By
Kabiru Danladi Lawanti
In a few days, Nigeria will mark 26 years since its return to democratic rule in 1999. Over this period, the country has conducted seven general elections and witnessed three presidential transitions — including a historic handover from an incumbent party to an opposition candidate. On the surface, these milestones suggest a maturing democratic order.
But to confuse electoral continuity with democratic substance is a category error.
The essence of democracy is not merely the ritual of voting, but the sustained delivery of good governance or democratic dividends as we say – security, economic opportunity, social justice, and human dignity. On these core pillars which democracy stands on, Nigeria has not only failed, but it has regressed.
What began in 1999 as a wave of national optimism has deteriorated into a crisis of systemic disillusionment. For many Nigerians, especially the generation that came of age during the return to civil rule — now in their 40s — democracy has become synonymous with disappointment. The democratic promise of a better life has been replaced by a grim reality of unemployment, spiralling inflation, pervasive insecurity, broken healthcare and education, and decaying infrastructure.
How do we explain to a citizen whose monthly wage cannot cover a week’s worth of transport to their places of work, that governance is working? How do we justify families scavenging for food daily that democracy has delivered?
The system isn’t just failing — it’s extracting.
Nigeria today is not suffering from a lack of plans or slogans. Since 1999, we’ve had a cascade of grandiose visions from the famous “Seven-Point Agenda,” to “Transformation Agenda,” “Change,” “Next Level,” and now “Renewed Hope,” Nigerians are left to believe that leadership is all about lies. These phrases have become hollow euphemisms — not for progress, but for elite capture and elite indifference.
Let’s be clear, our problem as a country did not start with democracy, in fact, the real issue is not the absence of democracy, but the hijacking of the democratic process by a rent-seeking political elite. Over the past 26 years, the institutions of governance have been weaponised for patronage, not public service. Leadership selection has prioritised loyalty over competence, rhetoric over results, optics over outcomes.
This is not a partisan failure, because in 2015 a coalition came together to remove PDP, today the coalition has proved to all that the problem is not with parties but a structural problem.
Unless we confront the root causes — a broken political economy, weak accountability systems, and a disengaged citizenry — we will continue to recycle crises under new campaign slogans. What we have is electoral democracy without developmental outcomes — a form without substance, motion without progress.
Worse still is the normalization of dysfunction. The ruling class appears almost anesthetised to the suffering it perpetuates. Inflation hits 30%, food insecurity climbs, the Naira weakens, yet public officials remain focused on entitlements and optics. In many democracies, this scale of collapse would provoke introspection, reform — even resignations. In Nigeria, it triggers applause in rented halls.
This is dangerous.
A nation where citizens feel abandoned by both state and market is a nation walking a tightrope over an abyss. When despair becomes generational, the social contract dissolves. If young people no longer believe in the possibility of change through the ballot, they will seek it through other, less orderly means. History teaches this lesson clearly. Nigeria is no exception.
Yet, the solution is not despair. It is course correction — strategic, systemic, and sincere. We must move beyond cosmetic reforms and confront the hard questions; How do we build political parties that are ideas-driven, not personality cults? How do we institutionalise consequence for failure, and reward for competence? How do we restore trust in the judiciary, the police, the civil service? How do we insulate the economy from political sabotage and policy summersaults?
The answers are not easy. But neither is the collapse.
The stakes today are existential. Democracy, if it is to survive and serve, must be rebuilt from first principles: citizen-centric governance, ethical leadership, institutional accountability, and economic justice. That is the only way we can transform slogans into substances, and restore the broken covenant between the Nigerian state and its people.
Otherwise, every May 29 or June 12 will become a hollow ritual — marking not our progress, but our slow-motion decline.
Opinion expressed in this article are that of the author, and they do not represent the position of SkyDaily.
