Up till 1957, Nigerians fought colonization. They did NOT fight for freedom.
During military rule, Nigerians fought for civilian rule, they did NOT fight for freedom.
It is a great error to think that civilian rule is the same as democracy or freedom. Lack of deep examination and intellectual guidance has helped trick Nigerians into believing that by having structures of democracy that mimics that of the modern world, they automatically have freedom. That's untrue, from hindsight at least. They are two different things and could be unrelated.
Freedom is a big topic that most Nigerians don't actually understand. That's why after easing out soldiers in 1999, Nigerians went away celebrating, thinking they are now free, not minding the possible implications of the fact that the leader of the country at the time had a military uniform beneath his agbada. Right now, that same man is confronted with the problem of the meaning of freedom and he is as aghast as many thinking Nigerians!
The stage Nigerians are in right now is that they think the government OWNS power and possibly the country and whatever laws that government makes must be obeyed. They don't understand the concept of sovereignty of the people and the fact that in a democracy, a government STRICTLY does two things:
1. What the people want and,
2. What the people permit.
The understanding and assimilation of these two items is the basis for a democracy.
The poor understanding of it by Nigerians is seen in the dead limbs that Houses of Assemblies are throughout the country, especially in Edo where it has ceased to exist.
When you see a limp House of Assembly and a weak NASS, have no doubt about it, the people don't understand liberty and they are in a mix of authoritarian rule and lawlessness.
The sum total of these things reflect, without tenderness, in one place: standard of living and fulfilment of dreams. That is the absolute measure of how free a society is. You can't argue with that.
Your post has been curated manually by@alend