00:00The question of democracy, how it is working in Nigeria will continue to interest us because
00:07since 1999 we have been operating a democracy and then Nigerians generally are not satisfied.
00:14Yes, if you throw it into a debate, politicians will always say, oh, they have made a lot of
00:19progress. They have been able to achieve some clean stability. They have been able to keep the
00:24Taki boys as the military away from government. But democracy actually demands a lot more than that.
00:32So what the former president was talking about, there is need for a real definition of democracy
00:39that will reflect the values, the culture and tradition of Africa. It's really the main.
00:45It's not as if the democracy that we inherited is wrong, you know, in all ramifications.
00:53After all, if some countries can use that same democracy to develop themselves and to take care
00:58of their citizens, why can't Nigeria do the same thing using the same structure? Yes, the values,
01:07the traditions will be different, but I think that beyond the changing of name or nomenclature of
01:13what democracy should be, we need to have the right leadership and we need to have the right personnel.
01:21So until we have that, whether we call it democracy, whether we call it African democracy or colonial democracy,
01:29you know, democracy will not serve us. We need to have the basics, the right people in charge,
01:37the right character, the right leadership. So I think that that is what should concern Nigerians
01:43about the issue of democracy.
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