As Nigerians observe today, June 12, as yet another holiday in commemoration of Democracy Day, they ruefully note that the state of the country is far from what they longed for while working assiduously for freedom from military rule.

Where is the symbolic triumph of the historic struggle of pro-democracy forces for democracy, as opposed to the military dictatorship that endured for several decades? The epic struggle culminated in the sudden death of Chief Moshood Kasimawo Olawale Abiola, winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election. Many other Nigerians paid the supreme price.

With the end of military rule in 1999, Nigerians and the international community had great expectations that with civil rule, human rights would be hallowed; accountability and rule of law would be enthroned; there would be a level playing field for all political actors; and above all, the citizens would enjoy what political actors have aptly dubbed ‘dividends of democracy’. But the expectations have not been met. Human rights have been routinely violated by state actors, and state institutions are complicit in the plethora of violations.

The state of the nation calls into question the rationale for the state. Non-state actors, variously qualified as bandits, kidnappers, and terrorists, have cheapened life and have habitually massacred Nigerians in their abodes and kidnapped for ransom in what has become a lucrative black economy. A recent report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted that the activities of Fulani terrorists in Nigeria have resulted in the displacement of about 1.3 million people across the country’s Middle Belt alone.

Indeed, insecurity has completely enveloped the whole country. The inadequacy of government intervention has resulted in a siege atmosphere. The rule of law is largely observed in the breach, and the judicial review process is fraught with astounding arbitrariness, thereby hobbling the hope of the common man. The standard of living for Nigerians has plummeted, underscored by an unmanageable inflation spiral. A 2025 World Bank report on the poverty outlook showed that poverty in Nigeria climbed to 63 per cent, with about 140 million Nigerians living below the national poverty line. Over 13 million youth are unemployed. Indeed, the country has become rudderless, accentuating the age-long paradox of Nigeria being rich but poor.

Nigerians, especially the political players, have not learnt any lessons. What did Abiola die for? He died for the triumph of democracy in Nigeria. This promise of democracy has been blatantly betrayed, and the country is in turmoil, and Nigerians are frustrated and getting tired. The prevailing leadership at all levels of government appears to have no answer to the political, economic and social quagmire besetting the country.

As things are today, it could be said that the country has no credible leadership. Leadership means a lot. It can mean a relationship in which the leader wields influence over others’ behaviours with a purpose and within a timeframe. In a political setting such as we have in mind, it must be guided by the organic law of the state and the material conditions of the society to steer the ship of state to a haven of common good for the citizens of the state. Leadership means commitment to the people because the reason of state is the establishment of an anchorage for the realisation of the well-being of the citizens and freeing it from the state of anarchy before the establishment of the commonwealth.

In this connection, a leader must be committed to the service of the governed, exercise positive influence in a manner that ensures intergenerational transfers of leadership ethos; above all, inspire hope in ways conceived by Paolo Freire, the Brazilian educationist. Hope that “needs practice in order to become historical concreteness” because there is “no hope in sheer hopefulness”. So, the country needs visionary leadership, a goal-getter, to reset the structural imbalance in the polity, the non-productive economy, and the general societal decadence.

Therefore, the existence of true democracy is largely suspect. The democratic infrastructure does not exist. Parties that are supposed to be the engine room of democracy do not exist. At best, they are special-purpose vehicles for ascending into public offices and are subsequently abandoned through sheer defections to the ruling party at any given period. In the same vein, the existing parties obviously lack a coherent party ideology, the basis of membership enlistment. What is worse is that since 1999, when the country’s Fourth Republic commenced, the electoral process has been characterised by sundry malpractices such that electoral outcomes have hardly won the applause of international observers and the broad consent of the electorate. The just-concluded party primaries, which ought to be an elite recruitment process within the parties, were a mockery of internal democracy, fraudulent, and reeked of impositions by party apparatchiks.

The national contradictions are so depressing that Nigerians are nudged into some nostalgic reflection on past leadership. In Nigeria’s First Republic, the country had credible and purposeful leadership in Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, among others. Azikiwe was ‘Zik of Africa’ who, before independence, developed a blueprint for independent Nigeria. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the sage and master builder, articulated the Path to Nigerian Freedom and Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution. Alhaji Bello was preoccupied with the transformation of the Northern region. Despite the discontents of the republic, the leadership of that period was competitive and result-oriented. This cannot be said of prevailing leadership in the country.  Politicians have enthroned mediocrity and are self-centred, fixated on primitive accumulation, thereby perpetrating mind-bending corruption.

Surely the existing order is not a democracy. The rule of law is weak, elections are settled in the courts, and no institutionalised political parties. Unless a meaningful democratic system is nurtured and entrenched, the country is bound to collapse. For emphasis, true democracy is good governance that embeds the welfare and security of the citizens as core principles of state policy. It is majority rule accentuated by the consent of the electorate. It is a dispensation in which the people are the boss. As things stand today, the politicians stand accused and responsible for the disorder in the country. Today calls for reflection on how Nigeria got it wrong, and a time to tease out a roadmap for national rebirth.