BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara has cautioned those who hold levers of power to resist the temptation of sliding into dictatorship, warning that tyrants and dictators have always ended miserably such as the likes of Mussolini, Hitler, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein and others.
Dogara, who stated these on Monday in Abuja at the 2018 Democracy Day Lecture, therefore urged those who hold levers of power to exercise caution just as he noted that all over the world, democracies nowadays hardly die at the hands of people with guns but in the hands of civilians leaders who have dubious allegiance to democratic norms and values.
He further said that despite 19 years of return to civilian rule, Nigeria’s democracy is still very fragile and those in position of power should be careful not to truncate it,
Speaker Dogara noted that elections have sometimes produced enemies of democracy and urged the citizens to be eternally vigilant in order to protect and defend our hard-earned democracy.
Dogara argued that there is every reason for Nigerians to celebrate almost two decades of civilian rule because the beauty of democracy is that it gives hope for a better future to the people.
According to him; “History show that the rich and powerful have always interchanged places with the poor and vulnerable. It is consensus and compromise that drive the wheels of democracy.
“As I reflect over what brief comments I will be making today, we have to invest it in the service of democracy, to remind us as I have said myself of what these democratic rights mean to us.
“We talk about how fragile they are, and to use this day to deter tyrants and rebuild leaders where ever they maybe, and to make a rallying point for peace and unity which is embedded in our national creed. If I succeed in doing that; then I would have scored myself as being successful.
“First of all, if you look at the concept of democracy from the loose; but very shrewd definition given by Abraham Lincoln as the government of the people, by the people and for the people, it doesn’t begin to make sense until you know the essence of the government of the people which is in the Declaration of Independence of the American people.”
