Former governor of Ekiti state, Kayode Fayemi, has said Nigeria is yet to attain full democracy status.
Speaking on Channels Television, Fayemi said Nigeria must go beyond conducting elections.
“What we mustn’t do is to conflate elections with democracy,” he said.
“What we got was to re-establish the right to vote our leaders into office in 1999.
“What we are yet to get is real democracy in my view. We got civilian rule, we are proudly on the journey — we now have a semi-democracy, but we don’t have full democracy.
“The effort that the previous president and now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has put into it, we all must build on that.”
Fayemi reflected on his role in the fight against military rule during the Sani Abacha regime, just as he recalled how he and other pro-democracy activists ran Radio Kudirat, a clandestine broadcast outfit set up to challenge the dictatorship.
“It’s not that we were not afraid or we were aimlessly bold,” he said.
“We just didn’t fully think of the enormity of the threat it constituted beyond wanting to do the right thing.
“I mean, I carried the transmitters of Radio Kudirat on an Air France flight that was destined for Cotonou in the Benin Republic and made a detour to Lagos in the heat of the crisis.
“I could have been picked up on that flight, I would have been history by now as many found themselves to be.
“During the Oputa Panel Commission, some of the characters that were mandated to eliminate leaders of the struggle came up with their stories.”
Fayemi said many individuals who died in the struggle were not reckless but brave.
“So, we shouldn’t make light of what happened,” he said.
“I don’t by any stretch of imagination want to create the impression that we were invincible in what we did.
“I think some of us are just fortunate that we are still alive. Those who lost their lives were not stupid in what they did, they were following their convictions.”
