All Nigeria Editors Confab, 2026: Before ballot box, Africans already knew democracy — Achebe

By Juliet Umeh
Long before ballot papers, polling booths and electoral commissions became features of Nigeria’s political life, communities gathered to deliberate, question those who exercised authority and arrive at decisions affecting their collective existence.
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There were no voter cards or electronic accreditation machines. Yet, according to the Obi of Onitsha, His Royal Majesty, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, beneath those traditional systems lay an important democratic principle: power required the consent and participation of the people.
For Achebe, therefore, democracy should not simply be regarde...