The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has claimed that Nigeria’s democracy has collapsed.
Speaking at the 60th birthday celebration and colloquium in honour of former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, Mr Obi attributed the failure of the country’s democracy to the antics of the present crop of political leaders.
He accused the present leadership of the destroying the gains recorded in democracy since the return of the current dispensation.
“They started in 1999, they laid the foundation, some people came and took it to a decking, and some people were trying to raise it to the first floor, and some people came and knocked everything down.
“That’s the situation we are in right now. Everything has been knocked down, nothing works,” he lamented
Recalling his personal political experiences, the former Anambra governor claimed that the judicial and democratic institutions that once upheld fairness and justice had deteriorated.
“And I’m somebody who can say this exemplary. I became a governor through the courts. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar were in government, I did not pay the courts one naira, I was sitting in my house, in an office, and the court declared me winner.
“That cannot happen in Nigeria today. When I was being impeached, the president sent people to come and intervene on my behalf. Ken Nnamani came begged the House not to impeach me.
“Today, the president impeached the person. And they were begging in my house not to impeach me and they were in PDP, I was in APGA.
“They were begging and the president [Obasanjo] was calling me and saying, Peter, are you okay? Even when I was impeached, President Obasanjo called me and said, are you okay? Are you safe?” Mr Obi recalled.
He said when he returned from the court, after he was declared the winner against Andy Uba, late President UmaruYar’adua called him in London and said he should come back.
“I said, President, I can’t come back because you know if I come back this evening, he said, tell me the flight which you’re coming back. And I told him, when I came, it was the first time military people came to receive me at the airport.
“I couldn’t believe it. And they took me straight to him Yar’adua.
“Now the president (referring to the present administration) will ask him not to come back here again. So he’s failed. Let’s not talk about it. Let’s talk about how we are going to rebuild it. It’s collapsing,” Mr Obi said.
