Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s Democracy Day speech, saying he only rehearsed history in his address.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief, Adegboruwa stated that the President’s speech failed to tackle the pressing challenges affecting Nigeria’s democracy.
He posited that after listening to the president’s speech, unfortunately, he cannot agree that anything has changed, adding that the speech “was not different from what columnists would write concerning the history of Nigeria”
“It is true that the president, along with us and many other Nigerians, campaigned for democracy. You would ask me what we were fighting for. The June 12 elections were annulled by the military, and we were advocating for that election to be recognised,” he said.
“And then along with it was also to ensure that we enjoy true federalism and that subsequent elections would be better than what we had in 1993.
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“We know that the election that brought the current president into office was nothing to write home about; since he (Tinubu) assumed office (everything)has gotten worse. So you ask me: can we still describe ourselves as heroes of democracy, especially if you have one of us who is now in power? Of course, I would say no.”
Adegboruwa said he expected on a day like this that all Nigerians who have been held in custody wrongfully should be released if indeed it’s a day to commemorate democracy in Nigeria.
He stated that Nigerians should talk about finding out if the country is running a true federation.
“What are people agitating for, why are there still issues of banditry, why is IPOB agitating, why is there a crisis in the South West? I thought occasions like this would give us a road map to achieve true democracy. What are we doing to amend the Constitution? When are we going to start the journey of true federation, restructuring? When are we going to get to the stage where the judiciary will become the bastion of our democratic experience? So I’m sorry, I’m not impressed in any way at all by the speech of the President in the sense that it is just rehearsing history.”
He stated that any historian who has read the contribution of democrats, comrades, and activists would read any speech like what the president gave and that for somebody who was at the forefront of that struggle and now in charge of the affairs of the country, he expected more.
“So if you ask me about this speech, it’s just history, it’s not different from what columnists would write concerning the history of Nigeria.”
On the role of the judiciary in upholding democracy, he said: “I have no doubt that the judiciary is still the gateway to democracy and indeed we must commend the courts and our judges for the role they played in the history of our democratic experience.
“Even the president is a beneficiary of democracy, and that’s from the point of view of the judiciary. Whether from his own personal life when he was charged to court or as governor of Lagos State where he filed cases to challenge several policies of the federal government, the judiciary has been part of our democratic progress. So I must commend the judges.”
