Democracy & Governance

Introduction

This Monday (25 June 2018), Mozambique celebrated 43 years of independence. It was at the dawn of 25 June 1975, that Samora Machel (1933-1986) announced to all Mozambicans, the proclamation of the “total and complete” independence of the country.

The following notes are offered as a searchlight in support of this anticipated revised programme of the Nigerian Left. The Left should see the political terrain more clearly.

Since the last 19 years, there has been a revival of the quest for the reestablishment of the defunct Republic of Biafra. Between 1967 and 1970 Biafra existed as an independent state apart from Nigeria.

So far, those with the view that ideas are the most desirable vehicles of every progressive change shy away from the way ideas could cause pain and retrogression. Yes, ideas do not just build the world; they could ruin things.

There has been a state of mayhem, uncertainty and confusion in the politics of the country. Anarchic behaviour has fully prevailed in all nine provinces. Political parties are facing major challenges within and amongst themselves.

To appreciate, more fully, the current wave of political re-alignments in Nigeria and be able to make informed projections, we may need to go back to the Nigerian Civil War of (1967-1970) and the long preparation for the Second Republic (1979-1983).

Introduction

It is a fact of the Nigerian history that President Olusegun Obasanjo’s executive proclamation and declaration were criticised, at that time, by the National Assembly, parties other than the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), state assemblies and governments other than those controlled by th

A Cambridge, Massachusetts, 25 May 2018 datelined Associated Press report (“At Harvard, Clinton warns of threats to American democracy”) said: