Nigeria is a nation crippled by its peculiar practice of democracy.
Rather than uniting the country, democracy has inflamed religious and ethnic sentiments as politicians, desperate for votes, exploit identity for power. In the scramble for political advantage, religion and ethnicity became weapons, not values. The result has been a fragile state permanently on edge.
Democracy reopened the Shari’a question—why Islamic religious law should not enjoy the same, or even superior, status to secular law. This ignited passions among Northern Muslims who, under the previous arrangement, had freely practiced their faith without any sense of deprivation. What had once been a settled compromise was suddenly framed as injustice.
Shari’a quickly transformed into a symbol of liberation for Muslims across Northern Nigeria. When Ahmed Yerima of Zamfara State—one of the poorest states in the country—introduced Shari’a as a parallel system of criminal and civil law, President Obasanjo dismissed it as a temporary political gimmick that would soon fade away.
It did not.
Its effectiveness in mobilizing votes was extraordinary. Opposition became politically suicidal. Silence became complicity. What followed was inevitable: the next logical escalation—the push for an Islamic state. This ambition could only be achieved either by overtaking Nigeria entirely or by carving out a Shari’a state from it.
Boko Haram emerged from this climate.
Fearful of losing the much-coveted “Northern votes,” the Nigerian state hesitated under President Jonathan. That hesitation allowed Boko Haram to metastasize into a terror machine, culminating in one of the most harrowing crimes in Nigeria’s history: the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls, many of whom have never returned.
Still, politicians remained paralyzed by electoral calculations. Blame replaced action. The APC capitalized on this paralysis, branding Jonathan incompetent and riding the wave of public anger into power. Yet APC itself was propelled by the same Northern voting bloc, within which overt Islamic sentiment was unmistakable.
Muhammadu Buhari, a known Islamic fundamentalist and Fulani irredentist, assumed the presidency. Northern ethno-religious ambition found a willing partner in South-Western ethnic bigotry, producing a government in which national ideals were displaced by sectional interests. Irredentism quietly hardened into policy.
The terror groups that helped create this political order flourished. They grew in number, strength, influence within official circles, and military capacity. Their strategy evolved—to encircle the nation through forests and hinterlands before striking urban centers.
Yet politicians remain immobilized, still enslaved by the pursuit of votes—votes they have equated with illiteracy, ignorance, religious extremism in the North, and ethnic chauvinism in the South-West. As long as power remains the only objective, extremists and bigots will continue to operate with impunity.
Nigeria is crippled.
Her dreams have slipped beyond reach. Her peculiar democracy has bound her with iron chains, forcing her to watch, helplessly, as those dreams fade into memory.
Published by Chuks Nwachuku
