Renowned political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, says the political atmosphere in Lagos state does not allow democracy to thrive.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Niche, an online news platform, Utomi said that the All Progressives Congress in Lagos state does not provide a level playing field for opposition parties, especially the Labor Party.
Utomi gave an example of such blatant erosion of democratic ideals, noting that Lagos landlords are not renting houses to the Labor Party to use as party offices.
He said: “In Lagos state, you can’t put up a billboard. If you want to rent a house, for the Labor Party, the landlord will say that he doesn’t want the APC people to come and burn down his house. You put up posters, they tear up in minutes.
“What kind of democracy is this? This is fascism that we are bringing to Nigeria. And I anticipated it. I wrote about it in a book that came out a couple of years ago: Why not? It was about citizenship, state capture, creeping fascism and the criminal hijacking of politics in Nigeria.
“So you get these kinds of conditions that are obviously aimed at stifling democracy and then the actors behave in ways where you see an erosion of the legitimacy of the process,” he said.
