A former president of the Nigeria Bar Association, OCJ Okocha says
Nigeria is not among nations that are practicing democracy.
Okocha disclosed this while speaking on this years International Democracy Day –
recently in Port Harcourt
In an interview with our reporters, OCJ Okocha said that Nigeria is
still operating in the military system of government, because the
country has failed the Democratic Litmus Test
He explained that human rights of citizens are being denied and
recently journalist have been dealt with. He described it as trycolian
situation, stressing that Nigeria have not been practicing democracy
but are still operating as if we are under military rule.
” Nigerians need to sit back and look at democracy that we want, we
have a Constitution that is still being amended and multiply. The activities and behavior of the National Assembly cannot take us to the promise Land”
The senior advocate of Nigeria however said that we need a
Constitutional conference, so that we determine first, the structure
of the federation. Second, the tiers and levels of government. Third
the issue of revenue allocation and revenue mobilization and then true
federalism.
The senior advocate of Nigeria OCJ Okocha further explained that even
political parties do not uphold their own Constitutions. He said the
Nigerian Constitution must be amended to the last and enforced before the country can be said to be practicing democracy.
According to him there are several principles that act as the
foundation for a democracy which includes the Rule of Law, Protected
rights and freedoms of the people, free and fair elections, separation
of power, equality before the Law where all citizens are
equal and treated equal, with equal responsibilities”
He further said that Nigeria is just a continuation of military rule, where human rights are abused. Adding that there are arbitrary arrests and killings, especially when one criticizes the government and there is press abuse, intimidation and harassment because there is no press freedom.
“Press freedom is one of the fundamental used to determine the level of democracy in a given state, but here the government has lagged the press.
“It is painful that the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been jettisoned. We have abandoned the principles of Democracy which we should support”
