By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
Former Nigeria President, Olusegun Obasajo, on Tuesday, declared that there is no democracy in Africa but borrowed and forced Liberal Democracy that has caged Africans.
Olusegun Obasajo made the declaration in his message at the 2026 edition of the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) Foundation Annual Democracy Dialogue with the theme: Beyond Elections: Can Political Parties and the Judiciary Save African Democracy?, held at the Ahmadu Bello International Conference Centre (ICC), Bauchi.
The former President who was chairman of the Dialogue said that, “Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, You have the Foundation that promotes peace and prosperity, this annual conference, generally titled Democracy Dialogue. But this year, a theme on which we are to deliberate is beyond election and political parties and the judiciary save African democracy. That is handy.”
He said, “But what are we talking about? Is there African democracy? Let us not deceive ourselves. There’s nothing like African democracy. We were given Western Liberal Democracy by our Colonial Masters. I will come to that as I go along.”
He said, “Before I got a copy of printed program last night, and before having a short encounter with Ann Iyonu, the Executive Director of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, I was a little bit confused. But my two or three minutes exchange with Ann substantially reduced the magnitude of my confusion.”
“Before I expose my confusion, I now thought it was clear, I hope clearer, will be cleared by the end of this day. Please, I thank former President Goodluck Jonathan once again for nominating me as the Chairman for this very important dialogue,” he added.
According to him,”For quite some time, I have been increasingly worried about the performance of democracy in Africa, and indeed in other regions of the world. And I believe that Goodluck Jonathan Foundation was also worried about it, and that was why your theme last year was talking about the death of democracy or words to that effect.”
The former President stressed,
“Let me emphasize that we are referring to Western Liberal Democracy, because the Chinese will not agree with you that their own democracy is dying. And maybe the Swiss, who have practiced some form of direct democracy, may also not agree with you that their democracy is dying.”
He added, “Liberal Western democracy, which is practiced in Europe, the Americas, substantial part of Southeast Asia, and Australia, and of course, here on the continent of Africa. Since our European Colonial Masters had nothing else to give us, what they are, we swallowed it, hook, stock, and barrel. It has, deliver, or is it delivering, or will it deliver? These are the questions that we must ask ourselves. And these are the questions that are very, very important.”
According to him,”It doesn’t matter whether political parties remain as they remain, but I hope they will not remain as they remain. Or the judiciary is captured, controlled, or independent.”
He asked, “Of what need is judiciary in government making? What purpose does it serve that when millions of people have voted, then five people will come to decide either in favor or against the decision of millions of people? Is that democracy? It cannot be democracy. And if that cannot be democracy, what is the judiciary role in democracy?”
He stressed, “It’s like when the Prime Minister, Late Akintola was dealing with the Midwesterners in the Western region of those days after Midwestern region had been created. And Akpata came and said, that Prime Minister, I shouldn’t be going to the Midwest because my name is Akpata, it’s a Yoruba name. And he said, spell your Apata. And he said, A-K-P-A-T-A. That Yoruba spelling of Apata has no K in it. So the Prime Minister said, what is K doing in Apata? And same, we can ask ourselves, what is the judiciary doing in government and democracy? But why has it not delivered?”
He said that,”Let me go a little bit back. A simple definition of democracy, simple, is a system of government where power belongs to the people. Simple, Citizens exercise their power either by voting directly on laws, which is still practiced in Switzerland by and large, or through representative democracy, have chosen leaders to make rules for them and on their behalf.”
According to him, “So, what we are practicing is representative democracy. But what is the objective of true working and delivering democracy and governance? I am complete that it is in good governance, which take care of the welfare and well-being of the people, all the people, including the guarantee, equity, sense and feeling of belonging, and is taking them forward at the nations’ life and activity, protection of life and property, no marginalization, no discrimination, no exclusion.”
He added that,”Democracy that works is meant to deliver dividends of democracy in terms of quality of life and living for all the people in a geographical entity, all the nation.”
“So, we have no African democracy. The West, or the Western liberal democracy that we inherited, grew from monarchy. Hence, you can have government and loyal opposition, loyal to the monarchy. But when you talk of loyal opposition in an African setting, and I have gone into many of African languages, opposition means enemy. That’s the word,” he added.
Olusegun Obasajo added that,
“Then you have a loyal enemy. So what do you do with your enemy? You crush him and destroy him. And that’s what we have. But when Western democracy was developing, the monarchy was there. And the government and opposition were all loyal to the monarchy. Democracy without opposition has no African context, no African content.”
He added,”And if you try to use what is not meant for you to serve your purpose, it’s like a dress for which you are not measured. You trying to put it on. It’s either too small for you or too big for you. It will not fit, and it will not serve your purpose. In practice, what we have, we have one party form, press half-boost. If you win by one vote, then you take it all. And whatever I have does not matter. See, poor management of diversities.*
“You cannot have a democracy that completely ride roughshod over diversity, because you have civil society and mass society. The core is diversity. Nigeria is what it is because of our diversity. Remove diversity out of Nigeria, they will probably have the Republic of Odudua. That will not be Nigeria. Or Republic of Danfodio. That will not be Nigeria. That diversity must be nourished and must be taken care of,” he added.
According to him, “We now have power of money, a lot of inducement. And you know how that has been growing, by leaps and bounds, foreign intervention. Abusive democracy does not help democracy, neither those interests and companies. We have gender bias. In Nigeria, as we have been going with this, they call, you call this one fourth republic. I think what do you call it?”
The former President added,
“Fourth republic, we have not elected a female Governor in 24 years. And no more than 24, 27 years. And yet, there are people we elected, most of them lack character, lack attributes and values, and can perform and cannot lead. We’re watching the way forward.”
He said that, “I believe we need more than rowing in the political parties. They are important, particularly as we practice now. Democracy is not a destination. It is a journey. And there’s no country that has ever reached the end of that journey. Western liberal democracy, even for those from whom we are, from whom we got it, they are now thinking of rethinking. They are taking a second look at it. And if they are taking a second look, even we, upon whom it was imposed, even we, will be looking forward and looking back to something that will be clearly of value.”
He stressed, “And then there, taking a second look, should and we, although it was imposed, then we be looking new one and looking back for something that will be clearly authentic African.”
According to him, “Call it what you like, just make sure it contains, it has peace, culture, and values that are African. You can call it African democracy if you like. In that case, it will be African with African context and African content. Political party may be part of it, as we may think as we go along, but in a different way, and the military may have little or nothing to do with democracy and establishment of government.”
The former President concluded, “We have to do innovative, positive, disruptive thinking and take action out of box. Maybe we should begin with the re-examination of people representatives or community representatives, rather than the hijacked representatives by political parties. Thank you, and I wish you success in your deliberations.”
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