Nigeria had real democracy before 1966 coup D’tat—General Akinrinade, Ex chief of army staff

Former Chief of Army Staff, General Alani Akinrinade (retd), has said he believes that Nigeria experienced what he described as “real democracy” before the 1966 coup.

In an interview with Newswatch published on December 28, the former army chief said money became the driving force after the first coup.

“When we look at the journey till date, I find that the last time we had real democracy was before the coup of 1966, the first coup d’etat because then there seemed to be every effort made, at least at the regional level, not just to make representation very general and very intimate to people, but also to allow Nigerians to elect people of their choice,” he said.

“Then there wasn’t this much influence of money. If there was money influence, it was certainly to help run the parties and aid their campaigns (which needed a lot of money to move around). I think that was the focus. I think we made one big mistake, the military, I mean. We thought by changing the guard and going down the ladder to bring in new people, fresh people, and young people, things would be okay. Particularly in the time of Ibrahim (Babangida), there were efforts to bring in young people. The approach had some merit, but the people didn’t have the experience. And what is more, our economy wasn’t too good. We were desperately looking for money. So, money started having the influence it never had in our first republic. That is how the matter became rusty for me because I can’t remember anybody I voted for who came back to the community to address the people.”

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Akinrinade said he believes that Nigeria would have experienced significant development had it stuck with the parliamentary system of government.

The pro-democracy activist said the federal system in operation has created a country where service is not the focus, but enrichment.

“…To me, it is closer to the people,” he said, “the people who represented us were people that the public knew and when they failed they were ashamed to face their people. Now it is not like that. The system has been abandoned to all sorts of characters at the local level and they do what they like. Everybody wants money. It is no longer a job for serving the people. Even the constitution that we complain about every time has certain provisions that can solve some of the problems that we are facing.”

“Look at Ondo State now; the constitution has enough provisions to help them sort out the problem. They know the person they elected, so why worry about his family or his friends? They are not part of the package. You elected the governor; he is the one you should deal with. Use the Constitution to deal with the issue,” Akinrinade added.