NIGERIA: Why this Democracy Day celebration is not only pretentious but dubious – Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour
By KEMI KASUMU
“Instead of celebrating these virtues and values, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has turned what was a hard-fought democracy into a monarchy where citizens are reduced to subjects—where duty and honour have given way to sycophancy.”
Prominent Lagos State indigene and Governorship Candidate in the state for the 2023 election, Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has described the Democracy Day celebration of Thursday June 12, 2025 not only as pretentious but also dubious and he gave his reasons.
He said Nigeria cannot be said to be in a democracy when institutions of state have been turned to tools used for oppression of the weak and state resources are now a primary determinant of wealth for many political actors.
In a statement he released via his X handle on Thursday, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, a successful architect and notable promoter of Yoruba cultural identity, refused to agree the current democracy in Nigeria is the one that Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola died for.
“Liberal and constitutional democracies hold the promise of protecting individual rights and civil liberties. Beyond its promise of guaranteeing civil liberties, true democracies strive to deliver outcomes like economic prosperity and egalitarianism.
“Instead of celebrating these virtues and values, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has turned what was a hard-fought democracy into a monarchy where citizens are reduced to subjects—where duty and honour have given way to sycophancy.
“We can no longer claim to live in a democracy when dissent is criminalised or where the judiciary has been greatly compromised.
“What is a democracy where state institutions have become tools to oppress the weak, and where the primary determinant of wealth is proximity to state resources?
“How can we call this a democracy where several villages in the Middle Belt, North East and North West are without state protection, yet the elites drive in convoys accompanied by elite forces? Or where the right to vote is often sabotaged with state-sponsored violence and harassment, ultimately trumping the ultimate will of the people?
“Today’s Democracy Day celebration is not only pretentious but dubious. Because this is not the democracy that Chief MKO Abiola died for, nor the one our elders imagined.
“This experiment is failing, and that failure is being accelerated by the ruling party’s utter disregard for the rule of law and their parasitic appetite to amass and accumulate at the detriment of the people.,” said the 2023 LP Governorship Candidate in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
