Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo says democracy has failed in Africa as the system of government has been characterized by power grabbing, encouraging corruption, and promoting practices that don’t serve the people’s interests.
The former President who made this known at the 60th birthday colloquium of former Imo State Governor Emeka Ihedioha lambasted the Nigeria judiciary for shelving its responsibility of holding leaders accountable and denying the people justice in the process
Obasanjo described Nigeria’s system of democracy as “a government of a small number of people, by a small number of people, over a large number of people who are deprived of what they need in life”
The former President said democracy is not African in content and in context maintaining that the system of government does not have any aspect of African culture, their way of life, what they stand for, and what they believe.
He lamented a system where people grab power corruptly and ask their opponents to approach the courts, knowing that the judiciary can not give them justice.
On his part, former Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi told the gathering that democracy has totally collapsed in Nigeria insisting that all the achievements recorded since the turn of the fourth republic have been eroded by actions of the present administration.
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Drawing an example from how he was affirmed as Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi explained that the court declared him winner without any inducement. He recalled how then President Olusegun Obasanjo sent emissaries to appeal to the Anambra State House of Assembly not to impeach him even as a member of an opposition party but expressed worry that the present situation has seen the President impeaching a governor
Obi faulted Nigeria’s electoral process, which he says has seen Nigerians lose confidence in the outcome of elections; a development he says throws up unpopular leaders and has left the National Assembly without the needed voice for opposition parties
The keynote speaker, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, while reviewing the theme of the event “Is Democracy Failing In Africa?” explained that a society without freedom of speech, freedom of the press, justice, equity, fairness, cannot be said to be practising democracy.
Bishop Kukah who blamed the attitude of African leaders to governance for the decline of democracy on the continent, insists that the peoples welfare must be utmost in the mind of any leader saying democracy can only be developed if leaders democratise development
At the end of the debate on the place of democracy in Africa’s governance process, some participants agreed that democracy as a system of government is not Africa’s challenge, but blamed the attitude and character exhibited by operators of the system for the massive poverty, suffering and underdevelopment on the continent.
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
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