A generation of young people never witnessed military rule but Democracy Day has a special meaning for them.
Anyone who was born on or before May 29, 1999, is at least 19 years old now. They can go to jail for a crime, get married and perhaps, more importantly, vote. They have grown up in Nigeria's longest stint of civilian rule, a time when the country's presidents are dressed in flowing robes, the inspiration behind the Yoruba expression for "Democracy", Ijoba Alagbada.
Today, 19 years ago, retired Nigerian general and former Military head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in as Nigeria's elected president, marking the restoration of civilian rule to Nigeria.
The moment ended decades of military rule, that started with the first coup in 1966, punctuated by brief stints in 1979-1983 and 1993.
Every year since then, it has been marked as the official birthday of Democracy in Nigeria. The President gives a speech extolling Nigerians, and the work of previous leaders. Ceremonies are held.
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Nigerians who lived through the brutal conditions of military rule understand what happened on May 29. It's been a long time since newspaper editors sent bombs via sketchy couriers, or laws were made on a whim and a moment's notice.
The freedoms that have come with democracy have led to the explosion of Nigerian media and creatives, the birth and growth of a largely unregulated tech scene, and young activists with an audience that would have earned them a brushing a few decades ago.
It shouldn't be entirely surprising when you realise that the importance, or gravity, of this day, is lost on most young people.
A different Nigeria from 1999
There are obvious reasons. We don't teach history in schools anymore. The government actively tries to suppress any attempts to recount Nigeria's military past and the events that define that period.
Last year, a popular commentator and historian shared a history of the Asaba Massacre on a new radio series. The NBC reportedly had the radio station pull the show.
What most young people have to go on is old accounts that have largely passed into myth and folklore, and what bits of news, in text and video, can make it to the platforms where they watch stuff.
The good stuff is left for anyone who's inquisitive enough to look for it.
Left to judge by what they have grown up in, Nigeria doesn't offer the average young person any reason for celebration. The country is in the midst of an internal security crisis.
Fresh out of its first economic recession in 25 years, a majority of Nigerians live well below the poverty line.
Urban areas are overcrowded and badly managed, all as a drug crisis and unemployment paint bleak prospects for the country's youth.
So, what is Democracy Day to Nigeria's Generation Z? Or the chunk of millennials, on the younger side of 30?
Why is May 29 important to the 23-year-old in a university hostel, reading through opinions on President Buhari's Democracy Day speech in a country where young captains of industry share headlines with the same leaders who ruled the country before 1999?
On social media, the attitude has largely been one of a very Nigerian emotion, gratitude. That it's been 19 years of uninterrupted democracy is a message that has been repeated time and time again.
An anniversary of hope
Nigeria's democracy is young by many standards. It is why despite a very grim present, many insist there is hope yet to be had.
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They point to recent victories, like the first unseating of an incumbent President via elections in the nation's history. Small wins, but wins still.
It is this attitude that informs what Democracy Day means to most young Nigerians. It stands for the start of a chapter in Nigeria's history where the country finally tries to reach its potential on its own terms, without the limits set by despots, the dearth of political and personal freedoms and rule by the gun.
It is in many ways, like an anniversary of a "hard reset", only when the phone came on, there were plenty more apps to use; in Nigeria's case, that democracy allowed the average Nigerian the freedom to realise himself and have a say in his country's direction.
In many ways, it is a secondary Independence Day; one where military fatigues and coups were exchanged for elections and votes.