Last Thursday, June 12, 2025, Nigerians marked another Democracy Day, a day the immediate past government of President Muhammadu Buhari set aside to commemorate the peaceful and transparent election of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola on June 12, 1993, which was wrongly cancelled by the government of Ibrahim Babangida. Abiola was later arrested and died in detention after he declared himself the President.
Before the June 12 declaration, May 29 was initially the official democracy day in Nigeria. It marked the day President Olusegun Obasanjo took office as President of Nigeria in 1999. May 29, 1999, drew the curtains on the long years of military rule in the country. On that date, Nigeria rejoined the comity of democratic nations and has enjoyed 26 unbroken years of civilian governance. In real terms, the country, on that day, proclaimed “Never Again” to military incursion in its politics and, once again, signed in for democracy, which Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, defined as the government of the people by the people and for the people. Implicit in the definition is the people-content.
Democracy accords the people the right to their choice of leadership and freedom of association. That freedom of association is expressed in formation and membership of political parties and organisations. From 1999, Nigerians have enjoyed the multi-party arrangement. That has given them the opportunity to belong to political parties of their choice and aspire to leadership positions in the country.
Unfortunately, after 26 years of practicing democracy, rather than widening the frontiers of the system, Nigerians are at the risk of drifting to a one-party state. That is a major feature of President Bola Tinubu’s re-election agenda. It is one ambition that is characterised by desperation. Since the desire assumed fever pitch, everything is being brought into the mix, including cajoling and coercing members of the opposition to defect from their parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Aside state and national legislators crossing over to the APC, governors have joined the trend, with Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, and other elected officials of his state leading the pack. Akwa Ibom State governor, Umo Eno, is the latest catch. Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State is on the verge of falling for the bait.
Of course, there would be nothing wrong if the APC they are being pushed into is showing examples in internal democracy and good governance. But the party is not. It has, rather, dismantled all the guardrails of democracy in the country by its actions and pronouncements. The situation is so bad that whatever ills Nigerians encountered or complained about in the 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), between 1999 and 2015, have multiplied under the APC. Incidentally, the President who prides himself as a progressive and democrat has not helped matters. Instead, in his consuming ambition to have his way in 2027, virtually all the democratic norms in the country are being trampled on.
Tinubu represents the fears by Harvard University political scientists, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, on how leaders can subvert the democratic process to increase their power, in their book, “How Democracies Die”. The book advocates mutual toleration and respect for the political legitimacy of the opposition. The authors advise against denial of legitimacy of opponents, by which parties in power cast their rivals as criminals, subversive, unpatriotic or a threat to national security or the existing way of life. In their words; “Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders – presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power”.
Levitsky and Ziblatt used the soccer game to illustrate how autocrats subtly undermine national institutions to achieve their desire. In it, power-mongers compromise the referee, sideline at least some of other’s star players and rewrite the rules of the game to lock in their advantage. The institutions that are readily targeted include the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and other regulatory bodies that are ordinarily supposed to be neutral arbiters. “Capturing the referees provides the government with more than a shield”, the authors note. Nigeria’s democracy under Tinubu has come to this sorry state. Membership of the APC is forcefully becoming the basis for showing respect to the President and a measure of patriotism. That is not what democracy teaches.
Democracy thrives in a multi-party system. Democracy without opposition is antithetical, an invitation to civilian autocracy. Opposition political parties are major ingredients in a democracy. They provide the barometer with which the activities of the ruling parties are measured. The parties in power need criticism from the opposition to be on their toes and offer good governance to the people. When the opposition is referred to as government-in-waiting, it is because of its important role in the democratic process. The opposition provides the alternative voice on how the system should work. In the Western world, the leading opposition political party forms a shadow-government, which analyses actions and programmes of the party in power and offers alternative viewpoints. Nigeria needs a strong and robust opposition to keep the system working optimally.
The gains recorded in the First and Second Republics were essentially on account of the vibrancy of the opposition at the time. While the coalition of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) of Nnamdi Azikiwe, ran the government, the Action Group (AG) led by Obafemi Awolowo, provided robust opposition that kept the administration in check. In the Second Republic, the principled opposition from Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) of Aminu Kano and Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) led by Waziri Ibrahim, put the Shehu Shagari federal government of National Party of Nigeria (NPN)/Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) accord on its toes. Azikiwe’s NPP later joined the other opposition groups when its alliance with the NPN crashed. At the state levels, the culture of opposition resonated, making the governors sit up to their duties. For a complex society as Nigeria, there could not have been a better system in giving the people and the diverse tendencies the opportunity to have their say.
President Tinubu and his gang should therefore, not be allowed to subvert this time-tested principle. The opposition must be allowed to thrive. Whatever moves to weaken the opposition should not be encouraged. Weakening the opposition was how many African countries walked into serious problems that are currently besetting them. Nigerians must rise and ensure that the obvious antics by the President to coral the country into one-party state do not succeed.