A University don in the United States of America, Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia, has called on all well-meaning Nigerians to save the country’s democracy from collapsing.
The Lincoln University Professor of Business Administration and Marketing in Missouri. made the call at the second edition of the ‘Ajia Colloquium on Democracy and Good Governance’, held in Ilorin, Kwara State, on Sunday.
The event brought together academics, students, civil society actors, and members of the public to reflect on governance, political participation, and institutional integrity.
In his welcome address, the professor and the convener of the colloquium lamented the level of institutional collapse and erosion of democratic values currently going on in the country, hence, the theme of the programme: “Interrogating the Nigerian State, Its Democratic Institutions, and the Looming Threats of State Capture”.
“Today’s theme captures the urgency of our times. Democracy is not failing because people have stopped voting. It is failing because those who should defend institutions are subverting them, and those who should speak up have grown dangerously silent”, he said.
With various stakeholders at the event raising concerns over the weakening of Nigeria’s democratic institutions and the growing risk of state capture, Abdulmumin urged them not to be silent as their silence could be interpreted as complicity; they should rather become defenders of democratic values, builders of strong institutions, and champions of the Nigerian people.
Ajia described Nigeria as a republic where democratic rituals, elections, inaugurations, and the waving of manifestos have increasingly become hollow ceremonies, disconnected from the lived experiences and aspirations of the people.
