Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • Remi Tinubu’s Philanthropy Sparks Admiration, Debate As Donations Hit ₦15 Billion
    • Arewa House Summit: Northern Leaders Divided Over Tinubu’s Treatment Of Region
    • Power Sector Revenue Drops As Nigerians Owe ₦70.25 Billion In May
    • Ondo, Bauchi, Edo Lead As Lassa Fever Kills 152, Spreads To 105 LGAs In Nigeria
    • Transcorp Group Reports N279.7bn Revenue, Declares N4.06bn Interim Dividend In H1 2025
    • Tinubu Rewards 200 Outstanding NYSC Members With Jobs, ₦250K Grants, PhD Scholarships
    • Middle Belt Forum Rejects Bill Naming Sultan Co-Chair Of National Traditional Rulers Council
    • ANPP Forum Denounces Ajumbe’s 2031 Presidency Comments, Reaffirms Support For APC, Tinubu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    NEWS POINT NIGERIANEWS POINT NIGERIA
    UBA 720X90
    • HOME
    • NEWS

      Remi Tinubu’s Philanthropy Sparks Admiration, Debate As Donations Hit ₦15 Billion

      July 30, 2025

      Arewa House Summit: Northern Leaders Divided Over Tinubu’s Treatment Of Region

      July 30, 2025

      Power Sector Revenue Drops As Nigerians Owe ₦70.25 Billion In May

      July 30, 2025

      Ondo, Bauchi, Edo Lead As Lassa Fever Kills 152, Spreads To 105 LGAs In Nigeria

      July 30, 2025

      Transcorp Group Reports N279.7bn Revenue, Declares N4.06bn Interim Dividend In H1 2025

      July 30, 2025
    • COLUMN

      Buhari: May Our Subsequent Leaders Die At Home (2) – By Dr Hassan Gimba

      July 28, 2025

      New Wave Of Malnutrition And The Road To 2027 – By Dr Dakuku Peterside

      July 28, 2025

      Dignifying The Nigeria Police – By Kazeem Akintunde

      July 28, 2025

      Land Grab: Why UniAbuja Needs Presidential Protection (Part 2) – By Martins Oloja

      July 28, 2025

      Don’t Ship Them Off: Holidays Are Not Escape Routes – By Hafsat Salisu Kabara

      July 28, 2025
    • EDUCATION

      13 Countries Offering Free Or Low-Cost PhD Programmes For Non-Citizens

      January 25, 2025

      NECO: Abia, Imo Top Performing States In Two Years, Katsina, Zamfara Come Last

      October 3, 2024

      NBTE Accredits 17 Programmes At Federal Polytechnic Kabo

      August 20, 2024

      15 Most Expensive Universities In Nigeria

      May 19, 2024

      FULL LIST: Tinubu Appoints Former SGF Yayale, Ex-Governor Yuguda, Muhammad Abacha, Jega In Universities’ Governing Councils

      May 18, 2024
    • INTERNATIONAL

      Gaza On ‘Brink Of Full-Scale Famine’ As Israel Blocks Crucial Aid

      July 30, 2025

      Inmates, Pregnant Woman Among 27 Killed In Russia’s Attacks On Ukraine

      July 30, 2025

      Israel Kills More Than 80 In Gaza As Outrage Over Hunger Crisis Grows

      July 29, 2025

      Turkey Battles Wildfires Amid Strong Winds, Heatwave, Over 3500 Evacuated

      July 29, 2025

      62 Killed In Gaza As Israel’s ‘Tactical Pause’ Comes To An End

      July 28, 2025
    • JUDICIARY

      FULL LIST: Judicial Council Recommends Appointment Of 11 Supreme Court Justices

      December 6, 2023

      Supreme Court: Judicial Council Screens 22 Nominees, Candidates Face DSS, Others

      November 29, 2023

      FULL LIST: Judicial Commission Nominates 22 Justices For Elevation To Supreme Court

      November 16, 2023

      Seven Key Issues Resolved By Seven Supreme Court Judges

      October 26, 2023

      FULL LIST: CJN To Swear In Falana’s Wife, 57 Others As SANs November 27

      October 12, 2023
    • POLITICS

      What Peter Obi May Lose If He Joins Coalition As VP Candidate

      May 25, 2025

      Atiku Moves To Unseat Wike’s Damagum As PDP Chairman, Backs Suswam As Replacement

