By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

June 12, 1993, is etched in our collective psyche because the freest and fairest presidential election in Nigeria's political annals took place on that date. International and local election observers, who monitored the election, wrote reports that stated that the election was free and fair. But incredibly, and to our utter bewilderment, Nigeria's political 'Maradona', Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, annulled that election. Consequently, Nigeria was thrown into a political cul-de-sac, which prevented the birth of the third republic.

Before then, the military boys had truncated the growth and evolution of democratic governance in Nigeria in the first and second republics. We had experienced military interregnums in our country between 1966 and 1979; and between 1983 and 1998. The military rule we experienced in Nigeria disrupted the evolution and growth of our democracy and stalled our national development. Is corruption, which is the cancer asphyxiating life out of our country, not institutionalized in Nigeria by Ibrahim Babangida, a military ruler, then?

And it was the evil Maradona, Ibrahim Babangida, who cancelled the June 12, 1993 presidential election, and installed Chief Ernest Shonekan as the head of the Interim National Government. Shonekan's government, which was a lame and sitting duck, was shoved aside by the dark-goggle wearing Sani Abacha, who possessed sanguinary and thieving proclivities. It was said that Sani Abacha, who was a military strongman, master-minded the liquidation of Kudirat Abiola and other democracy activists, who were fighting for the revalidation of Chief MKO Abiola's stolen political mandate.

But it took the death of the vampiric Sani Abacha for Nigeria to return to civilian governance in 1999. Since then, we have enjoyed and experienced twenty-seven years of uninterrupted civilian rule with one national leader handing the baton of political leadership to another elected national leader. Those transitions from one government to another were not characterized by chaos, violence, and bloodletting.

But aside smooth transition from one government to another, have we enjoyed other gains of democracy in this fourth republic? The answer to this question is an emphatic no. President Tinubu's execution of economic policies to revamp our economy has thrown it into a tailspin. As a result, millions of Nigerians have been reduced to sub-humans, who live below the breadline. Those unfortunate Nigerians who live in the margins of our society scavenge for leftovers in refuse dumps.

Not only is our economy in the doldrums, but also security challenges have beset and crippled our country. Has Nigeria not returned to the Hobbesian state of nature where life is short, brutish, and nasty? Daily, people are killed in the north, which has become the epicenter of bloodletting, by bandits, terrorists, and insurgents. And kidnappers' abduction of people for ransom has become common occurrences in the north and south-west of Nigeria.

More so, Nigeria is a technologically backward country. For all our immense human capital and abundant natural resources, Nigeria has not joined the league of developed and industrialized countries. It still imports goods, which can be produced, locally. But why our past successive political leaders had failed to leverage and harness our human and material resources to transform Nigeria to a developed country should not baffle us.

Inept and corrupt political leadership is our bane; and it is the cause of our national underdevelopment. Our culture of corruption has been birthing political leaders, who are destitute of moral probity, leadership qualities, political cum economic ideologies, and a pan Nigerian vision. Over the years, those leaders have raided our exchequer and stolen Nigeria blind. Being bereft of knowledge, they cannot think out ways by which Nigeria's problems can be fixed. And a country cannot grow bigger than the vision and dreams of its national leaders.

More so, it is those bad political leaders, who have bastardized and commercialized our politics. In order to perpetuate themselves in power, they are deepening and solidifying our culture of corruption. During periodic elections, they will commit electoral frauds so as to emerge victorious in those elections. And when their electoral victories are contested in courts, they will offer inducement to judges for the perversion of judgements regarding those electoral litigations. That is how bad and morally bankrupt political leaders are recycled in Nigeria.

Can Nigeria realize its manifest destiny and become an economically and technologically advanced country when it is led by its third eleven politicians? This is a rhetorical question. Nigeria is trapped in the rut and quagmire of economic and technological underdevelopment because we have not got our politics, right. So for all our human and material resources, Nigeria still brings up the rear on the ladder of global development.

So as we commemorate the 36th anniversary of the cancelled June 12, 1993 presidential election, it behooves us to reflect on the state of our country and think out ways of fixing our hydra-headed national problems. We should also turn a new leaf by desisting from doing things that will cause the economic strangulation and technological stultification of Nigeria.

More so, we should eschew ethnic hatred and religious intolerance for they are centrifugal forces that divide the people of Nigeria. Peace and unity is a force for national development.

Lastly, concerted efforts should be made to eradicate corruption in Nigeria as it is the cankerworm that militates against the development of our country.

•Chiedu Uche Okoye, a poet and civil servant, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra state

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