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Home-Grown Democracy And Nigeria’s Lootocracy
By Japheth Omojuwa
Newsdiaryonline Tue Sep 27,2011
“If you run a lootocracy, you have no conception of sufficiency.
You set up the rules to grab as much money as you can, as if
you’ve won a supermarket shopping spree. You also concentrate
power, the better to arrange the world for your benefit.
Unchecked by modesty, satiety, or shame, you take all you can
get away with. You loot until someone stops you.” Paul Rogat
Loeb
Definition is everything.
The denotative meanings of certain words show in their essential
usages and forms. Take the phrase nascent democracy for
instance. Nascent in its denotative sense describes a process
that is just coming into existence and beginning to display
signs of future potential; it describes something that is not
yet fully developed. There is a Nigerian
meaning for nascent though, especially when democracy comes
after it. Nascent Democracy was the generally used term to
excuse the early abuses of the electoral process, the wanton
looting of public funds and everything in our democracy that
made it look alien to democratic realities elsewhere, but had to
be excused in the face of the public’s concern for a democracy
that looked very much like an illegitimate child of the mother
called democracy. To calm nerves, the learned amongst them
smartly came up with the hope inducing and soothing phrase
nascent democracy. It worked. It worked because everything was
excused under that phrase. A full blown free-for-all in the
house of laws – nascent democracy. A Governor gets abducted by
his own orderlies – nascent democracy. A whole village gets
wiped out under the pretense they killed a couple of soldiers –
nascent democracy. A president consistently abuses the
constitution -nascent democracy.
And so did our nascent democracy continue until today that it
has evolved into a kind of home-grown democracy ( Home-grown
democracy has been credited to General Sani Abacha in Literature
for his kind of democracy where all the political partties, all
five of them adopted him as their candidate for the presidential
elections he was so willing to contest but for cold apples, hot
girls and the cold hands of death). This Home-grown democracy
has crystallized into a Lootocracy even though we always were a
lootocratic society.
Now that we have Lootocracy in reality and practice, what are we
gonna do with it? Well we can at least define it and its
principles.
DEMOCRACY AND LOOTOCRACY: Definition, Principles, and Examples
1- FREEDOM OF SPEECH, DEBATE, AND ENQUIRY
DEMOCRACY: This is a principle of democracy because it is
essential to the open debate upon which a vibrant political
culture is founded and maintained.
It’s been said that the strongest power is that which can forbid
its own mention. Anybody who attempts to suppress political
debate should be suspected of trying to defend illegitimate
power.
LOOTOCRACY: In a Lootcracy however like Nigeria’s home-grown
democracy, rousing the air of debate makes you an enemy of the
president. Even Nebuchadnezzar never debated so there they have
something in common. Lions do not debate either but monkeys can
be trained to debate and may be this is one of the situations
you could say a monkey has more intelligence than human Doctors
of Philosophy in zoology whose lives were supposed to have been
spent learning about monkeys. I can bet my meagre earnings to
state that a monkey trained for the years it takes to train a
human from cradle to Ph.d level would be able to understand that
laws are not laws except they bring about justice, that members
of a country’s cabinet are also citizens of that country and not
weingovernmentizens –
a special specie that is allowed to loot without question and
govern without any form of criticism. Political debate can be
suppressed in a Lootocracy even though there is an air of
legitimacy about the government – an air not a tsunami because
the Justices that will hit the gavel on whether the president’s
mandate was fairly won were selected by another president of a
court whose selection by the president who holds the mandate had
nothing to with an appeal to justice
and order, even though every appeal from the ruling party’s
characteristic rogbodiyan
and magogo at the
elections will be upheld for once irrespective of how they won.
Obasanjo thought he has a Lion but he was not such a smart
animal say a monkey to know that you don’t just rig elections,
you also rig the judicial process.
2- POPULAR DEMOCRACY/ UNPOPULAR LOOTOCRACY
DEMOCRACY: This is where the people, as a whole, are the
government, and where the people retain and exercise their
governing authority on a perpetual basis.
In a Popular Democracy, the government is the servant of the
people, not their master. Its job is to listen, respond and
deliver to that which is demanded by the people.
This is no suggestion
however, that this concept, or any political concept, should be
imposed upon other peoples or cultures, or that it is in any
sense a morally “superior” system.
LOOTOCRACY: Well this is not a popular one. It is an exclusive
government. The beauty of Lootocracy is that the people are part
of the electoral process – you need them to feel and think they
matter for Lootocracy to be sustained – but they are not factors
after the elections. It is assumed that since votes were duly
purchased from the people, the dividends of that investment
should be exclusive to the investors. Investors here include
ogogoro-drinking political god-fathers, loyal party members and
friends of loyal First Ladies. The ruling class is superior to
the ruled, hence when the Emperor – the president in a
Lootocratic government – comes to towm all economic and social
activities must be at a stand-still like Herbert Macaulay’s
statue in front of CSS Bookshop in Lagos.
3- OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE AND DIVERSE MASS MEDIA
DEMOCRACY: The national mass media is crucial to the national
democratic process.
It is the national mass media which forms and validates most
people’s understanding of what is “real”.
It is the national mass media which holds the key to reaching
the millions of voters. If you control the mass media that
informs the voting choices of the people, then you can control
the democratic process.
It is essential therefore that the mass media is:Open –
transparent – so we may know the people behind it and their
agenda.
Accountable to the public, so we may acquire a remedy when it is
inaccurate.The “freedom of the press” must be balanced with its
accountability.
Diverse in the sense that media monopolies should not be allowed
to develop and dominate.
