Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), has called for a radical shift in Nigeria’s governance framework, advocating a departure from the Western-style democratic model that has failed to deliver stability, development, and national cohesion.
Agbakoba stated this, yesterday, in a statement signed by him, tagged: “Reimagining governance in Nigeria: A post-Western democratic framework.”

According to him, the adversarial nature of the current system has intensified divisions, enabled systemic corruption, and hindered meaningful development. 

He said that the Western democratic model had faltered in Nigeria due to its inability to address the country’s unique socio-political and economic challenges.

The former NBA President, who posited that Nigeria’s democratic struggles are linked to the adopted Western capitalist model, where returns on political capital vastly outweigh returns on development, said that the Nigerian economy is extractive, with no incentive for genuine development, adding that for meaningful development to occur, the return on development must exceed the return on political rewards. He, therefore, proposed cooperative federalism, which could provide immense benefits. 

According to him, cooperative federalism would allow states and the federal government to collaboratively develop infrastructure and natural resources. Besides, Agbakoba emphasised the need to retain national unity while devolving substantial power to the regions and adopting economic incentives that reward development over extraction. 

He, however, cited the 1963 Republican Constitution as a valuable reference point, where regions leveraged their comparative advantages to drive development.

He said that Nigeria’s future lies in creatively adapting governance systems that reflect its historical experience, cultural diversity, and developmental aspirations, rather than blindly replicating Western models.