A society
of majority illiterates cannot enjoy the succulent juice of democracy.
Democracy, although a government of the majority, was never conceived to
be moderated by an ill-informed and illiterate class of majority
citizens.
This is the reason, much of African democracies are still plagued by impunity that’s condoned and excused by the majority of citizens.
From Nigeria to Zimbabwe, Gambia, Tanzania, Cameroon to Angola and
almost every single African State, the story is not different.
Those who have exhibited some difference like Ghana and Kenya, have a prevailing majority of educated, informed citizens.
For countries like South Africa, their
highly conscientized majority status has degenerated to a sore
xenophobic albatross that makes nonsense of their avowed elevated state
of being. Begging the worth of their very education.
Until Africa educates herself, from
where the empowerment can be secured for an elevated consciousness, the
beauty and values of Democracy will continue to largely elude her. It
takes an illuminated mind, to both entrench democracy and extract its
juicy values.
Illiterates; the uninformed are
shackled. They cannot even help themselves, much more, their society.
This is why democracy fails in Nigeria, as in most African States.
There’s only little happiness, if any at
all, about Nigeria’s democracy today, which you’d be celebrating. It is
difficult to comprehend how a society will allow few powerful citizens
compromise its laws and governmental institutions for vain political
expediency.
A democracy in which, courts, the police and her sister
agencies are compromised to work for political parties and their
stalwarts to the detriment of the silently consenting Nigerian masses
cannot be the character of Democracy which Abraham Lincoln envisioned.
Who is to blame? The minority educated
big-wigs who assert themselves to undermine the system or the majority
uneducated small-fries whose silence and illiteracy empower their very
oppression?
African democracy has much similarity
with the degenerated level of the Almajiri system that unfortunately is
now a caricature of its ideals. Almajiri derives from the Arabic word
Al-Mahaajirun, which literally means a learned scholar who propagates
the peaceful message of Islam.
But as regrettably noted by Hussain
Obaro, in his piece titled THE ALMAJIRI: ABUSED, NEGLECTED and published
in The Guardian of February 29, 2016, “the Almajiri culture has since
outlived its purpose and has become a breeding ground for child begging
and in the extreme cases, potential materials for recruitment into
terrorist groups. The pupils who were meant to be trained to become
Islamic scholars have now had to struggle to cater for themselves,
begging rather than learning under the watch and supervision of some
semi-literate Quranic teachers or Mallams who themselves lacked the
requisite financial and moral support. Hence, the system runs more as a
means of survival rather than a way of life.” This shortfall,
thankfully, has led the Sultan of Sokoto, the custodian of Islamic
heritage in Nigeria to call on governments, particularly at the state
level to prioritise the welfare of their citizens to address hunger and
poverty.
However, one cannot but ask if the
present day unfortunate reality of the bastardization of the Almajiri
system, an age-long and exceptional model for empowering young people
and propagating Islam, not true of what we accept to be practiced as
Democracy in Nigeria; where free speech lands one in jail and
inalienable rights have become vested privileges granted at the
whimsical discretion of an all powerful supreme leader to his beggarly
subjects who have lost sense of their place, calling and obligations as
citizens? Can a democracy which cannot uphold the rule of law and the
sanctity of the ballot guarantee the happiness and progress of the vast
majority?
Is this what we celebrate today, as always?
Oraye
St. Franklyn is a barrister-at-law. He is senior special assistant to
Governor Nyesom Wike on Social Media. He is a strategic communicator and
good governance advocate, writes from Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He
tweets from @RealOraye. He is also on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
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