Reflecting on the triangulation process

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achieve the fit- defeating an incumbent in Nigeria. This is against the run of political plays in Nigeria. The APC party and its members weredesperate to win andwere ready to do anything, just anything to obtain what they want, Buhari and the Nothern people were acutely desperate to be in power for religious and tribal reasons.

Again, how can elections be free and fair in Nigeria when,for instance, the constitution declares Nigeria a secular state butour Northern brothers believe that rulership is their birth rightand will invoke or employ any means to obtain and retain power, thereby thwarting the constitution,further more, trying to make the country reflect their religion and dictate the country's leadership, culture and tradition. As far as they areconcerned,only their sect members are fit to rule the country, with what qualities, this study may want to know?This is against the constitution which states clearly that every eligible Nigerian can vote and be voted for, if he or she decides to contest. These are some of the factors fighting against free and fair elections in Nigeria.

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for a choice candidate, if he is not the choice of the cabals; rather the few selfish power brokers, the few godfathers whose arms sometimes masquerade as state organs,ensure that the results end up re-written to favour them. This was the case in 2007general elections, when Olusegun Obasanjo, his so called Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chaired by Prof. Morris Iwu and a few power brokers foistered Umaru Shehu Yar’Adua on the country. ‘’He confirmed this by saying that if Nigerians do not like his handpicked replacement, they will have opportunity to vote again in four years time.’’¹⁵ Obasanjo’s utterances and conducts smacks of an absolute monarch who does and says whatever he likes with impunity.

When the popular decisions or wishes of the majority are disdained, the rights of the minority dare not be mentioned at all. In Nigeria the minorities have to hide behind the majority to survive. They have no rights, should not benefit from any democratic dividend for not voting for the incumbent enmass. This was trumpeted by Buhari when the representatives of the Igbo ethnic group paid him a curtesy call, after being sworn in as the President of the country in 2015. He made it clear that the Igbo tribe should not expect patronage from him, for failing to vote for him ‘enmass’. Another set of the Igbo APC party stalwarts had to visit him to clarify the situation. His threat was still reflected in his appointments.

In Nigeria’s democratic practice, who says that the individual’srights enshrined in the constitution are to be upheld? For our cabal surogates, Presidents, Governors and others, the statements in the constitution are just that,constitutional statements. The judicialarm of government thatare supposed to uphold this prescription in the constitution,are easily compromised. The helsmen of the law enforcement agencies are appointed by these cabals and their surogatesand do easily and conveniently forget their duties to the nation when directed to do so, to the convenience of these cabals and their friends.For instance, the actions of the ‘first watchman of the society,’–Inspector Generals of Police, in the cases of the

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kidnappings of underage girls on the approval of the Emirs in the North are points at stake. In such matters and situations, the complainants are often treated as if they arethe culprits and are usually detained to scare them away from ever coming forward to demand for justice, this way, hounding them into silence.

The individual’s rights include the right to life, freedom of speech and expression. Recently, the Fulani herdsmen ran riot in every part of the country, massacring thousands of Nigerians and are still at it. The President whose tribesmen they are, was not noted to have done anything worth his position,to discourage such neifarious actions; yet, he is the Commander In-Chief of the armed forces. For carrying placades and demonstrating peacefully in the South East, seeking for the independence of Biafra, innocent children and women were gunned down. That is your freedom of speech and expression. A committee of inquiry has been set up, to what end? At an international court, the whole incidents were denied, until a private recording of the incidents appeared, confirming the neiferous acts to the International community. In Nigeria, the voices of the poor are the voices of the dead. Poor, hapless, innocent lifes were of no value, unless you have a voice among the Cabals. Nobody listened to the complaintsof the people in Niger Delta until they started blowing up the oil pipelines and riggs– ‘big men’s source of pocket money.

