Lawyer and activist Dele Farotimi has stated that Nigerians have been silenced from speaking their minds to the authorities since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office in 2023.

Farotimi stated this on Thursday in an interview on Channels Television’s Morning Brief.

He said that the nation is moving towards dictatorship, which is reminiscent of the military rule that Nigerians experienced in the 1980s and 1990s.

According to him, Nigerians are not feeling the breeze of democracy as projected by Tinubu.

He said, “In the administration of Tinubu, there is the ambiguity of whether we are in a military dictatorship or a democracy. It is very easy to forget
exactly what kind of government we have in place.

“There’s a level of repression of free speech and the readiness to criminalise every civic disagreement.

“It is becoming increasingly dangerous to speak; I don’t know how much of this is traceable to the President or his temperament. Unfortunately, when the fish rots, it begins from the head. There is always somebody on whose desktop the buck must stop.

“The reality is that Nigeria is more repressed than it is in this moment. Nigerians are feeling the kind of breeze the President is projecting.”