Presidency react to Obasanjo assertion of Western style of democracy failed to work in Africa because the system does not consider the majority of the people
The Bola Tinubu Presidency has replied former President Olusegun Obasanjo who had noted that western democracy is not working for Africa and should be replaced with home-grown system.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who spoke in an interview, noted that the democracy the country currently practises dates back to direct inputs by Obasanjo when he led the country’s first as military Head of State from 1976 – 1979 and as civilian President from 1999 – 2007.
“Obasanjo ought to know that he brought this thing into Nigeria. He was the one who made us adopt it in 1979. He must have seen it as expensive and unsuitable when he governed us for eight years and even wanted an extension for another four years.
“So, the way he is sounding, it is like the man is getting wiser after leaving office,” Onanuga said.
Report on Monday have it that Obasanjo stated that democracy was not working in most African countries while noting that “we have to think out of the box and, after, act with our new thinking.”
Obasanjo had said this in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital in his address at a high-level consultation on “Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa”, said that the Western style of democracy failed to work in Africa because the system does not consider the majority of the people.
He had noted that “The weakness and failure of liberal democracy as it is practised stem from its history, content, context and its practice; once you move from all the people to representatives of the people, you start to encounter troubles and problems.
“For those who define it as the rule of the majority, should the minority be ignored, neglected and excluded? In short, we have a system of government in which we have no hands to define and design, and we continue with it, even when we know that it is not working for us.
“Those who brought it to us are now questioning the rightness of their invention, its deliverability and its relevance today without reform.”
The former President explained that the essence of any system of government should be the welfare and well-being of the people, stressing that Africans must examine the performance of democracy in the West, its origin.
