Prominent lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Dele Farotimi, has drawn a stark comparison between the current political landscape, where politicians appear to be uniting behind President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general elections, and the latter days of the General Sani Abacha military regime.
Speaking in an interview with SAM NWAOKO, timed to coincide with Nigeria’s 26th anniversary of democratic rule on May 29, 2025, Farotimi offered a grim assessment of the state of the nation, stating there was nothing to celebrate.
“It is delusional to speak of celebrating anything because it is a difficult time which the All Progressives Congress (APC) has brought in bold relief,” Farotimi asserted. “We should rather be calling for mourning as a collective because there is nothing to celebrate and there is no democracy either.”
He painted a bleak picture of contemporary Nigeria, highlighting worsening insecurity, increased ethno-religious division, and rampant corruption. Farotimi claimed that individuals with criminal allegations are now holding positions of power, a situation he described as unprecedented in Nigeria’s history.
According to the activist, the political class’s convergence is driven by shared interests. “It is so good that they are even coalescing together as one because their interests are served as a collective,” he stated.
Farotimi then drew the controversial parallel to the Abacha era. “Things are so bad today that Nigerians are yearning for Abacha. That is how bad things have become and our democracy has regressed so badly that we are seeing hints of the exact things we were seeing in the last days of Abacha – all the politicians coalescing and acclaiming someone as being the best and nobody else is capable of anything else.”
He continued, “So, just as they were coalescing to acclaim Abacha, they are today coalescing, acclaiming Tinubu. The politicians are as one; they cannot have anything against one another…”
Farotimi contrasted the apparent well-being of the political elite with the deteriorating living conditions of ordinary Nigerians. He pointed to the significant decline in real wages, the static nature of salaries despite soaring costs of electricity and petrol, and the reported rise in suicide rates as evidence of widespread suffering.
He urged citizens to trust their own experiences rather than accepting optimistic pronouncements from those in power. “If persons are earning less today than they were earning 20 years ago… life has become so degraded for the people that suicide rates have become astronomical and they are busy clapping for themselves, acclaiming themselves as the best thing since sliced bread, it is for the people to believe the evidence of their own senses and not accept the delusional declarations of the ‘ruining crass’.”
Farotimi’s comments come amidst ongoing national debates about the effectiveness of Nigeria’s democratic journey and the challenges facing the country under the current administration.