      April 15, 2024

      Edo’s Senator Matthew Uroghide, Others Defect To APC

      April 13, 2024

      Finally, Wike Opens Up On Rift With Peter Odili

      April 2, 2024

      El-Rufa’i’s Debt Burden: APC Suspends Women Leader For Criticising Kaduna Gov

      March 31, 2024
    • SPORTS

      Remo Stars Begin NPFL Title Defence Against Rivers United, Abia Warriors Host Pillars

      July 30, 2025

      Burna Boy Thrills Coach Wiegman, England’s Lionesses At Women’s Euro Victory Party

      July 30, 2025

      ‘You Need To Win World Cup,’ Remi Tinubu Charges Super Falcons

      July 29, 2025

      Oshoala Dismisses Retirement Rumour, Says ‘I’m Still Here’

      July 29, 2025

      Victorious Super Falcons Arrive In Abuja From Morocco

      July 28, 2025
    • MORE
      • AFRICA
      • ANALYSIS
      • BUSINESS
      • ENTERTAINMENT
      • FEATURED
      • LENS SPEAK
      • INFO – TECH
      • INTERVIEW
      • NIGERIA DECIDES
      • OPINION
      • Personality Profile
      • Picture of the month
      • Science
      • Special Project
      • Videos
      • Weekend Sports
    NEWS POINT NIGERIANEWS POINT NIGERIA
    UBA 720X90
    Home - 26 Years Of Democracy: Celebrating Survival, Not Success – By Jonathan Nda-Isaiah

    26 Years Of Democracy: Celebrating Survival, Not Success – By Jonathan Nda-Isaiah

    By Jonathan Nda-IsaiahJune 14, 2025
    Jonathan Nda Isaiah

    ON Thursday Nigerians marked another June 12 Democracy Day celebration, and I can’t help but wonder if we’re celebrating or commiserating. Twenty-six years of unbroken democracy – that sounds impressive on paper, doesn’t it? But when you peel back the layers, what exactly are we celebrating?

    Let me be clear from the start – I’m not one of those armchair critics calling for military rule. God forbid! Anyone suggesting we return to khaki rule should have their heads examined. But that doesn’t mean we should be popping champagne either.

    The irony of celebrating democracy on June 12 is not lost on me. We’re honoring an election that was annulled, celebrating a victory that was stolen, and remembering a man whose mandate was buried by General Babangida’s military machine. MKO Abiola won the freest and fairest election in our history, and what did he get for it? Prison and an early grave.

    UBA

    So when politicians today talk about democracy, I sometimes wonder if they understand the sacrifice that brought us here.

    President Muhammadu Buhari did the right thing moving Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12 in 2018. At least now we’re honest about what we’re celebrating – not just the handover date in 1999, but the spirit of June 12, 1993. Better late than never, I suppose.

    WIDGET ADS

    But here’s what bothers me about our democracy celebrations – we act like we’ve arrived when we’re still crawling. Yes, we’ve had five different administrations from President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Bola Tinubu, and power has changed hands peacefully. That’s progress, I’ll give you that. But have you seen the quality of leadership we’ve been recycling?

    Take a good look around West Africa and you’ll understand why some misguided souls were calling for military coups two years ago. Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso – our neighbors are falling like dominoes to men in uniform. When your stomach is empty and your children can’t go to school because of bandits, democracy can start looking like a luxury you can’t afford.

    Thomas Sankara African Leadership Prize

    I remember when social media was buzzing with calls for military intervention after the 2023 elections. “Bring back the soldiers,” they cried. “Democracy has failed us!” What rubbish! These keyboard warriors don’t know what military rule looks like. Ask anyone who lived through the dark days of General Sani Abacha – they’ll tell you that no matter how bad our democracy gets, military rule is never the answer.

    But let’s not fool ourselves either. Our democracy is still a toddler learning to walk. After 26 years, we’re still having election tribunals determine who really won elections. That’s embarrassing! In mature democracies, you know the winner on election night. Here, we wait for months while lawyers argue in court about who got more votes. Something is fundamentally wrong with that picture.

    Nigerian TAX Reform - Federal Goverment

    The Independent National Electoral Commission has tried, I’ll give them that. The introduction of card readers, BVAS machines, and electronic transmission of results has reduced the worst excesses of ballot box stuffing and result manipulation we saw in 2003 and 2007. Remember when results were just written in hotel rooms? At least now riggers have to work harder for their fraud.

