Amid the recent wave of coups in West Africa, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has outlined the measures Nigeria should take to help strengthen democracy and promote stability across the region.
Speaking on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Tuesday, Falana said Nigeria must confront the root causes of instability.
“If we want to have political stability in Nigeria, you must address the crisis of the economy, address poverty, tackle illiteracy, and curb insecurity of lives and property,” he said.
Falana stressed the need for civic freedoms to be expanded and condemned the practice of treating dissent as a crime.
“You must show that the political space will not shrink as it is now. You have a shrinking of the political space, and that must stop. There must be freedom of expression. You cannot be charging people with all manner of offences for expressing their views about the affairs of their country,” he said.
The senior lawyer also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to widen democratic participation, saying “More importantly, INEC must open the political space and allow ideological political parties to be registered to challenge the status quo. Right now, INEC is not prepared to open the political space”.
Falana stated that many citizens are “unhappy” with current policies, adding that democratic leaders in Africa often suppress the opposition.
The Human Rights lawyer said some leaders misuse state power to weaken pluralism and secure political advantage, and warned Nigeria to avoid this pattern.
He added “Nigeria clearly has its job cut out. If you want to stop coups, you must allow political pluralism in Nigeria. You cannot have a situation where the country is moving towards a one-party state, and you want to export democracy. Nigeria has to put its house in order to align with political pluralism.”
