No true democracy in Nigeria-NACAMA President
Professor Peter Emeka katchy, the President of National Complementary and Alternative Medical Association, (NACAMA) has said that Nigeria is yet to practise true democracy.
Speaking at a book launch in Awka, Anambra state capital, Prof katchy said, “the only true democratic polity experienced in Nigeria lasted for six years, 1960 to 1966”.
“That was when there was true federalism and after that, there was a coup that ushered in unitary system that brought in corruption,” he said.
Prof. Katchy said it was in the National conference of 1979 that restructuring was recommended, but from that 1979 till date, both the civilian and military were still practising military system because of oil money and the constituent states became redundant .
“If there is restructuring, there will be true federalism. When we have true federalism, there will be regional police. Nigeria is afraid of history, and that is why they removed history from school curriculum. Let history be restored in school curriculum, those people who are agitating do not know or read history.
Those who are agitating and want to be carved out is because history was not taught to them. The author of this book did a good job by authoring this book so that those who do not know the history of this country will know,” he said.
Earlier, the book reviewer, an Associate Prof. Head, political Science Department, Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Rev. Ifeanyichukwu Ojukwu, recalled that “the missionaries permeated us and brought us together via indirect rule, amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria”.
He commended the author, a lecturer at Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe,Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra State, Mr Chris Nwosu, for his work, adding that according to the author, there are 250 tribes in Nigeria and more than 500 languages.
He said, “since the amalgamation of Northern and southern Nigeria in 1914 by the colonial masters, we have not achieved true democracy, we are pretenders to democracy and we are still on the road to democracy.
The author, Chris Nwosu, said “Nigeria is not yet a democratic nation and if you want to know whether it is true or not you look at the indices of the democracy. One of them is the rule of law. Do we have independence of the judiciary, no, how do we conduct elections and the ones conducted, were they free and fair?.
He said it was inspiration from God and love for writing and reading, especially motivational books, saying “no human being can claim monopoly of knowledge”.
He said, “you have to read to broaden your academic horizon and it is by reading other people’s work that you can put up yours”. He said the book was necessitated because of the political situation of the country but regretted the illegal activities of pirates.
Alphonsus Nweze,
