He spoke at the 2023 Port Harcourt International Conference held at the Obi Wali International Conference in Port Harcourt on Thursday.
The conference was themed ‘Deepening Democratic Culture and Institutions for Sustainable Development and Security in Nigeria’.
Obasanjo, who delivered the keynote address, titled ‘Respecting the Principles of Democracy’, noted that Nigeria’s democracy has gone through twists, dives and turns since after political independence.
He said the best of the country’s history has been the sustenance of democracy since the military transfer of power to a democratically elected government in 1999.
Obasanjo, however, observed that there may be reasons to doubt how many lessons the leaders and followers have drawn from the country’s past and how far they are willing to go to deepen, widen and strengthen democracy and democratic practice.
The former president declared that the ways in which the political class has practiced democracy have deepened contradictions, negative coalitions, distrust, disloyalty and unpatriotic tendencies within and between communities and constituencies all over the country.
He stated that what it means was that there were deep structural and philosophical problems that must be dealt with.
According to him, if the practice of democracy was superficial and opportunistic and it is designed to pursue a struggle for limited objectives, it would precipitate variants of fractured engagements that cannot address structural and philosophical contradictions and challenges.
Obasanjo stated, “In fact, the order of the day would be community against community, religion against religion, leader against leader.
“Ordinary citizens are then dragged into the directionless, meaningless and opportunistic personal or narrow ambitions of leaders. The end result will be confusion, diffusion, distraction and possibly leading to separation and disintegration.”
He stressed that democracy was possible in Nigeria and the people have the capacity to build a culture of democratization.
Obasanjo, however, insisted that Nigerians must recognize and accept the fact that it was an evolutionary process with principles.
He said, “Without retracing our political steps in the right direction, the current process will either not produce the right leaders or it will leave so many broken blocks on the path to governance and attract resources and energy away from the task of rebuilding Nigeria and consolidating our democratic practice.
“The result will be a democratic quagmire, increased corruption, insecurity and survival of the fittest, richest and better connected with little or no recognition of merits. The implications and cost of such a scenario to our present and future can best be imagined. I pray that God will grant us the wisdom to do what is right for our country and people at all times and more so now.”
