It’s increasingly dangerous to speak under Tinubu — Dele Farotimi

Nigerian lawyer and activist Dele Farotimi has raised the alarm that it is becoming increasingly dangerous to speak under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Farotimi stated this on Thursday in an interview during Channels Television’s Morning Brief.

The former spokesperson for the 2023 presidential campaign of the Labour Party said it is difficult to pinpoint if Tinubu’s administration leans towards military dictatorship or democracy.

According to him, Nigerians are not feeling the breeze of democracy as projected by Tinubu.

“In the administration of Tinubu, there is the ambiguity of whether we are in a military dictatorship or a democracy. It is very easy to forget exactly what kind of government we have in place. The level of depression of free speech and the readiness to criminalise every civic disagreement.

“It is becoming increasingly dangerous to speak; I don’t know how much of this is traceable to the President or his temperament. Unfortunately, when the fish rots, it begins from the head. There is always somebody on whose desktop the buck must stop. The reality is that Nigeria is more repressed than it is in this moment. Nigerians are feeling the kind of breeze the president is projecting,” he stated.

This comes as President Tinubu, in his Democracy Day speech on June 12, said he was assured that the country’s democracy is not invisible but alive.

“Our democracy is not invincible, but it is alive,” he stated.