Nigeria, March 20 -- Since Nigeria's return to democratic rule in 1999, the country has been bedeviled by a recurring phenomenon that contradicts the very essence of democracy, the declaration of a state of emergency. While such measures are typically reserved for dire national crises, in Nigeria, they have become a political tool that undermines democratic principles, weakens institutions, and further erodes the fragile trust citizens have in governance. Rather than serving as a stabilizing mechanism, the imposition of a state of emergency has repeatedly proven to be a retrogressive development that blights Nigeria's democratic trajectory.

A dispassionate recall of Nigeria's troubled past reveals instances of state of emergency since 19...