By Promise Dera

Copyright nigerianeye

Nigeria risks plunging into irreversible decline if its entrenched culture of “strongman politics” is not urgently dismantled, according to Goddy Uwazuruike, a prominent lawyer and delegate to the 2014 National Conference.

In a candid interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief today, Uwazuruike decried the dominance of authoritarian tendencies in the nation’s leadership, warning that they are eroding democratic institutions and exacerbating economic and security woes.

“Strongman politics and strongman mentality is still on and will lead to our doom if we don’t stop it,” Uwazuruike asserted, drawing a sharp contrast between past administrations and the current political landscape.

He reminisced about the eras of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan, where he said the executive, opposition, and ruling party coexisted vibrantly.

“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,” he noted.

However, Uwazuruike lamented the shift over the last decade, particularly under the administrations of former President Muhammadu Buhari and current President Bola Tinubu.

He recalled the high expectations for Buhari, a retired general, who was seen as a decisive leader.

“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 said.

Turning to Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” agenda, he added, “From that renewed hope, we know where we are now, the cost of living has gone haywire, the insecurity has even got worse.”

The lawyer highlighted the suppression of opposition voices as a hallmark of this syndrome, observing that “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 pointed to the political crisis in Rivers State as a glaring example, where presidential directives—such as ordering the governor to step aside—are executed without pushback, underscoring the weakened state of Nigeria’s judiciary and legislature.

“Our judiciary, our legislature — what has happened?” he questioned, arguing that such dynamics signal the country is veering off course.

Uwazuruike’s remarks come amid growing public frustration with escalating insecurity, soaring inflation, and governance challenges that have plagued Nigeria in recent years.

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