20/09/2025
“We run a q***r democracy”
*Critic lashes at politicians
*Says “Nigeria’s brand deficient, self-serving”
By Ken Edokpayi
Monday 15th September, 2025
It has been asserted that following the seemingly opaque colouration and eerie intensity of political events in the country, especially since the return of democratic governance in 1999, which has not positively established an effective administration of the country with imbued democratic cultures, ethos, institutions and complementary economic growth and social justice for all and sundry, “Nigeria’s brand of democracy,” according to a Benin-based political analyst, “no doubts leaves so very much to be desired, especially when we compare the Nigeria’s brand with what obtains in other democracies in other parts of the world. Here, we run a q***r democracy, one that is fundamentally different, self-serving and inglorious.”
Speaking in a no-holds barred interview with The Navigator, last week, in Benin City, Edo State, Architect Lawson Isede Ogini, maintained that “Nigeria’s political leaders have, over the years, not been able to chart an endearing democratic path to effective governance in a country where selfishness, greed and the uncanny fervour to grab political power, run deep and endemic. Our democratic structures and institutions, where they exist, have remained structurally too weak, with politicians of all funny shapes, sizes and undemocratic orientations, recklessly and mercilessly pulling at the tethers of their hearts and souls.
While emphasizing that “for democracy to take its firm, and unyielding, foothold in the governance of the country,” Architect Ogini underscored “the inalienable resolve, and if you like, the rigid connivance, of all other democratic institutions, to stand firm, unshakeable, unbendable and incorruptible in complementing civil governance. Democracy, I dare say, is not an institution; it is a system, a choice of a kind of an art of governance, agreed upon by the people to freely choose those to lead the administration of the country. In fact, democracy is an abstract noun that is equally used as an adjective to qualify the responsibilities and actions of an institution. Elementary Civic defines democracy as a system of government, embraced by the collective, to protect the interests of the collective. It says it is a government of the people, by the people and for the people.”
The political analyst opined that Nigeria’s brand of democracy has, over the years, not yielded the desired results “because those who emerge as political leaders, have not shown enough visible commitment that they are FOR the people. The operational truth in the Nigerian scenario is that though our so-called democratic governance has been of the people and by the people, but it has never been for the people! This has essentially been because the systems and processes that throw up these political leaders have not only been crookedly flawed, to serve premeditated interests, but have been aggressively bastardized, corrupted and made incapable of ensuring fairness, justice, and achieving the overriding goals of the collective.”
While pinpointing the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the Judiciary, the Security and Anti-Corruption Agencies, including the Police, the Army, the DSS, and the EFCC, “as key democratic institutions, whose responsibilities should unapologetically align with the dictates and lettering of the nation’s constitution, and their enactment laws,” Architect Ogini, however, maintained that “to complement the existence of truly democratic institutions, Nigerians, the people, themselves must imbibe and inhale the democratic oxygen, exude democratic intents and exhibit democratic characters, behaviours and tendencies in their day-to-day interactions, and carry these through to political campaign periods and through the elections proper.
“What has become equally glaring in Nigeria’s sad political story is that a greater percentage of Nigerians, sadly over eighty percent, themselves, do not have democratic minds or mindsets. This is the saddest and most grievous part, because it is from the Nigerian population, from amongst the Nigerian citizens that have grown wings of illegitimacy, and wallowed in this undemocratic culture, that people are chosen to man and operate these democratic institutions, and chosen to contest elections.” This, he emphasized, was the key reason “why these supposedly democratic institutions, the INEC, the judiciary, the security agencies, are usually compromised and enlisted, by the endemically corrupt politicians, to pander to the selfish interests of politicians who want to cut corners and grab political powers by all illegitimate means.
“This has been the nation’s political dilemma over the years, a very slimy and odious political selection system that has kept us all in the woods thus far. Like one political philosopher once said, a people, a nation, gets the kind of political leadership it deserves. A nation where there are more of law-abiding, incorruptible, democracy-minded citizens, often gets more democratic leaders interested in the pursuance of achieving progressive, collective interests; while a nation where there are more of lawless, corrupt, selfish, greedy and undemocratic citizens, equally, often gets more undemocratic leaders whose interests are selfish and myopic.
“So, when you see these supposedly democratic institutions becoming brazenly and indecorously partisan, and taking sides, often without shame, in electoral contestations between political parties, simply because they have compromised their ethics and constitutional responsibilities, usually because of pecuniary, monetary consideration, which arises from the depths of selfishness and greed, it really would become vividly apparent to you that we run a very q***r democracy, which is incapable of birthing for us, as a nation, the economic, political, social, and technological Eldorado that we so naively crave. Ours is not the sin and indiscretion of one man, but that of a majority of us all. We must restructure our collective thoughts; let democracy begin from our hearts; if our hearts are democratized, then, the systems and institutions would follow suit, to give us decent, democratic leaders who would truly lead the nation to socio-economic and political development and growth.”
