It is generally said that football (or sports) is the only factor that
brings Nigerians of all walks of life together. However, on Monday, March 24, 2025, the former governor of Imo State, His Excellency, The Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha, while marking his diamond jubilee birthday in Abuja, brought Nigerians of divergent political, social, cultural and religious inclinations under one roof.

The event was exceptionally colourful that the eminent Nigerians who attended the occasion instantly forgot their differences just to celebrate the erstwhile deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.
Wearing infectious smiles and glowing in exciting designers’ clothes, these Very Impossible Personalities (VIPs), apparently overjoyed by the simple act of meeting one another at such an auspicious occasion, embraced one another with amazing cheers and warmness.

The chairman of the occasion and former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, set the ball rolling during the colloquium at Abuja Continental Hotel, with the topic: “For Democracy to Work in Africa”. Obasanjo emphatically stated that the major reason democracy has been failing in Africa was that “it doesn’t align with our values, culture, and way of life”.

The former head of state made it abundantly clear that for democracy to thrive on the African continent, the government and the led must agree on a form of government which was in agreement with Africa’s way of life and values. He frowned at a situation where Africans only copy systems of government that are Western.

Deliberately but pointedly drawing from Abraham Lincoln’s view of democracy whereupon he stipulated that democracy is a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”, the two time Nigeria leader said that “it therefore means that democracy is designed to benefit the people, the masses, all in the society, not just a few”.

Practically throwing more insights into the true meaning of democracy and its essence, Obasanjo regretted that in Africa, “democracy has now become government of a small number of people, by a small number of people, over a large number of people.”

“So why has democracy failed in Africa? It is because it didn’t have any content, and in content, it is not Africa. It does not have any aspect of our culture, our way of life, what we stand for, or what we believe. What sort of democracy do you have, and you grab everything illegally and corruptly, and you say go to court? Even in the court, you cannot get justice”.

Conclusively, Obasanjo submitted this: “We have to look at democracy in the context of Africa. I hope that we will get to that stage so that democracy, which will deliver, will be the democracy that we will have in Africa”.

In his remarks, The keynote speaker, the erudite cleric, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, almost toeing Obasanjo’s path, canvassed a form of democracy which, according to him, should care for the interest of the large majority, and not for few individuals.

”Democracy is working for different people, as you can see in their outlook. There is the belief that citizens are free to rebel. There had been debate about whether the Nigerian constitution is perfect or not. No constitution will be better than the Bible and Koran. Yet, we are still living in sin. The problem is that, in Nigeria, the issue of Christian and Muslim prayer is not the best”, Kukah enthused.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/day-nigerians-gathered-for-ihedioha/