Nigeria Commemorates 26 Years of Unbroken Democracy with Celebrations and Demonstrations
On Thursday, Nigeria celebrated 26 years of unbroken democratic government since the country’s restoration to civilian control in 1999.
However, not all Nigerians celebrated the day since hundreds of demonstrators flocked to the streets in major cities like Lagos and Abuja to express their displeasure with successive governments’ inability to provide the real benefits of democracy.
The two-year-old cost-of-living crisis, which has caused inflation to skyrocket and many individuals to struggle to make ends meet, is a significant problem. Hassan Taiwo Soweto, the #EndBadGovernance movement’s convener, claimed that Nigeria lacked essential democratic liberties. He told the Associated Press, “Nigeria does not have all of the freedoms that a people in a democratic country ought to enjoy.”
In August 2024, Nigerians began protesting about inflation and the cost of living under the hashtag #EndBadGovernance. However, Amnesty International reports that at least 24 demonstrators were murdered when the government used its army and police forces. Security personnel were observed watching the mostly peaceful protests on Thursday.
Demonstrators were expressing their rights on Democracy Day, while pro-government advocates said that today should be a celebration rather than a protest day.
June 12 is a day worth commemorating, as anyone alive on that day will attest. “We’re not claiming that everything in the nation is flawless,” Bestman Nze-Jumbo, the convener of Team Nigeria for Change, stated.
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