A lawyer and member of the 2014 National Conference, Goddy Uwazuruike, has said that strongman politics and the strongman mentality are still prevalent in Nigeria, and warned that they will lead the country to its doom if not stopped.

“Strongman politics and strongman mentality is still on and will lead to our doom if we don’t stop it,” Uwazuruike said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Thursday.

He noted that there Is a clear difference between leadership under former presidents like Olusegun Obasanjo, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan, compared to what has been experienced in the past ten years.

“Move forward to today and then contrast it with when Obasanjo was there, when Yar’Adua was there, when Jonathan was there. The executive, the opposition was thriving, the executive was thriving, the ruling party was thriving. But what is the news in the past ten years?

“Literally everybody in the opposition has moved to the ruling party because of the strongman syndrome. Whatever the President wants, he gets — they have said it even in this regime, in this administration, so nobody can think of saying, ‘No, Mr. President,’” he added.

Uwazuruike also cited Rivers State as an example, saying that strongman politics is what allows the President to make unilateral decisions that are immediately followed without question.

“He will go to Rivers State and tell the governor to step aside and everybody goes. Our judiciary, our legislature — what has happened?” he said. “As long as we have this strongman politics going on, we are going the wrong way.”

He further criticized the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that the hope Nigerians had in his leadership ended in disappointment.

“When we were saying Buhari is a strong man, he is a general, he will lead from the front — by the time he finished his eight years, the country has gone to pieces, in terms of security, in terms of welfare.”

Uwazuruike also expressed dismay over the current administration under President Bola Tinubu, suggesting that things have worsened despite promises of a renewed future.

“Then President Tinubu came with his Renewed Hope agenda. From that renewed hope, we know where we are now, the cost of living has gone haywire, the insecurity has even got worse.

“So that strongman politics and strongman mentality is still on and will lead to our doom if we don’t stop it,” he said. (Channels TV)