Prominent human rights lawyer cum activist, Dele Farotimi, has said Nigeria has never enjoyed true democracy but only had a performative shadow of a democracy.
Farotimi’s comments were said to have been made during an interview on News Central Television.
Farotimi faulted the emergence of some political office holders, including Senate President Godswill Akpabio and ex-Senate President Ahmed Lawan, while criticising Nigeria’s electoral process and the judiciary, saying they should not have held their positions.
Many Nigerians, he said, are too preoccupied with the presidency and are blind to the deeper structural problems that exist within the political system.
“Nigeria has never had real democracy,” he said. We’ve only ever had a performative democracy.
“When you are looking at the presidency, you forget about the emergence of people like Godswill Akpabio and Ahmed Lawan that came out of the Senate when they were not even qualified to contest.
“They were specifically disqualified by the provisions of the Electoral Act. But they ended up in the Senate, and the court approved.”
Farotimi also accused the judiciary of jettisoning its constitutional role of an impartial arbiter, saying it had become an instrument for legitimisation of actions that ought not to have been allowed under the law.
“Often political actors act first and then look to the courts to validate their actions,” he said.
“So that you had a situation where our judicial system has become an instrument for working from the answer to the question. “They do it first and then they find a way for the judiciary to ratify what is already done.
“The judiciary no longer exists to decide on the basis of law and equity. It exists to justify what should never be done.”
