Prominent human rights lawyer cum activist, Dele Farotimi, has said Nigeria has never had a true democracy but only had a performative shadow of a democracy.
Farotimi was said to have made the comments during an interview on News Central Television.
Farotimi condemned Nigeria’s electoral system and judiciary, saying some political office holders should not have emerged including Senate President Godswill Akpabio and ex-Senate President Ahmed Lawan.
Many Nigerians, he said, focus too much on the presidency and ignore the deeper structural problems within the political system.
“Nigeria has never had a real democracy,” he said. We’ve only ever had a performative version of 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 run.
The Electoral Act was specifically disqualifying them. But they ended up in the Senate and the court approved it.”
Farotimi also accused the judiciary of abandoning its constitutional role as an impartial arbiter, saying it has become an instrument for legitimising actions that should not have been allowed under the law.
He said that often political actors act first and then look to the courts to validate their actions.
“So you had a situation where our judicial system became 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 does not exist anymore to decide on the basis of law and equity. It is there to rationalise what should never be done.”
