SIR: President Bola Tinubu’s visit to Turkey is profoundly misplaced and ought to be dismissed with unequivocal candour. Turkey is not a sanctuary of stability or a paragon of democratic governance. It has endured deep rooted security challenges and protracted conflict with armed groups alongside persistent state crackdowns that have curtailed political freedoms. Its media environment remains constrained and executive overreach has increasingly eroded institutional checks and balances.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been at the helm of affairs first as Prime Minister and now as President for over 23 years presiding over a political landscape where dissent is frequently stifled and opposition voices marginalised.

To herald Turkey as a model for Nigeria is to overlook these glaring deficiencies and to misunderstand the very nature of democratic resilience.

Nigeria’s endemic challenges, insecurity, economic stagnation and poor public services will not be resolved by cursory foreign jaunts or ostentatious diplomacy. What we urgently required are substantive domestic reform, transparent governance and genuine accountability.
Olufemi Aduwo is former aide to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.