A compelling new book, “Demonstration of Craze: Struggles and Transition to Democracy in Nigeria,” authored by prominent human rights activist and former Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) Executive Director, Hon. Abdul Oroh, was officially launched on Thursday, May 29, 2025 at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.
The book, with its provocatively titled “crazy” narrative, offers a sweeping historical account, tracing Nigeria’s complex journey from the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism through various periods of political upheaval, including decades of military rule and the present democratic dispensation. Reviewers noted that Oroh’s storytelling resonates with the rhapsodic critiques of Nigeria’s socio-political landscape famously delivered by music legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Mr. Abdul Oroh, currently Principal Counsel at Abdul Oroh & Co., brings a unique perspective to the narrative, drawing from his extensive career as a journalist, human rights activist, legal practitioner, and politician. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2003 and previously served as the Edo State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry. More recently, President Bola Tinubu appointed him as a member of the governing board of Admiralty University, Ibusa, Delta State.
Oroh’s personal experience with Nigeria’s struggles for democracy is particularly poignant. As Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), a leading human rights organisation, he faced arrest on July 27, 1995, by plain-clothes security police at the CLO offices in Lagos. Despite court orders for his release from what was deemed illegal detention, he remained held at an SSS holding facility at Alagbon Close in Lagos. The book also tells Oroh’s side of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third-term agenda, which Oroh was widely believed to have supported.
Early reviews praise “Demonstration of Craze” for its unflinching honesty and historical significance.
Dr. Wale Okediran, Secretary General of the Pan African Writers Association, lauded Oroh for “balancing the delicacy of a gripping story against the brutally harsh realities of democratic struggle and political activity.” He added that the book “did not hold back in any of its ugliness and neither forgave nor did it provide leniency to those who were complicit,” predicting its rightful place in Nigeria’s history.
Professor Abiodun Adeniyi, a professor of Communication at Baze University, Abuja, described the book as a “deep-seated, fact-packed, and periodised rendition of an activist account.” He highlighted Oroh’s integral role in the nation’s evolution, noting that the author was “nested with drivers of change and a witness to a mix of consequences, without pulling punches.”
“An answer to the question, “what propels any sane and decent individual to enter Nigerian politics?” is provided by Abdul Oroh’s memoir, a narrative that is partly an apologia pro vita sua, partly also a step-by-step account of ‘How to Get Elected’, and in their entirety, the memoirs lay bare in eye-popping detail the Who, the How, How Much, and How Many Bodies, are involved in acquiring and retaining stupendous political wealth and power in Nigeria, a process in which the highest bidder always prevails,” Brigid O’Connor of the British Council said about the book.
Professor Sylvester Odion-Akhaine, Head of Department of Political Science, Lagos State University and Former HoD and chair, board of trustees, Centre for Constitutionalism and Demilitarisation had this to say about the book: “This is a racing narrative, essentially autobiographical, but weaves a thread that traverses historical aspect of the author’s nativity, the epochal anti-military struggle of the 1990s, and the embedded rebirth of civil society that foregrounds the role of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), as well as the author’s foray into partisan politics of the Fourth Republic with its disconcerting intrigues, prebendalism, and authoritarian temptation, that hobbled the collective expectation of socio-economic progress.”
The launch event was well attended by dignitaries, academics, civil society representatives, and members of the public, eager to engage with Oroh’s profound insights into Nigeria’s past and present.
“Demonstration of Craze” is set to be a significant addition to the discourse on Nigeria’s democratic journey.
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