2027: Toward a Democracy That Serves Nigerians

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has once again forced Nigeria to confront an uncomfortable question. Speaking at a high-level consultation on “Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa” at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, he declared that Western liberal democracy has failed Africa. The statement is blunt, but it arrives at a time when public frustration with governance is at its peak and with 2027 already shaping political conversations.

It needs to be stated that Obasanjo’s critique is not an indictment of democracy as a principle. It is an indictment of the particular brand we inherited. He argues that the system was “forced” on the continent by colonialists, and that African countries have been running a model in which they had no hand in its “definition and design.” The consequence is that we operate a structure that does not reflect our history, our values, or our social realities, and then we wonder why it produces poor outcomes.

According to the former President, Western liberal democracy functions as “a government of a few people over all the people.” Representation is narrow. The voices of the majority are drowned out. Regretably, elections have become financial contests where “stomach infrastructure” often outweighs competence and character. More troubling is the culture it entrenched: opposition treated as enmity, governance reduced to four-year cycles of campaigning, and accountability sacrificed for political survival. He also notes that even the countries that exported this model are now questioning its deliverability and relevance without reform. If the originators are rethinking it, why are we treating it as sacred and unchangeable?

Obasanjo is not advocating a return to dictatorship. His proposal is what he calls “Afro-centred democracy” or “Afro-democracy.” The foundation of this idea is communalism, which he describes as the African tradition of coming together to reason, to iron out differences, and to work collectively. In this view, the purpose of government is “the welfare and well-being of the people: all the people.” Any system that cannot deliver that, regardless of how globally accepted it is, must be examined and, if necessary, discarded.

He has also lent his voice to the ongoing push by some lawmakers for a return to the parliamentary system, while warning that Nigerians should not expect instant results. His point is that the foundation itself was faulty. “Our journey began on an unstable foundation – Western liberal democracy,” he said. “This system, inherited from our colonial past, has fuelled our problems. It’s now our responsibility to chart our course.”

This debate is important and it is no longer theoretical. Across Nigeria today we see the symptoms of a system under stress. Voter apathy is rising. Vote-buying is normalized. Institutions are weak. Insecurity persists. Citizens feel disconnected from those who govern them. The political class rewards money and noise over ideas and service. When governance is viewed as a prize to be won rather than a duty to be performed, the result is the cycle of disappointment we have lived through.

What then would an “Afro-democracy” look like in practice? Obasanjo has not laid out a constitutional draft, and that is where the hard work begins. In the  opinion of this newspaper, any alternative must not become a cover for authoritarianism or for the erosion of rights. Culture cannot be used to justify impunity. But it can be used to reimagine participation. We must build mechanisms for broader consensus that go beyond winner-takes-all elections. We must strengthen community accountability structures that existed long before political parties. We have to design a system where leaders are compelled to govern with all groups in mind, not just their base. There’s need for a national conversation to set out the framework for the realisation of these objectives.

“Nobody will do it for us; we have to do it for ourselves,” Obasanjo said. That is the central challenge. Reforming a political system requires political will, civic education, and patience. It also requires honesty about what has not worked. There is no shame in admitting that a borrowed model has failed to take root. As he put it, if we acknowledge we made a mistake, “there’s no shame in returning to one’s roots, akin to the prodigal son.”

As parties begin to position candidates and manifestos for 2027, therefore, the conversation must move beyond personalities. The more important question is about architecture. Who governs matters, but how we are governed matters just as much. If we continue to operate a system we know is not delivering simply because “that is how it is done elsewhere,” we will only guarantee another cycle of unmet expectations.

It is time, as Obasanjo puts it, “to redefine our path.” That redefinition will not come from one speech or one conference. It will come from Nigerians deciding that the welfare of all the people, not the comfort of a few, must be the true measure of democracy. And that measure must be African, by design.