Maybe Nigeria Never Needed Democracy In The First Place

Opinion:

BY PHILIP OBIN

Maybe Nigeria never needed democracy in the first place – or at least not the version we blindly copied. Our system of government should have been custom-built – to reflect our unique history, values, and realities. What we have today is a ‘copy and paste’ democracy, and clearly, it’s not working for us.

One of the greatest dangers of imitation is assuming what works for Peter will also work for Paul. But sometimes, what saves one may destroy another.

Both Presidents Buhari and Tinubu made bold attempts to revalidate local government autonomy – a critical step toward grassroots development in Nigeria; yet, as always, the real emperors – the state governors – found cunning ways to undermine this singular idea that could have transformed our nation from the bottom up.

And what did we do as citizens? We moved on – business as usual. In our usual ignorance or convenience, we continue to blame only the President for Nigeria’s failures, while quietly ignoring the tyranny and corruption at state and local levels.

Meanwhile, billions – trillions – allocated to Local Government Areas vanish without accountability or trace. No development. No impact. No questions asked.

*@PhilipObin writes in from Abuja.