St. Augustine of Hippo in his work City of God explored a definition of a “people” which ought to retain our attention. According to this definition, “A people is the association of a multitude of rational beings united by a common agreement on the object of their love.” That definition enables us to understand what a nation is.

A nation is an association of rational beings who share core values. On the basis of their shared core values, members of the association, that is a nation, write themselves a constitution and come to a common agreement to use the constitution to regulate their relationship as they pursue those shared core values.

The constitution of their association establishes a government, that is, a conglomeration of institutions, that is, organs of government that provide security for members of an association that a nation is. These institutions enable the government to function so as to protect the people in their pursuit of their shared core values. These institutions are instruments in the hands of government, and government is itself an instrument in the hands of the people for their protection as they pursue their shared core values.

Without a common agreement on shared core values reflected in the provisions of their constitution, without the use of a constitution that has provided protective and not oppressive institutions, there is no democratically governed nation in the true sense of the word. What obtains is a state governed by a constitution decreed into existence without the consent of the people, an oppressive state held together at gunpoint. Its institutions will be anything but friendly. Such is the case where organs of government disable the governed rather than enable them to actualise their developmental potential. Such is the absence of democracy. Today, democracies are threatened, and the threat is from within. That threat is vividly illustrated in the book, How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future, coauthored by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, where these worrisome words can be found: “The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of democracy—gradually, subtly, and even legally—to kill it.”

The paradox in the betrayal of democracy is that, quite often, enemies of democracy are democratically elected. Having assumed office through democratic means, they turn around to use democratic means undemocratically to assassinate democracy. That happens either because 1 Keynote Address at the 2025 Annual Conference of the National Association of Catholic Lawyers, Lagos Archdiocese, September 12, 2025

St Augustine of Hippo, Concerning the City of God Against the Pagans Translated by Henry Bettenson (London: Penguin Books, 1984) Bk XIX, ch. 24. 3Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future (New York: Crown, 2018) 92. Page 2 of 10 there are no institutions to sustain democracy, or because such institutions have been weakened by strong men, and strong women too, by their strategy and tactics in the arena of public life.

It is the paradox of exercising legitimate authority illegitimately, of using what is legitimate to procure what is illegitimate. A land of weakened institutions is a land where reins of government are in the hands of strong men, and absurdity is elevated into public policy. It is my contention in this paper that, where and when democratic institutions are weakened, the people are disabled, and their capacity to flourish is eroded by the whims and caprices of strong men. A trip down memory lane to a neighbouring African country may be helpful in providing an illustration that such has been the story in virtually every African country. Memory of a speech.

On July 11, 2009, President Barrack Obama, while visiting Ghana, addressed the Ghanaian parliament.4 But his address was not just to his Ghanaian audience, it was meant for the whole of Africa. On that occasion, Obama spoke for democracy. Let me say here, by way of digression, that the jury is still out on Obama’s own legacy especially as it concerns his respect or lack of respect for freedom to hold and express religious convictions in the United States he led for eight years.

There is also the opinion and there is the suspicion that he interfered with Nigeria’s electoral process in 2015 by helping to enthrone a strong man. But let us put that aside for another day. Let us, instead, take a look at the thrust of his speech before the Ghanaian parliament. To Ghanaian parliamentarians, Obama said, inter alia: time and again, Ghanaians have chosen constitutional rule over autocracy, and shown a democratic spirit that allows the energy of your people to break through.

We see that in leaders who accept defeat graciously—the fact that President Mills’ opponents were standing beside him last night to greet me when I came off the plane spoke volumes about Ghana—victors who resist calls to wield power against the opposition in unfair ways. We see that spirit in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth. We see it in police like Patience Quaye, who helped prosecute the first human trafficker in Ghana. We see it in the young people who are speaking up against patronage, and participating in the political process.

Across Africa, we’ve seen countless examples of people taking control of their destiny, and making change from the bottom up. We saw it in Kenya, where civil society and business came together to help stop post-election violence. We saw it in South Africa, where over three-quarters of the country voted in the recent election—the fourth since the 4Remarks by the President to the Ghanaian Parliament, whitehouse.gov Page 3 of 10 end of Apartheid.

We saw it in Zimbabwe, where the Election Support Network braved brutal repression to stand up for the principle that a person’s vote is their sacred right. Now, make no mistake: History is on the side of these brave Africans, not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power.

Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions. Earlier, in the same address, Obama had said: This is a new moment of great promise. Only this time, we’ve learned that it will not be giants like Nkrumah and Kenyatta who will determine Africa’s future. Instead, it will be you—the men and women in Ghana’s parliament—the people you represent. It will be the young people brimming with talent and energy and hope who can claim the future that so many in previous generations never realised. When Jerry John Rawlings died on November 12, 2020, my mind went back to that speech of Barrack Obama.
To be continued tomorrow.
Father Akinwale, OP, is Vice Chancellor, Augustine University, Ilara-Epe, Lagos State.