The former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, has asserted that defenders of democracy within the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) during General Sani Abacha’s regime are now worse than the man they once opposed.
ThelensNG reports that NADECO was a pro-democracy group formed in Nigeria on May 15, 1994, to oppose military rule, demand the validation of the June 12, 1993 election results, advocate the inauguration of M.K.O. Abiola as president, promote civil liberties, and mobilise both domestic and international support for the restoration of democratic governance.
Obi’s comments come on the heels of the withdrawal of Senator David Mark’s leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday.
“Yesterday’s defenders of democracy, today’s destroyers, what a shame,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “What an irony of history, that the acclaimed defenders of democracy and human rights who claimed to have fought for democracy during the era of General Sani Abacha now find themselves worse than the man they opposed.”
Obi argued that Abacha, who was once presumed to be the face of oppression, would now be remembered as more democratic and more respectful of human rights than the “so-called champions of activism” from the NADECO days.
He further stated that power indeed reveals character.
