Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has said that democracy in Nigeria has failed because it is Western and it clashes with African values.
Other prominent Nigerian leaders including Labour Party’s Peter Obi, Sokoto Bishop Matthew Kukah, and ex-Sokoto Governor Aminu Tambuwal delivered scathing assessments of Nigeria’s democracy during former Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha’s 60th birthday celebration at Abuja’s Intercontinental Hotel on Wednesday.
Obasanjo argued that Nigeria’s democratic model, copied from Western systems, fundamentally clashes with African values:
“Is democracy failing in Africa? Are we talking of democracy or western liberal democracy? We had a form of government which attended to the needs of our people. That is democracy. Abraham Lincoln describes it as government of the people, by the people, for the people. But what do we have today?”
Obasanjo lamented that current systems force citizens to seek justice in courts they don’t trust: “You will say, go to court when you know that you can’t get justice. Democracy is dying in Africa and to save it, it should be made in the context of Africa.”
The 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate also shared his personal struggles with Nigeria’s system, recalling his 2006 impeachment as Anambra governor:
“I didn’t pay a dime to retrieve my mandate. When I was impeached, Obasanjo called to ask about my welfare. Today, the president is impeaching a person… Everything has been knocked down. Nothing works.”
Obi contrasted past judicial integrity with current realities: “I was sitting in my office when the court declared me winner. It can’t happen in Nigeria today.”
On his part, Bishop Kukah identified religious manipulation as democracy’s key obstacle:
“The weaponization of religion is a big problem… God doesn’t discriminate between Christian or Muslim prayers. If we’re not treating each other rightly, one of them must be a bastard.”
Kukah humorously described the Obasanjo-Atiku relationship as “a Catholic marriage—they quarrel but never break up,” while calling for constitutional reforms.
The former Sokoto governor Tambuwal criticized recent emergency rule in Rivers State, contrasting it with Obasanjo-era cooperation with the National Assembly:
“Under Obasanjo, NASS worked together to pass emergency rule with 2/3 majority. In this same NASS, we have the same constitution. What happened now? We need to chase out bad operators.”
