?We woke up the other day to a brazen display of American power.
In a shocking display, they entered a sovereign country, bombed it and took into custody their President and his wife.
The American President, after these shocking events, now came out to gloat that they would remain in Venezuela until a reasonable structure is put in place
The rest of the world is holding its breath in shock and fear.
Russia has issued a statement condemning it, and the BRICs have also issued a statement
What I was expecting were plans from either Russia or China to move into New York to rescue Madero and reinstall him, but what we have seen are tepid statements
This incident will bolster Trump's confidence as he seeks to reestablish himself as the world's leading power.
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For me, this is a red flag for us. Already, he has stormed our Sokoto with bombs, leaving our Government rushing to the press to say - ohhhh we gave them intel, ohhh we are part of it, when we all know very well that our President was also hearing about the strikes the way we all heard about it in Shomolu
Forget the conspiracy theorists who are talking about Venezuelan Oil reserves as being the main aim behind the attack, and look at the very plain justification Maduro gave Trump
Just like us, and in very different ways, though, Maduro had stifled democracy. He was running a Government for his cronies, muting dissent and not allowing the people have a say or their way
Did you see the jubilation by the people? When people are so castrated, they lose their dignity and would hail the bastardisation of their sovereignty if it would give them a drop of water in relief on their parched tongues
Maduro destroyed the economy, refused to go, ran tainted elections and did not allow the Venezuelans an option, so the only other option available was the invasion
Let's be very practical: are we not seeing the same things that happened in Venezuela here?
Is plural democracy not fading? At the latest count, about 26 Governors have decamped to the APC under very worrisome conditions - those not going are facing severe state pressure, as seen in Bauchi and Oyo. Kano is wobbling
Basically, like Venezuela, we are about to welcome a one-party state
Institutions of democracy have all been weakened and, in some cases, compromised
We no longer recognise the Judiciary, and the National Assembly is now but an appendage of the Presidency - I am not aware of any Presidential push towards them that has failed since the inception of this administration
The economy is witnessing elitist improvement, with core indices that should bolster the common man, not moving
Yes, inflation is decelerating, and GDP is improving, but poverty level is deepening, unemployment is still raging, and the Government is responding with more taxes and other such huge levies, while not being able to curb its own expenditure or even reduce the cost of governance
Leakages and inefficiencies in economic management remain opaque, with the government insisting that things are getting better despite the general feeling of despondency amongst Nigerians who continue to suffer the brunt of these policies
Now, Nigerians are beginning to have a feeling of no choice, and this exact feeling was the direct cause of the unfortunate invasion of Venezuela by the World's self acclaimed police
America has fired a warning shot with the Sokoto bombing, using 'Christian persecution' as leverage, and we would be fools to think that it's only those three bombs that they will leave us with.
The looming spectre of an American intervention in our sovereignty remains real if we keep playing the ostrich game and pretending that we have only one mandate to stand on
With almost all the Governors singing this mandate song, Judges singing this song, and the National Assembly singing this song, the feeling of general helplessness becomes apparent, thereby opening us up to a possible Venezuelan treatment by a despot who hides behind altruism to commit these crimes.
Unlike Venezuela, we are lucky to have 2027 just around the corner
2027 presents us with a unique opportunity to demonstrate to the world that we can not only govern ourselves but also be better organised democratically.
We must, by way of compulsion, stop this crazy national one mandate that we all stand on and push for pluralism, allowing other tendencies to breathe and fight for votes constitutionally.
Democratic institutions like the judiciary must be independent and free to be credible umpires
Police and other enforcement authorities must also be allowed to be independent
If we don't do these and we continue on this trajectory, we might find ourselves in the Venezuelan boat
Does anyone really think that, if we run the kind of elections that we did last time and dare cheated parties to go to court under Trump, we will survive as a country for the inaugural ball?
We can continue to sleep with eyes closed and continue to fool ourselves that Bola is a strategist and the best thing to have happened to us since sliced bread, until we find ourselves asking Kwam 1 to come and sing for us in New York during visiting period, then we will wake up and smell the coffee
This is the Trump era, and every nation must wake up to that reality, especially us who are already within his frame of mind
A word is enough for the wise.
Come and beat me
*Duke of Shomolu*
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