What of the freedom of religious worship? This is another gray area where democracy in Nigeria is having a serious setback.Nigeria has been defined by the constitution to be a secular state, that is, a nation without national religion,a country where everybody is free to approach God through any means and object and by any name; as long as,it does not impinge or infringe on another’s right or the faithfuls becoming private or public nuisance. A section of the country has been fighting assiduously to make themselves arrow head of God’s wisdom, determining which religious direction the rest of humanity must follow. They have constituted themselves into mega nuisance in every way imaginable. The baffling thing is

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that,the God that clearly enshrined in His ‘Decalogue;’ that nobody has the right to kill another human being,is purported to be filled with blitz whenever this group kills a Christian or even a moslem under whatever pretext and have given them the injunction to kill for Him and receive reward of twenty-one virgins in Paradise. What they never revealed is, what He expects them to do with those virgins in heaven, since there is ‘no monkey business’ in heaven or are they allowed to ‘do’.All that they insist on is that,‘by fire by fire’, their religion’srites and rituals must be seen as the light that scares the darkness, not the other way round.

People are afraid of this sect, not because of the presence of an awesome God that solve problems and effect miracles or that can even fight for itself or manifest virtues in its human followers but for latent violence, dismation of life at the slightest provocation. Some are very peaceful though. But the question that needs an answer is, who are the major members Boko Haram and what is their mission in Nigeria?

This is the altar, on which some of our so called leader’sworship with glee. The recent promulgation by El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna state, in this millennium,trying to ban freedom of worship in public,trying to ban preaching in the streets of Kaduna, leaves a lot to be desired. This definitely has inpinged on the freedom of worship of those religions that engage in “morning cries”-a religious exercise that seek an early morning spiritual reflection on one’s moral standing with one’s object of worship, for the betterment of one’s spiritual life that may translate to one’s better productive and honest relationship with others and the nation which should be encouraged as long as it has not become a nuisance. We might ask, why? Is it no longer good to appeal for good citizenship, for the wellbeing of the individuals and the nation? What of our Northernbrothers who do and have been doing the cries, morning, afternoon and night and are still at it? What we are saying is that, this motion which appears sponsored by El Rufai himself, if passed into law, is discriminatory and is hampering

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some of the citizen’s right of expression. It should be reviewed to have democratic and universal outlook not as if instituted to pursue a hidden agenda- Islamisation of the whole of Kaduna.

Then, we will make haste to ask here, do we have freedom of movement in Nigeria? Are we free to move to any part of the country and settle without molestation, or paying dearly with our life? If we have, what is “quota system” for? The point is that we have wittingly or unwittingly enshrined divisive principles or laws into our constitution and what of the recent pronouncement asking the whole Igbo nation in the North to go, just because they effectively celebrated the memorial of their relations that died during Nigeria/Biafra war, whom the federal government refused to include in their recent memorial celebration.

Recently, because the Igbo tribe declared a successful seat at home in Eastern Nigeria, to remember the solders of ‘Biafra’ extraction who losttheir lives, during the Nigeria/Biafra civil war, the Arewa youths gave a deadline- 1^st of October 2017, within which all the Igbo people residing in the North must leave the Northern part of Nigeria, and their property which are the main target of the banishmentcall, back to Easthern Nigeria, for good. This aberration is supported by some Northern Elders without counting the consequences which will be bloody on both sides. Does this manifest freedom of movement or action? The big puzzle is that the Federal government has not been forthcoming with the expected reaction, like the arrest of the protagonist of this dastard campaign. How can democracy trive, grow, not to talk of consolidating in this type of environment?

What is the benefit of government claiming ownership of all landed properties in Nigeria and yet in the forms we are made to fill, we are asked to indicate the tribe we come from, through the question of local government and state of origin instead of being contented with the nationality question?

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We have indicated ealier that the rights of the individual who has no ‘big man’ to speak for him|her can not be guaranteed. The same applies to the minority. The people of Ogoni land have been crying for attention forages, as a result of the devastations caused in their ecosystem bycompanies exploring for oil in Rivers and Bayelsa states, from where the wealth of the nation used in developing other parts of the country isgotten. The democratic

‘majority’ are simply enjoying the ‘milk’ from Niger Delta, without caring a hoot whether theDeltans drown in the sludge left by the milk. It required the Ogoni people’s destruction of the Nigeria oilpipelines, for reasonable attention to be paid to their cries. This is not democratic prescription. Democracy stated clearly that the minority must be given a sense of belonging in policy implementation. This is not being done,the majority rather tyrranise the minority. This will not help the practice and attainment of democraticbenefit in Nigeria.