Nigeria, Dec. 12 -- So, can our democracy build world-class cities? Yes - but not in its current form.

Democracy itself is never the problem. The real challenge lies in the type of democracy we practice: one that is over-centralised, personality-driven, patronage-funded, institutionally weak, administratively inconsistent, and structurally resistant to continuity. It is not democracy that fails cities; it is democracy without systems, without discipline, without institutions, without planning, and without an abiding respect for the long arc of development.

For Nigeria to build cities that can stand proudly beside Dubai, Cape Town, Toronto, or Singapore, our democracy must evolve beyond the perpetual recycling of politics into a governan...