Nigeria’s Democracy is Fragile

Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, RULAAC Backs Situation Room’s Call for Action

On September 15, the world marked the International Day of Democracy 2025. The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room – of which RULAAC is a proud member – issued a powerful statement highlighting the state of our democracy. Their verdict was clear: 26 years after Nigeria’s return to civil rule, democracy remains fragile, undermined by corruption, insecurity, and deliberate sabotage of institutions that ought to guarantee accountability and protect citizens’ rights.

RULAAC fully aligns with the Situation Room’s concerns, because every day, in our work across Nigeria, we see how citizens are shortchanged by leaders who treat democracy as an empty ritual rather than a living promise.

The 2023 elections – marred by voter suppression, compromised results transmission, and judicial controversies – exposed a painful truth: our electoral system has been bent to serve the powerful at the expense of the people. Instead of strengthening democracy, the political class has deployed state resources to stifle opposition, harass journalists, and intimidate civil society. When the will of the people is subverted, democracy is stripped of its meaning.

The crisis of insecurity makes the situation even worse. From banditry and terrorism in the North, to farmer-herder clashes in the Middle Belt, to politically motivated violence in the South, Nigeria has become a theatre of blood. When citizens cannot live or travel in safety, they cannot exercise their democratic rights freely. Democracy dies when fear replaces freedom.

The state of the economy is equally alarming. Citizens are told to endure pain today for a brighter tomorrow, yet that tomorrow keeps receding. Inflation, poverty, and unemployment remain widespread, while political elites insulate themselves from sacrifice. Democracy that cannot deliver bread, jobs, education, or healthcare is a democracy in retreat.

RULAAC is especially troubled by the shrinking of civic space. The harassment of civil society groups, gagging of dissenting voices, and weaponization of security agencies against citizens are hallmarks of authoritarianism, not democracy. Nigerians fought and died to end military dictatorship; we cannot sit by while elected leaders adopt the same tactics of repression.

The International Day of Democracy theme this year – “From Voice to Action” – should be a call to conscience. Nigerians have never been silent. They protest, they speak, they organize, they vote. The tragedy is that their voices are too often ignored, drowned, or criminalized. What we need now is not just listening, but action: electoral reforms, accountable leadership, inclusive governance, and protection of rights.

As the Situation Room rightly stated, Nigeria’s democracy is at a crossroads. The choice before us is stark. Either we rescue our democracy from the grip of corruption, impunity, and authoritarian drift, or we watch it collapse into a hollow shell – democracy in name, dictatorship in practice.

RULAAC stands with the Situation Room in calling on government at all levels, especially the National Assembly, to fast-track reforms that will restore electoral integrity and strengthen institutions. We call on INEC to ensure that ongoing voter registration and forthcoming off- cycle elections meet the highest standards of transparency and inclusivity. We call on security agencies to serve citizens, not politicians. And we call on leaders to remember that democracy is not about them – it is about the people.

Nigeria cannot afford to backslide into the primitive era when citizens lived under fear and oppression. The sacrifices of those who fought for our freedom must not be wasted. The time for half-measures and empty promises is over. Democracy must work for the Nigerian people – or it will wither.

Okechukwu Nwanguma,

Executive Director