****Says growing political conformity, party defections threaten democracy
Constitutional lawyer and human rights advocate, Professor Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has raised the alarm over what he describes as Nigeria’s steady drift toward authoritarian rule, warning that the country is “unconsciously heading towards a one-party state.”
Speaking during a guest appearance on Hard Copy, a Channels Television programme aired on Saturday, the senior advocate expressed grave concern over the state of the nation’s democracy, lamenting the rising culture of sycophancy, political defections, and the erosion of ideological identity in Nigerian politics.
“What we are witnessing is bootlicking at its highest level,” Ozekhome said, criticising politicians who switch parties without principle. “It’s like beans, akara, and moi-moi — they’re all the same,” he quipped, likening the lack of ideological differentiation among political actors to mere variants of the same substance.
He cautioned that such political homogenisation, where no meaningful opposition exists, opens the door to unchecked power and authoritarianism.
“In a one-party state, dictatorship reigns supreme,” he warned. “The National Assembly gets pocketed, the judiciary gets pocketed, and soon, everyone starts saying ‘yes, yes, yes.’”
Ozekhome recalled how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) once boasted it would rule Nigeria for 60 years, only to collapse due to internal contradictions and complacency. He noted a similar trend with the current ruling party, observing that President Bola Tinubu’s strategic placement of allies across key institutions could result in a scenario where he virtually runs against himself in 2027 if opposition parties remain fragmented and weak.
The legal luminary also decried what he described as a rising wave of public apathy and passivity, comparing the people’s silence in the face of hardship and oppression to a “Stockholm Syndrome.”
“Nigerians are pushed to the wall, yet instead of fighting back, they are retreating,” he said. “That helplessness breeds hopelessness.”
Ozekhome concluded by urging citizens to reclaim their power and demand accountability from their leaders. “The power belongs to you,” he declared. “It is not theirs.”