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THE popular concept of democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people. By this definition, democracy is considered an essential criterion in party politics through which candidates emerge to contest elective positions like the presidents, governors and legislators. In a democracy votes count. But within certain political parties in the country, internal democracy is said to be lacking essentially because of the attitude of their prime leaders who prefer to be autocrats, appointing or selecting candidates for the party instead of allowing the people’s will to prevail.

Most of the political parties in Nigeria have elements of autocrats in their cadre. The autocratic leaders in the political parties dictate what happens and who gets what. Any attempt by any member of the party to challenge them could mean a political suicide for the challenger. It could mean being deprived of whatever favoured position the person had hitherto been enjoying due to the benevolence of the autocrat.

In the Nigerian political landscape, the All Progressives Congress, APC, is perceived to be led by an autocrat. The party has been accused of lacking in internal democracy despite the fact that the members think of themselves as progressives. The editorial board of Realnews have been privy to complaints of lack of democratic credentials on the part of the key leaders of the APC. The issue became additionally important since the rebel governors from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, joined the APC. Their adroit political move makes one to wonder how they are going to cope in a party where one person – Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is said to be dictating the affairs of the party. We decided to investigate what the state of democracy is within the APC in the light of this development and our findings are chronicled in our cover story for this week entitled: Tinubu: Democrat or Dictator? It was anchored by Olu Ojewale, our general editor. Enjoy It.

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THE Christmas season is here. This is the time most companies are closing their books for the year and manufacturing companies are shutting down their machines for some repairs and maintenance after working all year round. At Realnews, key officials of the magazine will also take their vacation this season, rest well and resume work in the January to continue to serve you better. We are also using this opportunity to specially thank you all especially our advertisers for your immeasurable support throughout the year 2013. Thank you all a million times. We are also wishing you a very joyful yuletide and a prosperous New Year come 2014.

Maureen Chigbo 
Editor

Email: mechigbo@yahoo.com  |  mechgbo@realnewsmagazine.net

— Dec. 23, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT