Democracy Day: Metuh laments erosion of democratic values

Former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, on Monday said that the prevailing erosion of democratic values and tenets has completely negated the celebration of 2017 Democracy Day, noting that only the promotion of true democratic values would douse the tension in the land and resolve the national question.

Metuh, who spoke through a post on his Facebook page, as his own reflection on Democracy Day, lamented that the underlying values of democracy; the principle of separation of power, respect for the constitution and rule of law, protection of personal and political rights of citizens, freedom of association and speech, fair and free elections, and even equitable distribution of wealth and opportunities as guaranteed dividends of democracy had all been eroded in the country.

“Even autocratic regimes, the anti-thesis of democracy, are often able to record the kind of benchmarks that it has become the fashion to enumerate on Democracy Day,” Metuh said, stressing that, “The focus of our Democracy Day celebrations ought, therefore, to be the level of subscription to and enforcement of the values on which true democracy is built rather than the brick-and-mortar achievements, real or imagined, of agencies and departments of the executive arm.”

He said from the social and political disorder being witnessed in the country, many of those currently entrusted with the reins of power had now discovered that “it is easier to sit on the side-lines, criticising and condemning, than to actually be in the arena, balancing diverse and conflicting interests, and managing still to forge unity, peace and progress on democratic principles.”

He, therefore, urged that this year’s democracy day celebration should serve to engender a recommitment to the upholding of democratic ideals so that the citizens could enjoy a country where their personal and political liberties were much better protected and where they were free, within the ambit of the law to hold opinions, ventilate their views and associate freely without any form of molestation.