Governors, Due Process And Demolition In Nigeria -By Dr. Austin Orette

For democracy to work, citizens must be enlightened. The issue is not about demolition. I am against demolitions. Nearly all the governors in Nigeria are guilty of that because they do it without due process.

To demolish the abode of a person, the government must go to court and obtain a judgement before carrying out any demolition. The governors have been very lawless. The unfortunate thing is that no one has gone to court to challenge these illegal acts. Apart from citizen apathy, the Land Use Decree of 1978 gave unchecked powers to do as they wish with the land that belongs to the people. The governors have unchecked powers in this regard.

This is a military decree that have not been reviewed by the lawmakers because it benefits them as they use their positions and relationship to acquire choice lands in Nigeria.

The process of acquiring land in Nigeria is so opaque that only well connected people can authenticate their property. In a functioning democracy, a law like this should never exist. No elected person should have unchecked powers. All over Nigeria, the governors are abusing this power.

Part of the unrest in the North can be linked to this abuse of process by these governors who are using their powers to take land from indigenous people. The Land Use Decree gave the governors the hammer and the nails, and the governors have been hammering away carelessly.

No one should have unchecked powers in a democracy. That law came from the military which I have written about extensively.

In a democracy, no one should be given power without checks and balances. No one is coming to save us. We must address these issues under our system of democracy by electing people who will be subject to the will of the people.

As it is right now, a lot of elected politicians are behaving like military dictators because that is all they know and the citizens are apathetic and have been made to feel that the abuse in the hands of elected officials is normal. This is a result of military induced cognitive dissonance and lack of political education.

The soldiers are not the answer to our present malady. They created the problem.

To correct a mistake, you have to rise above the level of understanding where the mistake was made. The Nigerian soldier can never be the solution because they created the sclerosis that is undermining our political process. The answer to problems in a democracy is more democracy, not military coups.

Military coups put the citizens in a state of arrested development. That is what we are experiencing now. If we trust the process, we will find the answers. This issue is not about Wike. It is about due process. You will lose the road if you focus on the mirage.

DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS