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A former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has said Nigeria successfully got civilian rule in 1999 but has yet to get real democracy.
Fayemi made this statement as the country celebrates Democracy Day on Thursday.
According to him, while Nigeria got the right to reestablish the citizens’ right to vote for their leaders, efforts must now be made to achieve full democracy.
The ex-Ekiti governor stated this during a Channels Television special June 12 event tagged ‘Nigeria’s Democratic Journey: An Inter-Generational Conversation On Building A Better Nation’.
Read Also: Democracy Day: Tinubu Cancels National Broadcast To Nigerians
“What we mustn’t do is to conflate elections with democracy. What we got was to reestablish the right to vote for our leaders into office in 1999, what we are yet to get is real democracy in my view.
“We got civilian rule, we are proudly on the journey — we now have a semi-democracy, but now we don’t have full democracy.
“The effort that the previous president and now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has put into it, we all must build on that,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu has announced that he will be shelving the national broadcast earlier scheduled to hold on Thursday morning in commemoration of the nation’s June 12 Democracy Day.
A terse statement from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, OSGF, on Wednesday gave this indication. It noted that Tinubu was to address the nation through a national broadcast on Thursday morning.
However, another update cancelling the broadcast, signed by the Director of Information and Public Relations at the OSGF, Segun Imohiosen, later on Wednesday, read: “Due to H.E President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s scheduled attendance at the National Assembly Joint Session, the Presidential National Broadcast on June 12 has been cancelled.
