Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Olisa Agbakoba, has strongly criticized Nigeria's current democratic system, describing the Western model as unsuitable for the country's political landscape. The former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president made these remarks during Monday's edition of 'Politics Today', a Channels Television programme.
Agbakoba expressed disappointment with the country's democratic progress, particularly condemning the recent wave of defections from opposition parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which he believes undermines democratic principles.
"I thought that things would have been a lot better than what we have today. And I've looked at it very carefully, and I say something must be wrong, that after, not even 25, let's go to 1960: so we have had military coups in and out, then finally democracy for over 25 years. Something is fundamentally wrong in a process that is not delivering," Agbakoba stated.
The human rights lawyer argued that it's time for Nigeria to move away from the "Oyibo model" that Europeans and Americans have "foisted" on the country. According to him, this imported system of governance has consistently failed to address the needs of ordinary Nigerians.
"In my reflections, and I've reflected quite a lot, I just came to a conclusion that it's time to shed ourselves of this Western model – the Oyibo model, the model that the Europeans and the Americans have foisted on us – it's not working," he emphasized.
Agbakoba highlighted that Nigerians are primarily concerned with a system that provides basic necessities of life, suggesting that the country needs to develop a governance model that addresses these fundamental needs rather than blindly following Western democratic principles.
The legal luminary specifically addressed the recent trend of opposition politicians defecting to the ruling APC, warning that such actions weaken rather than strengthen democracy in Nigeria.
"If the answer is to keep defecting, that's not going to help Nigerians because it will not strengthen democracy," Agbakoba cautioned, adding that political defections ultimately undermine the democratic process and fail to address the country's fundamental governance challenges.
His comments come at a time when Nigeria faces significant political realignments, with many opposition figures abandoning their platforms to join the ruling party, raising concerns about the future of multi-party democracy in Africa's most populous nation.