    But our politicians refuse to play by the rules. They approach elections like warfare – win by any means necessary. Then they wonder why the judiciary has to step in to clean up their mess. I’m looking forward to the day when our elections are so free and fair that the courts have nothing to do with determining winners.

    Even America, with over 200 years of democracy, still has Donald Trump claiming he won the 2020 election. If not for their strong institutions, Trump might still be camping in the White House after the election.So maybe we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves – democracy is messy everywhere.

    National Orientation Agency Page UP
    National Orientation Agency - Down

    What really breaks my heart is the security situation. In 26 years of democracy, we’ve lost nearly a million people to non-state actors. From Boko Haram in the Northeast to bandits in the Northwest, from killer herdsmen in the Middle Belt to unknown gunmen in the Southeast – nowhere is safe anymore. Our democracy has presided over unprecedented bloodshed.

    I won’t blame democracy for insecurity – these problems existed before 1999. But I expected our democratic governments to do better.

    Instead, we’ve watched helplessly as terrorists and bandits turned Nigeria into a killing field. Yes, our security agencies have tried, and without them we might have been completely overrun. But “trying” is not enough when innocent people are dying daily.

    The paradox of our democracy is that we’ve made progress and regressed simultaneously. We now have a free press – just look at how social media dragged politicians left, right, and center during the last elections. We have civil society groups holding government accountable. We have young people refusing to accept the status quo.

    But we also have more poverty, more insecurity, and more division than ever before. Our democracy has produced some of the most incompetent leaders in our history, people who treat public office like their personal ATM.

    So what are we really celebrating ? I think we’re celebrating survival. We’re celebrating the fact that despite everything – despite bad leadership, rigged elections, insecurity, and poverty – we’re still here. We haven’t collapsed like Somalia or descended into perpetual civil war like some of our neighbors.

    That’s not much of an achievement, you might say. But in a continent where democracy is dying by coup every few months, maybe survival is worth celebrating.

    Our democracy may be crawling, but at least it’s moving forward. We may be taking baby steps, but we’re not marching backward into military dictatorship. And for now, in this crazy continent of ours, that might just have to be enough.

    The question is: will we ever learn to walk properly, or will we keep crawling forever? Only time will tell. But one thing I know for sure – military boots will never be the answer to our democratic growing pains.

    Happy Democracy Day, Nigeria. Here’s to hoping our next 26 years will be better than the last.

    • Nda-Isaiah is a political analyst based in Abuja and can be reached on jonesdryx@gmail.com. His syndicated column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Saturdays.

    Jonathan Nda-Isaiah's Column Mid-Term Tinubu
    Share. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn Telegram Email

    Related Posts

    Arewa House Summit: Northern Leaders Divided Over Tinubu’s Treatment Of Region

    July 30, 2025

    Tinubu Rewards 200 Outstanding NYSC Members With Jobs, ₦250K Grants, PhD Scholarships

    July 30, 2025

    ANPP Forum Denounces Ajumbe’s 2031 Presidency Comments, Reaffirms Support For APC, Tinubu

    July 30, 2025

    Tinubu’s Super Falcons Rewards Spark Debate As Presidency Cites BBNaija ₦150m Prize

    July 29, 2025
    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Latest Posts

    Remi Tinubu’s Philanthropy Sparks Admiration, Debate As Donations Hit ₦15 Billion

    July 30, 2025

    Arewa House Summit: Northern Leaders Divided Over Tinubu’s Treatment Of Region

    July 30, 2025

    Power Sector Revenue Drops As Nigerians Owe ₦70.25 Billion In May

    July 30, 2025

    Ondo, Bauchi, Edo Lead As Lassa Fever Kills 152, Spreads To 105 LGAs In Nigeria

    July 30, 2025

    Transcorp Group Reports N279.7bn Revenue, Declares N4.06bn Interim Dividend In H1 2025

    July 30, 2025
    Advertisement
    WIDGET ADS
    News Point NG
    © 2025 NEWS POINT NIGERIA Developed by ENGRMKS & CO.
    • Home
    • About us
    • Disclaimer
    • Our Advert Rates
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Join Us On WhatsApp