Photo caption: Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour
The Labour Party’s 2023 governorship candidate for Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has criticised the Democracy Day celebration, describing it as “pretentious and dubious,” while accusing the ruling All Progressives Congress of eroding the foundational values of Nigeria’s democracy.
In a statement released on Thursday via X, Rhodes-Vivour said the promise of liberal and constitutional democracies — to protect individual rights and civil liberties — was being undermined in Nigeria.
“Liberal and constitutional democracies hold the promise of protecting individual rights and civil liberties. Beyond its promise of guaranteeing civil liberties, true democracies strive to deliver outcomes like economic prosperity and egalitarianism,” he said.
According to him, the APC-led government has subverted these ideals, turning Nigeria’s democracy into what he described as a “monarchy.”
“Instead of celebrating these virtues and values, the APC has turned what was a hard-fought democracy into a monarchy where citizens are reduced to subjects—where duty and honour have given way to sycophancy,” he stated.
Rhodes-Vivour further alleged that the current democratic system is marred by the criminalisation of dissent, a compromised judiciary, and the abuse of state institutions.
“We can no longer claim to live in a democracy when dissent is criminalised or where the judiciary has been greatly compromised. What is a democracy where state institutions have become tools to oppress the weak, and where the primary determinant of wealth is proximity to state resources and state capture?” he queried.
He expressed concern over the lack of state protection for communities in parts of the country and the continued use of security apparatus to protect only the political elite.
“How can we call this a democracy where several villages in the middle belt, northeast and northwest are without state protection, yet the elites drive in convoys accompanied by elite forces?” he asked.
He also condemned the manipulation of electoral processes, stating, “Or where the right to vote is often sabotaged with state-sponsored violence and harassment, ultimately trumping the ultimate will of the people?”
Rhodes-Vivour concluded by stating that the current state of the nation is a far cry from the vision that the late Chief MKO Abiola died for, warning that the democratic experiment is on the verge of collapse.
“Today’s Democracy Day celebration is not only pretentious but dubious. Because this is not the democracy that Chief MKO Abiola died for, nor the one our elders imagined. This experiment is failing, and that failure is being accelerated by the ruling party’s utter disregard for the rule of law and their parasitic appetite to amass and accumulate at the detriment of the people,” he said.
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