We copied America’s presidency. We did not copy its people.
We borrowed the presidential system, the bicameral legislature, the Senate and House of Representatives, federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances. We borrowed the inaugurations, the motorcades, the convoys, the paraphernalia of power.
We bought the cooking pot, the burners and the serving dishes, but we left behind the ingredients that make the democratic soup palatable.
America has just given the world another lesson. In the November 2026 midterm elections, the Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress. President Donald Trump remains in office, but must now contend with an opposition-controlled legislature.
No coup. No military intervention. No suspension of the Constitution. No army marching on Washington. Just citizens voting, and institutions responding.
That is democracy at work. That is Knowledge becoming Intelligence — election as contest, not war.
1. THE ELECTION IS A CONTEST, NOT A WAR
In America, campaigns are fierce but competition is conducted within rules. Opponents are competitors, not enemies to be eliminated. A rally is not a battlefield. A disagreement is not a declaration of war.
In Nigeria, political gatherings are disrupted, supporters attacked, convoys threatened, and pre-election violence already claiming lives. What are we campaigning for if the campaign itself becomes a threat to human life? Is political office worth a human life?
We must learn to disagree without destroying one another.
2. THE BALLOT BOX IS NOT THE PROPERTY OF THE INCUMBENT
No governor, minister, godfather or party chairman owns the votes of Nigerians. The ruling party has no proprietary interest in the electoral commission. Security agencies are not the armed wing of a political organisation. INEC is not an extension of the Presidency.
In America, the President’s party can lose, and the President must live with the consequences. Nigeria must arrive at the same understanding: an election is not an exercise in renewing the incumbent’s ownership of power. It is an opportunity for citizens to decide who should exercise power on their behalf.
3. PRIMARIES: THE FIRST TEST WE KEEP FAILING
Primaries are not auctions where the highest bidder purchases nomination. They are not private arrangements where powerful individuals decide and invite members to applaud.
Yet manipulation, imposition, exclusion and rigging have repeatedly attended Nigerian primaries. Aggrieved aspirants go to court, factions emerge, rival executives claim legitimacy — and the judiciary becomes an unwilling participant in what should have been settled by credible internal democracy.
The courts should be the final arbiter of genuine disputes, not the regular substitute for internal party democracy.
4. THE LEGISLATURE MUST NOT BECOME AN EXECUTIVE APPENDAGE
America’s Congress has its own mandate. It is not required to subordinate every decision to the President.
Nigeria’s National Assembly must embrace that principle. Senators and representatives are elected by constituencies, not appointed as presidential advisers. Their primary responsibility is to the Constitution and the people they represent. A rubber-stamp legislature is not a constitutional safeguard. It is a democratic opportunity wasted.
5. THE OPPOSITION IS PART OF THE DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM
The opposition is not an enemy, not a collection of saboteurs, not an unlawful association because it disagrees with government. A President can retain office while losing control of Congress. Power can be redistributed through the ballot box.
The strength of a government is not measured by the weakness of its opposition.
6. THE INGREDIENT WE HAVE MOST NEGLECTED: THE CITIZEN
No system can be stronger than the civic culture that sustains it. Citizens must scrutinise candidates before elections, question representatives while in office, resist vote-buying, intimidation, ethnic manipulation and religious exploitation.
A citizen who sells his vote has compromised an instrument of accountability. A citizen who refuses to question his representatives has surrendered democratic responsibility. Democracy is not a spectator sport.
THE WITNESS VERDICT
This is the same principle Dr Emmanuel Adebayo Abanida raised on reciprocal accountability in health: a doctor cannot manufacture oxygen, a nurse cannot manufacture medicines, a hospital cannot procure equipment with funds never released.
Similarly, INEC cannot manufacture credibility, the legislature cannot manufacture courage, and the ballot cannot manufacture legitimacy — if citizens do not demand it.
We copied America’s presidency. Now we must copy its democratic accountability, its institutional discipline, and its culture of peaceful competition — with our own 5Cs: Conscience, Competence, Character, Courage, Compassion.
TAKING BACK NIGERIA does not mean taking up arms. It means reclaiming the people’s rightful place in the ownership, supervision and direction of public affairs — peacefully, constitutionally, democratically.
Government = SERVANT Not SAVIOUR.
Let The People Own The Country! Let The Institutions Do Their Job! Let The Ballot Speak!
Learn • Unlearn • Rebuild • Humanity First — 200m Umpires Are Watching.
Richard Olanrewaju ODUSANYA
Convener of ACRI / WITNESS 2026/2036
Author of NIGERIA NEEDS A NEW NATIONAL MODEL
