Dele Farotimi, an activist and lawyer from Nigeria, has warned that speaking out under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is getting more and more risky.
Farotimi made this claim during an interview on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Thursday.
It is challenging to determine whether Tinubu’s administration leans more toward democracy or military dictatorship, according to the former spokeswoman for the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential campaign.
He claims that Nigerians are not experiencing the democratic wind that Tinubu has promised.
“In the administration of Tinubu, there is the ambiguity of whether we are in a military dictatorship or a democracy. It is very easy to forget exactly what kind of government we have in place. The level of depression of free speech and the readiness to criminalise every civic disagreement.
“I don’t know how much of this can be attributed to the President or his temperament, but speaking is getting riskier. Regretfully, the head is where the fish rots first. The blame must always be placed on someone’s desktop. In actuality, Nigeria is under more oppression than it is at the moment. The president’s projected breeze is being felt by Nigerians,” he said.
This comes after President Tinubu stated in his June 12 Democracy Day speech that he was reassured that the nation’s democracy is alive and not only invisible.
He said, “Our democracy is alive, but it is not invincible.”
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