Nigeria’s democratic institutions getting weaker, Bode George warns

Chief Olabode George, former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has warned that Nigeria’s democratic institutions are under strain.
Speaking during the memorial lecture to mark Herbert Macaulay’s posthumous birthday in Lagos yesterday, George argued that the strength of a democracy is not measured by the power of those who govern but by the strength of the institutions that restrain power.
He warned against what he said history shows weaken democratic systems including a decline in political competition, institutions that cease to appear impartial, the treatment of opposition voices as enemies rather than participants in the democratic process, and a publi...