By Tife Owolabi
My assessment of democracy is that it has morphed into an oligarchy – a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy. It’s been eroded and poisoned, and a poisoned tree can’t bear good fruit.
This isn’t about the current regime, but palpable as they continue in their trajectory, and not peculiar to Africa. We have seen its entrenchment in the United States where Oligarchs installed President Donald Trump. It is on record that billionaires rallied him with 2 billion dollars to impose him on Americans.
To many of us, it is democracy, but far from it. I remembered a quote associated with the Late MKO Abiola who was elected President of Nigeria in 1993 under the banner of the SDP where he said “We will match them with Naira for Naira, Dollar for Dollar and Pound Sterling and Pound Sterling. He won eventually and to the surprise of his adversaries who controlled the state treasury then, they were perturbed. Election which is part of Democracy is OPM, Other People’s Money, particularly the wealthy.
The emergence of President Bola Tinubu almost followed the same pattern; some oligarchs ganged up against him but he beat them to their game, because he is one of them. His rhetoric about “ Let the poor breathe, don’t suffocate them” is Darwinism. The strong (oligarchy) who installed him should not be too quick to recover their investments but should allow the weak to survive.
But some might say, Mr Peter Obi represents another breed. No, he doesn’t. Both Mr Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar are Oligarchs and if elected it isn’t their money that we bring to power. It is OPM.
Let’s know this, whenever an Oligarch or Oligarchy captures power they place their loyalists in positions of institutional influence and all in a bid to recover their investments. Also, it sets the stage for political nepotism, because once those loyalists are in positions of influence, socialism or welfarism gives way to capitalism and that is where we are today. Democracy has devolved into an oligarchy and it has been badly corrupted by the elites and moneybags.
The way out is how to entrench true Democracy when every citizen is virtuous and has cultivated the right moral and ethical dispositions where wealth does not determine who to vote for or based on identity. Where INEC gets the recruiting process right as against what we have now. Remember a poisoned tree cannot bear healthy fruit.
Happy Democracy Day.
Tife Owolabi is a Development Studies researcher and writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
