By Abbati Bako,bsis,psc,Alumnus BUK/Kent University, the UK’s European University @Cantbury/Brussels Campus
Your Excellency,
Democracy does not always die by military coup. Sometimes it dies by suicide. A thousand small cuts to the rules, until the republic bleeds out in broad daylight. That is what the world now calls the Nigerian model. Professor Paul Collier of Oxford University, London (Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, 2009) cited the late Fela Anikulafo Kuti “democrazy” in Nigeria not democracy and the drums continued to be beaten. Also, Professor Larry Dimon in his book in 1998 mentioned Fela’s word (democrazy). Hence, still it seems Nigeria is on the same line of “democrazy” not democracy.
*The game is no longer being played rightly in accordance with the rules, elements and principles of democracy:
In advanced and emerging democracies, parties lose elections. They do not lose members to the ruling party every Monday. When governors, senators, and entire state assemblies defect to the APC without ideology or consequence, it is not politics. It is procurement. Voters become irrelevant when mandates become portable. Also, the Constitution has been ignored by the game players.
*The referee is no longer neutral:
Nowhere else does a government insist on appointing a known party loyalist to chairman the electoral commission and call it reform. INEC’s job is to conduct elections, count votes, make sure it is free, fair, credible, violence free and not take sides. When the umpire wears your jersey, the match is fixed before kickoff. The EU Election Observation Mission said it plainly in 2023: “lack of transparency… damaged public trust.” When trust dies, turnout follows. We saw it at 27%.
*The opposition is no longer allowed to compete and that’s not democracy:
Democracy requires contest, not conquest. Yet opposition parties today face frozen accounts, weaponized courts, and state-sponsored crises. That is not democracy. That is incumbency turned into state capture. A system where only one party can win is not a republic. It is a monarchy with elections.
Mr. President, foreign partners are no longer offering advice. They are issuing warnings. American visa bans for election offenders. Also, European parliament resolutions. ECOWAS members whispering that Nigeria cannot lead a region it cannot inspire. We have become the case study of how to hollow out a democracy while keeping the ceremonies.
*Here is the danger:
A country of 237 million cannot survive and manage democracy. When the ballot stops mattering, the street starts talking. When courts replace voters, protests replace parties. The age of unpredictability you once warned against is being manufactured by these very acts.
*You still have time to pull the blade away. Three acts will do it:
1. Stop the defections trade. Pass a law, elected officials who cross-carpet lose their seats. Mandates belong to voters, not to the highest bidder.
2. Restore INEC’s neutrality. Appoint a chairman all parties can trust and live with, not one only your party can celebrate.
3. Free the contest. Tell the EFCC, ICPC, CBN, and courts to leave opposition parties alone until after 2027.
History remembers two kinds of leaders. Those who saved the republic when it wobbled, and those who watched it fall.
Nigeria’s democracy is on the edge of suicide. Your hand is on the blade, sir.
Pull it back.
Yours for Nigeria,
Abbati Bako, Political Strategy and Communications Consultant, Former Electoral Commissioner Kansiec, Former Special Adviser to Governor AU Ganduje on Public Affairs/Former APC Member and Former Treasurer Kano Chamber of Commerce and PhD,.Scholar/Researcher in Globalization Policy @Skyline University, Kano
