Twenty-seven years after the return to civil rule, Nigeria’s democracy - often described as one of Africa’s strongest - is confronting a new and unsettling challenge. In recent years, growing executive assertiveness, shrinking civic space, and contested electoral credibility have raised serious questions about the capacity of Nigeria’s institutions to restrain power and withstand sustained political pressure. The 1999 transition ended overt military rule, but it did not complete the deeper work of democratic consolidation.