LOOTOCRACY : Government
is closed and unaccountable. The supposed largest television
network in Africa – in terms of how much has been looted in its
name – is exclusive to report the daily activities of the
emperor. At least they are smart enough to murder the sound when
madam Umblerra speaks to avoid the murder of the English
Language on national television and incur the wrath of the Queen
of England as a country.
The citizens have no rights to know how much their president
earns. If they know sef can they stop his Lion-hearted madam for
change First Lady from storing millions of dollars as ornaments
of democracy, afterall the coming government can always tell the
EFCC to look the way of yahoo-yahoo boys rather than try to peek
into the protruding belly of a madam whose only guilt could just
be that she swallowed money.
<http://omojuwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/goodluck-jonathan-2.jpg>
This is not Nebuchanezzar, it is Goodluck Jonathan Nigeria's
amiable President
There is no accountability in a Lootocratic government like
ours. Nobody is accountable to anybody and that is fair enough
because at least you see “accountable” on paper but never in
reality. We are running a government solely on God’s grace as we
have no Nebuchadnezzar to at least scare looters from looting
the economy. As they are also Lootocratic leaders, they must
exhibit the values and ethics of Lootocracy. Pretend to fight
corruption but look the other way when corrupt Governors are
leaving office, allow madam to pack millions of dollars in her
private jet under the pretense of we-are-going-for-international
conference, like they speak pidgin at any conference sef – may
be we have also paid for exclusive pidgin translators for madam.
Well well at least they shake hands and you don’t need
grandiloquence or even a bit understanding of language to shake
hands with a Secretary of State especially if unlike your
Emperor husband you don’t bow before an official of another
country’s government. sigh.
<http://omojuwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Patience-Jonathan.jpg>
1st Lady Patience Jonathan. She is well loved by Nigerians and
has been cleared of corruption by the EFCC.
4- ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY FOR THE PEOPLE/ OLIGARCHIC LOOTOCRACY FOR
WEINGOVERNMENTIZENS
Economic Democracy is the democratisation of economic power.
This requires decentralising economic power, and economically
empowering smaller units — whether it is the individual, or the
community, or the people collectively — through democratic
mechanisms.
The present method of money creation, whereby virtually all
money comes into society as an interest bearing debt owed to the
private banking system is contrary to the democratic imperative
that the creation of money should be a public service, under
public control for the public good.
The present method of money creation gives great power to those
private individuals and organisations who create the money.
Economic Democracy would empower the people with the means of
creating and controlling their own money supply. It would
democratise the creation and control of money.
LOOTOCRACY: As long as you ask Dangotay and he grants
permission, you’ll have cement prices come down and build houses
at will. While at it don’t dull because if him vex no house for
you and your father. Isn’t it simpler to operate this
Lootocratic Oligarchy where you as a president won’t have to
think and thank God for that because it takes having sound
brains to thinkanyway
5- EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW
DEMOCRACY: Much is made of “the rule of law”. This means that
judgements are made in accordance with a written law, rather
than being made in an arbitrary manner.
Just as important as “the rule of law”, however, is equality
before the law — meaning each citizen has an equal ability to
seek and receive justice.
In our society, the ability of a person to defend himself
successfully may often depend upon his ability to pay for his
defence. It often seems that there is one law for the rich and
one law for the poor.
A democratic society would ensure each citizen is truly “equal
before the law”. It would ensure that everybody has free access
to the law, just as we have free access to health care.
<http://omojuwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bankole_headshame.jpg>
Dimeji Bankole is tired of the looting culture in Nigeria's
lootocracy
LOOTOCRACY: There is equality before the law here too but there
is no equality before juctice. You can go to our courts and find
laws but justice has traveled. The emperor has said “our courts
are courts of laws and not of justice” and his words – no matter
how dumb and retarded he looks to you and your biased eyes – are
the law. The Judiciary has been raped and abused so much you are
better off letting go than looking to our courts for Justice. We
know the party that will benefit the more from that
bastardisation of the Judiciary. If Democracy is government of
the people, by the people and for the people, then it is easy to
define Lootocracy.
Lootocracy is government of weingovernment, by weingovernment
and for weingovernment.
If you don’t like it create your own kind of democracy because
in our home-grown democracy – Lootocracy for short – every
illegal thing is legal and every legal thing is not justice.
Lootocracy is the daily and consistent raping of the people, the
fagging of the laws of the land and the masturbation of the
people’s common-sense for adulterated orgasms. In reality the
people will never have the real thing as long as we have empty
heads and shameless hearts where we are supposed to have men of
ability.
PS: Thanks to Alistair McConnachi and Sonala Olumhense
whose works on
Democracy and Lootocracy helped with the legalisation of writing
the very
first BOOK ON LOOTOCRACY. Content was supplied by the
disheartening,
clueless and shameless acts of Nigeria’s weingovernmentizens.
Follow me on twitter @omojuwa where we can discuss how we can
make Lootocracy an acceptable government the world over. All
hail the emperor.
STOP PRESS: The word lootocracy was originally coined to
describe the corrupt cartels that have ruled and plundered
countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and some of the former Soviet
Republics
CLUE: Google “lootocracy” under Google images. The president
whose face appears on the first line is erm the most lootocratic
of all.
<http://omojuwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/lootocracy1.jpg>
-- Japheth J Omojuwa
Research Associate IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, a
globally
renowned Think Tank headed by Franklin Cudjoe.
Assistant Editor AfricanLiberty.org
www.africanliberty.org
Director Nigeria Operations,
The Prometheus Institute, U.S.A
http://theprometheusinstitute.org
www.omojuwa.com
+2348025260697
+2348038528430
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