Dr. B.A. Mojuetan of the famous Ibadan School of History, once attributed the collapse of the defunct Soviet Union not to the defects of Marxism but simply because those who professed Marxism were not sufficiently Marxists.
Following the above, the problem with Nigerian democracy largely remained that those who practice democracy are not largely democrats.
Until the true democrats are given the opportunity to practice the tenets and rule of the games as obtainable in advanced societies of the world, we are most likely to remain in the quagmire of bad governance and its multiplier effect on our national development.
Nigeria has since 1999, engaged in a multi party presidential system which has since been subjected to service manipulations by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The self acclaimed largest political party in Africa has failed to deliver the much desired dividends of democracy to the impoverished people of Nigeria, a country that ordinarily has nothing to do with poverty.
It is disheartening to note that the Nigerian government under the PDP has relegated the country to one of the most corrupt country in the world.
The reasons for this is not far fetched.
Now, most of our representatives both at national, state and federal levels of government did not secure their office via popular votes.
They, therefore, see no reason why they should be accountable to the people. Rather, they are daily engaged in the satisfaction for their unending greed for wealth and political relevance.
Like the PDP, most of the other opposition parties are consistently engaged in crisis centred around money received from the federal government. This has led to serious factionalisation of the already weakened opposition parties.
While the PDP has suffered the consequences of lack of internal democracy, the opposition parties have no better stories for the people.
Now, how can one explain the crisis arising from ordinary registration exercises for party members. Political aspirants who are not sufficiently democrats have been reported to hijack such exercises to their advantage.
The results are such that several party members who are seen as political opponents were eventually deregistered.
Aside deregistration of party members, Nigerian political parties have failed to enshrine the doctrine of internal democracy. The flawed party congresses which most of the parties have conducted over the years is an indication that Nigeria is a nation state begging for genuine democrats.
A party that fails to conduct credible membership registration exercise congresses, conventions and primary elections will find it difficult to uphold the principle of democracy.
Indeed, the failure of the ruling PDP and several other opposition parties to attain internal democracy, places the Independent National Electoral Commission in a very tight corner as regards the conduct of credible elections in 2011.
There is no gain saying that INEC will have less work to do when the political parties secure internal democracy.
It should, however, be noted that the Nigerian judiciary has kept the hope of a viable democracy aglow.
It has through popular judgments on election and electoral matters given hope to the Nigerian masses, the most recent being the Governorship legal tussle in Osun State where the Action Congress of Nigeria secured victory over the PDP.
Nigerians are today helpless in the hands of the National Assembly which has arrogated unconstitutional power to itself. It is either making laws to enhance their personal welfare, tilting the national budget to secure same or making resolutions to seize local government funds of opposition controlled states.
The National Assembly which is composed of pseudo democrats; most of who secured their positions through flawed elections have failed to make quality legislations to rid Nigeria of corruption, abuse of office, poverty and gross insecurity.
As 2011 election year draws nearer, Nigerians must insist that genuine democrats secure their mandates to represent them, for herein lies their hope of socio-political and economic emancipation.
