2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has said that “Nigeria is a typical example of where democracy is dying because it no longer serves the needs of the people and is no longer accountable to them.”
Mr. Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State said this in an X (formerly Twitter) post, where he confirmed that he participated in an international Conference in Accra, Ghana, organised by the 2025 Goodluck Jonathan Foundation Annual Democracy Dialogue with the theme “What Makes Democracy Die?”
The Conference, which held on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, had in attendance the President of Ghana, Mr. John Mahama, former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and other African leaders.
In his post, titled “What Makes Democracy Die: Lessons from Nigeria,” Mr. Obi noted that “Democracy is fundamentally about accountability, prioritising service to the people, ensuring security, providing education and healthcare, and lifting people out of poverty.
“Democracy dies when it ceases to be accountable to the people and when it no longer prioritises their needs,” stressing that besides the fact that democracy is no longer serving the needs of the people of Nigeria and no longer accountable to them, it “has become a process of elite state capture, granting access to public resources for personal and family interests.”
He pointed out that the way out of the situation is for Nigerians to “take democracy and elections seriously by ensuring that only people with competence, capacity, character, compassion, and commitment to service are elected.”
