FOR TRANSITIONS SAKE

HELLO COMPATRIOTS!!!

 “No one is above the law”!!! Says the Rule of Law.

 It’s your right to speak up; it’s your right to live!!! Says Fundamental Human Right

      But day after day, we were crushed, flogged and asked not to weep, made to walk in fear of rather than reverence for our shepherds😓😓. Why? You ask. Well, we slept on one decree tonight and were awaken to another decree the next. It was so unfortunate for us that Fundamental Human Rights lost her Voice and the rule of law lost its respect 😢😢. We had decrees ranging from detention without trial having suspended the section of the constitution that addressed it, detainment of relatives of suspects who the government was unable to apprehend, Head of States were allowed to freeze assets of those suspected of corruption, banned former office holders guilty of corruption from running for office, prohibition of certain newspapers and arresting of journalist.

      Corruption, weak leadership style, abuse of power, violations of fundamental human rights, inability to restore the country’s dying economy especially after the oil-boom, ethnicity, tribalism and religious divide was the core excuse for both successful and unsuccessful coups that rocked our nation and so Head of state after Head of state, the promise and plan was to return to a civilian rule, this was what ushered General Ibrahim Babangida into power after a successful peaceful coup against General Muhammadu Buhari in August 1985.

 

GENERAL IBRAHIM BABANGIDA 

     Upon his instalment into office as Head of State, General Babangida ordered freedom of the press and the release of political detainees of the previous administrations, he and his Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) began to map out strategies for transition, part of which was the establishment of a 17-member Political bureau in 1987, to give candid counsel to the government about the transition process, the bureau set to work and recommended that political competition should be encouraged as it would bridge the gap of ethnic and religious differences, that local governments be strengthened and made the third tier of government, that a two-party system be established as against the multi-party system that was used in the first and second republic. All the recommendations of the Bureau were accepted except that of the socialist ideology. 

    Other portions of the transition included setting up a Constituent Assembly (CA) to ratify the draft constitution which was subject to final approval by the AFRC, a National Electoral Commission (NEC) to supervise the electoral process, train electorates and party members on the electoral process. 

    In May 1989, President Babangida’s lifted the ban which was hitherto placed on political parties though the “old breeds”(politicians and public office holders) from the first and second republic, lecturers, public holders, civil servants and elites considered to be extremists were banned from participating in politics by the Decree No. 25 of 1987. This freedom that was granted, led to 13 political associations seeking to submit their applications to the NEC so they’d be eligible to partake in the coming presidential elections(though the submissions of the NEC was subject to review by the AFRC). 

Let me stop here😁😍

 Was the application of these political associations acknowledged and approved?

 Did their interest in participating in the forthcoming elections finally plunge us into Democracy?

 What do you think????? 

 

REFRENCES:

 Karen Sorensen, "Nigeria, on the Eve of "change": Transition to What?

 Chronology of Events: January 1992 - February 1995, 1 June 1995, available at: https://www.refworld.org