SINCE May 29, 1999 when Nigeria’s ongoing nascent democracy commenced, the giant of Africa has set this date for an annual ritual of celebrating a continuous and unabated democratic rule aimed at consolidating this global political value as well as creating awareness on the need for our democratic operators to improve on its dividends.

Two days before this date, precisely May 27, our students all over the country celebrate the Children’s Day in preparation for the national democracy day.

The zeal and funfair which characterised these momentous and historic days have waned with every successive year; this is not because Nigerians do not appreciate the importance of these occasions.

During our colonial days, the Empire Day was a sacrosanct day set aside annually to honour the government and her colonial administration, including their men of glory who lost their lives during the World War.

All school children in the country, whether in urban or rural areas, were subjected to a march past to salute the Union Jack, chanting the British Anthem with precision and joy rather than melancholy. But today how many Nigerian children can recite the Nigeria National Anthem or literally appreciate every line of this document.

It is said that that the worst type of democracy is better than the best type of military rule. No one can clam that Nigeria’s democracy since the past 14 years can be rightly described in superlative degree and not even in comparative terms. How could that be if the dividends of democracy such as motorable roads, potable drinking water, electricity supply, good heath facility and gainful employment, among others, have eluded most Nigerian communities, especially at the grassroots. Even the privileged class of the urban milieu have abandoned their specialist hospitals for foreign medical care. How many Nigerians can afford this? Even our tertiary institution with all the technologists that abound, suffer  epileptic electricity supply, lack of potable water, stinking toilet, empty libraries or libraries stock with obsolescent journals and text  books .

The April 2011 general elections in Nigeria were acclaimed as  being superlative compared to all the previous elections since 1999.

Yet, the degree of fairness, freedom and participants turnout was a far cry from those recorded in the United States of America when President Barack Obama was re-elected for his second tenure in that  there were no violence, ballot box snatching and stuffing, impersonation,  death through post-election violence as was the case in  Ivory Coast, Northern Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC. This is as a result of the erosion of the democratic values of 33 years  of military interregnum which has impacted negatively on the psyche of African political leaders to date. This factor also explains the unfortunate incidence of June 12 and the eventual choice of ex-president Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo.However, it is interesting to observe that the influence of militarism is declining fast with two presidents emerging successively from the ivory tower.

Democratic awareness should start from the home, the Church and the school. Primary and secondary school curricula should embrace the elements of  democracy in all the classes, while Government, as a course, must be compulsory for the social science department in tertiary institutions. It has also become necessary for the various tiers of government in conjunction with the electoral commissions and the National Orientation Agency, NOA, to embark on an intensive sensitization campaign on the need for the youth to shun violence and for Nigerians to turn out enmass during the 2015 elections.

In a true democracy, power belongs to the people. The African Union, AU, should endeavour to intervene and arrest threats to the growth of democracy in the continent, especially in Congo, Guinea, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Libya, Egypt and others.

That is the only way elections in Africa, between now and 2015, will enhance democracy in the continent.

Mr.  UCHE NWADIALOR, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.