The Normalisation of Impunity: Why Democratic Gangsterism Must End

By Abubakar M Kareto

“I WOULD HAVE WON OSUN ELECTION FOR TINUBU AT ALL COST IF HE WANTED IT AND THERE’S NOTHING THE GOVERNOR WOULD HAVE DONE” – FCT MINISTER NYESOM WIKE

This is the kind of rhetoric that should evoke profound outrage across our civic landscape. When a public official can openly boast about subverting the electoral process, insinuating that state power could have been weaponised to dictate outcomes at will, we must confront the dangerous depths to which our political culture is descending.

Nigerian politicians did not merely inherit a system; they found a populace they increasingly treat as expendable, manipulable, and politically powerless. The sheer arrogance required to boast about overpowering the sovereign will of the electorate and still expect applause, partisan defense, or public amnesia by tomorrow exposes a systemic contempt for democratic norms.

When elections are framed not as exercises in popular mandate, but as displays of institutional brute force, democracy ceases to function. It becomes privatised patronage, reduced to the whims of political kingpins who mistake state apparatus for personal muscle.

We cannot afford to shrug, laugh off, or rationalise this brand of political gangsterism. Democracy is not a concession granted by powerful actors; it is the constitutional right of the people to choose their leaders without coercion, intimidation, or the shadow of compromised institutions.

Until citizens refuse to normalise impunity and demand accountability from those entrusted with public authority, genuine democratic governance will remain elusive. We deserve far better.

Abubakar M. Kareto is a Public Affairs Analyst