Peter Obi has said that democracy and the rule of law have failed in Nigeria under the administration of President Bola Tinubu. He said the government is implementing anti-people policies and lacks a clear roadmap to drive economic and good governance.
Speaking on Arise News Programme, Prime Time, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections said all the indices of democracy have failed in Nigeria. He said Tinubu’s administration is not working in the interest of Nigerians.
Obi said: “There’s no democracy in Nigeria today. Nigeria today is not a democratic country. Let’s stop telling ourselves lies. If you look at all the talents, look at all the yardsticks of measuring democracy, it doesn’t exist here. By simple definition, democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.
“Today, the government we have is not of the people. It’s not by the people, because the people didn’t vote. It wasn’t their vote. I’m not just talking about the presidency.
Across the country, look at what has happened in the Middle Belt. Can you call that democracy? It is not for the people. “And it’s not for the people.
I just told you that I went to an IGP camp, where there were thousands of people and no primary health care. They were begging me to have one nurse, which I said I must make sure. “They don’t even have a primary school, which again, I told them, I will make sure it happens.
So what are you doing? For a country that just spent N21 billion to renovate a house for the vice president, which he has not started living in and you cannot even have a primary school for a country that has no primary health care. “Yes, maybe we are striving to be a democratic country but the way we are today, we are not.
Look at what happened in Rivers State, can you call that democracy? “I’m being harassed every day like every other opposition leader because there is no freedom of speech in Nigeria today. I can tell you that there are people who are being detained in so many places because they made one statement.
“When you go for an exam and score 10 per cent, you have failed. I have given you the real measures of democracy and we failed in all of them. So, it doesn’t exist.
“Nigerians know where we are headed and it will get worse and when it gets worse we will degenerate into a state of nature and anarchy where anybody can do anything he wants.
Everything is collapsing but you can see the impact in all the critical areas like education.” Speaking on the performance of the government in the last two years, Obi said: “I always don’t want to be involved in assessing this present government because I’ve always remained consistent that Tinubu is doing well.
Because what he promised the people is exactly what he’s doing, that he will start and continue from where the previous government stopped.
“I’ve said it before, somebody who met a dollar at 300 or 400, is now 1,500, same in food, unemployment and everything. In terms of democracy, in terms of everything, he’s been on the sliding side. And that is doing well because that’s what he promised.
