By OLATUNDE AJAYI

Former House of Representatives member, Shina Peller, has declared that Nigeria’s democracy has fundamentally failed to deliver actual dividends to ordinary citizens.

This is contained in a Democracy

Day statement Pellar made available to newsmen on Friday in Ibadan

The former lawmaker warned that the country was “building a house of cards” by ignoring deep economic hardship and insecurity.

“Let us be brutally honest with ourselves: We are practicing a democracy, but we are yet to deliver its dividends to the ordinary Nigerian,” he stated.

Peller said that while Nigeria had laid out the procedural framework of democracy; elections, parliaments, and civil liberties, the core promise of improved welfare, security, and opportunity for the average person remained unfulfilled 27 years after the return to civilian rule.

He highlighted the widening difference between the political elite and the governed, arguing that the original essence of June 12, born out of a bloody struggle for justice and the popular will, had been undermined by pervasive poverty and systemic hardship.

According to him, cries of hunger and anxiety among citizens grow louder daily, while many leaders continue to rule with detachment and arrogance.

The former lawmaker admonished political office holders to view governance as a sacred public trust rather than a personal trophy.

He said that democracy could not survive when leaders ignore the physical and economic insecurity plaguing millions, insisting that the true test of leadership was how the ordinary man eats, lives, and feels safe in his community.

Peller urged citizens to stop acting as passive spectators and to stop treating democracy as a mere four-year voting ritual.

According to him, when voters trade their ballots for temporary financial crumbs or allow ethnic and religious sentiments to override competence, they become active accomplices in the country’s underdevelopment.

Peller further said that Nigeria’s potential remains unmatched, pinning ultimate recovery on the creativity and energy of the youth.

“To steer the country away from collapse, there must be uncompromising institutional accountability, deliberate economic inclusivity that guarantees basic human dignity, and national unity rooted firmly in justice,” he said.

Peller urged Nigerian youth to channel frustration into strategic civic and political engagement rather than apathy.

He called on all tiers of government to make the 2026 June 12 observance mark a shift from national lamentation to deliberate action, urging leaders to build a society where democracy is lived every day, not just shouted as a slogan once a year. (NAN)