Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), says Nigeria has not become a democratic nation. He makes the claim during an interview on Arise Television’s “Prime Time” on Wednesday. The statement comes soon after Sowore is released from the Kuje correctional facility, following his posting of N200 million bail. The bail is granted by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja in a case involving alleged defamation of President Bola Tinubu.
Sowore argues that Nigeria may have experienced a transition from military rule to civil administration, but that this does not amount to democracy. He says the country lacks fundamental democratic “tenets,” particularly around freedom of expression. He also contends that limits on free speech should be governed by existing law rather than by those in power. According to his remarks, he views the case against him as an effort to punish him without conviction, and he links his continued prosecution to restrictions on speaking “truth to power.”
