracy which was built on the principle of majority rule, tolerance of dissenting views, freedom to choose elective representatives, withdrawal or calling the attention of your representatives through the power of the ballot box was totally eroded by the ruling PDP leaving Nigerians grumbling.
The party, which was founded on the principle of freedom, equality and justice has in the last 11 years, changed to a monster of a sort and what Nigerians witnessed under it was profound assault on the concept of rule of law, rape of democratic ideals – election rigging with the worst in the nation’s history in 2007. And within the party itself, we saw debasement, travesty and reversal of democratic tenets – internal democracy is non-existent in the party. The party resorted to the culture of imposition of candidates thereby restricting the democratic space and in the process denying Nigerians the option of choosing credible leaders.
Kabiru Danladi Lawanti, Department of Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria