Steemit Engagement Challenge S11/W4 - How Is Democracy Functioning In Your Country?
Democracy, what comes to your mind when you hear this word, Freedom right? I was taught in high school that Democracy means "Government of the people, for the people and by the people" or you can simply put it as the system of government in which people have the authority to decide who they want to represent them in Government, or who should be their leaders. My country Nigeria is operating this form of government and in this article, I will try and explain how democracy is functioning over here.
HOW IS DEMOCRACY FUNCTIONING IN YOUR COUNTRY? |
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Nigeria gain independence on 1st October 1960, in that year it was declared as the fourth biggest democratic country in the world. But a few years after the democratic ideal was fluctuating, the period did not last because military rulers normally come into power through coup d' etat until 1999 whereby our country's modern constitution was enacted and that year's elections were more successful compared to the previous military rulers. That marks an end to the military rule era and it's 24 years now since civil liberties and freedom of speech returned to Nigeria.
Nigeria operate a form of democracy known as representative democracy(presidential democracy), where people hold the power but appointed representatives to exercise and utilise the power for them through an election process. In this system, the elected president is the head of government and the president leads the Executive branch of government, which make up of the president and the ministers. There's separation of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary. The executive exercises the power while the Legislative is held by the Senate and House of Representatives, these two chambers make the body known as the National Assembly which serves as a check to the executive arm of Government, they bypass the law and the executive will enforce it while the judiciary interpreted the law.
Citizens are enjoying certain rights, and freedom like the right to life, right to education, freedom of worship, movement and speech, right to acquire and own immovable property, freedom from discrimination, right to fair hearing Etc.
In all democracy is fragile in Nigeria and has suffered some setbacks due to inconsistency for example elites have been found to have more power and influence than average citizens and this resulted in a great deal of corruption in Nigerian politics and general life. Nigeria is yet to be fully Democratic.
IS YOUR COUNTRY FREE FROM ANY DOMINATION RULED? |
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Nigeria is partly free, yeah not absolutely and this is because there's inconsistency and lack of transparency in elections, there are records of fraudulent elections, violent and other abuses like buying of votes and intimidation during the process. Citizens' political choices remain undermined and impaired and influence power too and international and domestic economic interests. Local domination of either illegal armed groups or military in some regions of the country, and lastly wealthy political sponsors known as "godfathers" do influence the electoral process in Nigeria.
Corruption remains a major challenge to democracy, insecurities and insurgency by Book haram, militants group, kidnapping, and sectarian violence in the middle belt region etc, Makes full democracy hard to achieve in Nigeria. The law enforcement agency and military on many occasions involves in extrajudicial executions, torture or other abuses, civil liberties are undermined by religious and ethnic bias. Women face discrimination and there's frequent harassment and arrests of journalists who cover politically sensitive topics, all this poses a threat to democracy.
IS YOUR COUNTRY SELF-SUFFICIENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION? |
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No Nigeria is not self-sufficient in food production this is because food prices rise every day and people are hungry and our economic situation is worsened over the years. The rate of food is high too, the cost is of food importation is in trillions of Naira or Billions of dollars. We are experiencing a high rate of inflation, and our food production reduces drastically over the years example the production of wheat drops from 350,000 metric tons to 36,945 MT, which shows a significant drop of 314,000MT.
Bandits have been attacking farmers, not allowing them to plant, they demanded dues from them during the planting period, middle period and when they want to harvest their crops and Even at that if they harvest 10 bags of cereals they have to give them 2 bags. That's how bad the situation is, more than a million farmers could not farm again, same goes with fishing, food prices are skyrocketing, it increases every minute.
HOW IS YOUTH EMPLOYMENT IN YOUR COUNTRY? |
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Terrible! I mean youths dominated 70% of our population, out of 217 Million estimated population youths are 151 Million and 53.4% of them are unemployed, hmm is this not startling? ~ National bureau of statistics (NBS).
As it stands now Nigeria is one of the highest globally and the situation is steadily worsening.
WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR COUNTRY TO BE LIKE? |
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I would like my country to be a safe place for all citizens, a place where we all enjoyed equal rights, constant electricity supply, good health services and education, adequate security and safety, and decent infrastructure for all to enjoy and thrive. I think this is the true meaning of Democracy, yes it's not about the said government of the people, for the people and by the people, but improving the lives of citizens for the better!
But if you ask me, it will take only God's intervention to achieve all this in my country, because we have all it takes to be the number one in the world, we have vast natural and human resources, but here we are languishing in the last place as one of the poorest in the world for more than half a century now, something has gone badly wrong in my country and only God can rectify them.
Hi @eliany @ninapenda and @shahid2030 join this contest.
Nigeria got independence in 1960. Still you believe it's partly free, not completely. It is because of unfair elections. I would say that in Pakistan unfortunately conditions are worse than that. The military and establishment is always using it's power against the most powerful political leader of Pakistan: Imran Khan.
It's so threatening to see the chaotic and disturbing situation in my country.
It's really nice to read your post. Best wishes for the contest.
This is terrifying, so sorry about the situation in your country. Well let's just hope for the best. Thanks for visiting me and engaging meaningfully, I appreciate!
THANK you so much dear for the kind and precious support. Much more love and respect.
Nigeria is blessed with a good system of governance, but corruption has killed everything, which isn't good for a country's development. We are blessed with numerous resources for which the government has failed to show concern; if not as a giant of Africa, we would have been the ones supplying food to other countries.
Absolutely! God will help us out because the system is corrupted we can only be hopeful. Thanks for visiting me I appreciate.
Hola amiga
Las elites en los países es lo más desastroso que puede haber, se hacen ricos a partir del trabajador promedio y la persona que trabaja todos los días con su esfuerzo, siempre seguirá así
En mi país pasa igual hay mucha corrupción y poco trabajo
Espero que tú País Nigeria mejore con el pasar del tiempo para ello tenemos que educar a las mentes jóvenes y que no sigan el mismo camino de la elite
Bendiciones.
Hello @bryanfer981 the situation is just disheartening, but as you rightly said we can only hope for the better. Thank you so much for visiting me I appreciate your meaningful engagement.
Oh, I have gone through the second post in the last few minutes where commoners are not happy with their democracy. I hope things improve in your country and the situation becomes more people-friendly my best wishes.
At times I ask myself questions as it seems more like we are practicing gerontocracy instead of pure democracy
Hello,
@goodybest
Our team would like to thank you for participating in the SEC season-11/w4 organised by #Hindwhale Community.