The 2023 Vice Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, has issued a bold statement on the power of mass protest in Nigeria, declaring that if a million Nigerians take to the streets, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be forced to flee Aso Rock.
Baba-Ahmed made the remarks during his interview with Arise TV, where he criticised what he described as the country’s grossly misplaced priorities, particularly in governance and civic engagement. He said Nigerian authorities only take citizens seriously when their numbers swell beyond control.
“When you have 100 people protesting, police don’t even have to show up. When there are 1,000 protesters, arrests begin. At 10,000, you start hearing gunshots, water cannons, and more arrests. When 100,000 people protest, the government starts looking for the leaders to negotiate with. But when a million people come out, a helicopter flies out of the Villa—or some cars smartly drive out through the tunnels of the Villa,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed stressed that the response of the Nigerian government to public dissent often mirrors fear rather than responsibility and that true democratic values are still far from being realised in the country.
He explained that countries like the United States and France earned their democratic rights through struggle and revolution, while Nigerians—across religious and regional lines—have yet to grasp the true meaning of democracy.
“Democracy belongs to people who have earned it. The Americans fought a war of independence to earn theirs. The French, too, had their revolutions. We Nigerians, whether Muslims or Christians, Northerners or Southerners, must come to a place of understanding about what democracy truly is,” he said.
He called on Nigerians to depersonalise national conversations by setting aside religion and ethnicity in public affairs.
“We must clean out religion and ethnicity and make them private matters. Civic matters are what democracy is about,” he stated.
According to Baba-Ahmed, national focus must shift away from geopolitical zones and toward economic and social groupings.
“Let’s stop talking about Northwest, Southeast, South-South, and all those zones. Instead, talk about the social strata — the middle class, if it exists. Talk about the labour unions, the TUC, security personnel, farmers, traders, and importers. Those are the real ‘zones’ that matter.”
He urged Nigerians to embrace civic consciousness and collective responsibility if the country is to experience genuine democratic growth and development.
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