Post by Francis Onabis (@Onabis)

# Nigeria
Why Democracy May Never Work in Nigeria
No one has been able to clearly pinpoint when politics in Nigeria stopped being public service and became a full-time business. Some trace it to the era of Anthony Anenih and the dominance of the People's Democratic Party. Others argue the culture existed long before him and merely evolved with time.
What is difficult to deny, however, is that modern Nigerian politics has become deeply commercialized.
Every election cycle now feels less like a contest of ideas and more like an economic opportunity for political elites, party executives, and power brokers. From the All Progressives Congress to newer movements like the National Democratic Coalition, candidates are often forced into a system where loyalty is measured by how much money they can spend.
When a single aspirant can spend close to a billion naira just to secure party nomination forms and internal support, one must ask: how much more will be spent during the actual election?
And once politics becomes an investment, leadership stops being service. It becomes a business venture where those elected feel pressured to recover costs, reward sponsors, and prepare financially for the next election cycle. The people become secondary.
Democracy cannot thrive where votes are bought, delegates are bribed, and political parties operate like marketplaces. In such a system, competence loses value while money becomes the true ideology.
The tragedy is not only that corruption exists, but that many citizens have slowly accepted it as normal. Politicians expect to buy support. Voters expect payment before casting ballots. Party officials expect envelopes before offering endorsements. Everyone complains about bad governance, yet many still participate in the same culture that sustains it.
A democracy survives on trust, accountability, and belief in the collective good. But when politics becomes transactional at every level, democracy begins to lose its soul.
Nigeria may continue to hold elections, but elections alone are not democracy. Without values, institutions, and citizens willing to defend integrity over immediate gain, the system risks becoming nothing more than a rotating marketplace of power.

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