By Clifford Ejenavi
A Professor of History and International Relations at Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Adewunmi Falode, has described Nigeria’s current democratic practice as “alien, expensive, wasteful, ruinous and destructive,” maintaining that it has failed to deliver its vaunted dividends to the people during the First, Second and Third Republic and it is in dire straits in the Fourth.
He stated that the country cannot achieve meaningful progress until it adopts a governance system tailored to its unique social and political realities.
The university scholar made the remark while delivering the University’s 115th inaugural lecture titled, “Bespoke Solution: Reimagining, Reifying and Realigning the Wheels of the Nigerian State,” on Tuesday November 25, 2025 at the University main campus, Ojo, Lagos.
Prof. Falode argued that since its introduction, the form of democracy practiced in the country has not been able to fulfil the basic desire of the citizen for full and inclusive participation in governance, adding that Nigeria’s democracy has been elitist, exclusionary and divisive.
While disclaiming any form of advocating for a militocracy or plutocracy or oligarchy, he emphasised that Nigeria’s democracy should be domesticated to meet local realities. He said, “For example, the last federal elections gulped N305billion, and I am sure that 2027 will be higher. Democracy has always been expensive in Nigeria. That of 1983 federal elections frittered away N2billion and at the end of the day, the military derailed the whole process! In 1999, Nigeria budgeted N1.5billion, N42billion for 2011, N108.8billion in 2015 and N242.2billion in 2022. The monies for post-elections liitigations and other incidentals are not factored into this. The shocking thing was that at the end of such elections, where humongous money had been expended, with countless lives lost and businesses destroyed, it will still take the intervention of the judiciary for the wheel of democracy to be realigned and readjusted!
“It does not end there. The presumed winner will have to use upward of two out of the four years to fend off several election petitions, use five months to govern and the remaining one and a half year to prepare for their re-election for a second term. After winning the election for the second term, another set of litigations, a year for governance and the remaining is taking up by the desire to ensure that the anointed successor wins the next election. This has been the unhappy circle of every federal election in Nigeria since 1960.”
He therefore stressed that Nigeria must rethink, redesign and realign its democratic framework if it hopes to achieve stability and sustainable development.
