The title of this piece is partly adapted from the headline of an open letter by former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, to President Bola Tinubu, which he captioned; “From Osun to Lagos and Rivers: Darkness Looms”. In the letter, George, an erstwhile military administrator and retired Navy Commodore, drew the attention of the President to worrisome developments in some states that portend danger to the country. We shall return to the matter, shortly.
Greater parts of last week, I was in my home town, Orlu, for the burial of one of the “Mothers” we had while growing up, Mrs. Philomena Duruokpo, who we generally referred to as Daa Philo. She was married to my uncle, Anaezi, who died precisely two years ago. Daa Philo happened to be among the four mothers I met in my formative years. The first two were my paternal grandmom, Alubele, and her co-wife, Obidie. Then there was my biological mom, Vicky Nne’m, as I fondly called her. Next was Daa Philo. I did not know much of Nne Alubele as she died when I was very young but I knew Nne Obidie. My mother, who passed on four years ago, was a tigress in human form but quite pleasant, if you were on a right course. Daa Philo was the youngest and most accessible. With her at home, you lacked nothing. Her death was a deep cut on all of us in the family and beyond. It was for me a personal loss and, therefore, a duty to pay her my last respects as she was lowered to Mother Earth on Friday, February 28.
We were at the funeral ceremonies when, occasionally, I peeped into my phone to keep abreast of the uncertain developments in Osun, Lagos and Rivers. In Osun, crisis over elections in councils, which led to killings and destruction of properties, has not abated. Presently, there are two sets of council chairmen and councillors in the state. The first set, comprising All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains are still holding onto their seats, while the second group, consisting of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members, are insisting that they are the legitimate representatives of the people, following a recent council poll in the state. The governor, Ademola Adeleke, is behind his PDP faithful, while minister of blue economy and former governor, Gboyega Oyetola, is seen as the arrowhead of the APC onslaught in the state. Osun is clearly in anarchic state, so to say.
In Lagos, 36 out of 40 members of the House of Assembly, had removed their Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, on allegations of corruption and highhandedness. In his place, they elected Mojisola Meranda. The action, reportedly, did not go down well with Tinubu. In consequence, Obasa was returned to his seat, creating an open field of animosity and suspicion among the legislators. In Rivers, the impasse between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, assumed more frightening dimensions with a recent Supreme Court judgement over the state’s budget, which each side is giving different interpretations.
The three instances are not funny. They are disturbing but not entirely surprising. The late statesman and Afenifere leader, Ayo Adebanjo, warned of these troubling developments in his robust interview with TheNiche Newspapers, a leading online portal, two years ago. In a rather, prophetic manner, he had warned; “If Nigerians fail to vote right on February 25, 2023, when the result will come, I will be enjoying myself in the grave.” Of course, Nigerians voted right. Tinubu was not their choice. But the highly hypocritical Muhammadu Buhari presidency and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu foisted Tinubu on them. Adebanjo is lying in the morgue and his predictions are coming true.
Power-mongers are not known for deployment of power for positive results. Power, to them, is not a means to an end but the end itself. What Tinubu’s acolytes are doing in the three states and others are, therefore, not totally strange. In their 2018 publication on comparative politics, titled, “How Democracies Die,” Harvard University political scientists, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, explained in detail how leaders can subvert the democratic process to increase their power, commencing with silencing their opponents. In their words; “Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders – presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power”. Nearly every action or pronouncement of the Tinubu administration since coming to office points in this direction.
For the President and his henchmen, 2027 is a battle that must be won at all costs. The other day, former Vice President and PDP presidential candidate in 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, accused Tinubu and his men of bribing members of the opposition and being instrumental to the crisis in the rival political parties. Both the APC and presidential spokespersons dismissed the charge. But if you take a critical look at the body language of the APC National Chairman, Umar Ganduje and his audacious declaration of “no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2027”, you will understand the extent they have gone in making the election of the year a mere walkover for Tinubu and members of their party. Recall also Tinubu’s boast to his APC party men before the September 21, 2024 Edo governorship poll that he would hand over the state to their less-fancied candidate, Monday Okpebholo. INEC did exactly so for him. Same thing happened in Ondo governorship election. Recently in Anambra, Ganduje was heard, saying that they would reenact the Edo magic in the November 8 election in the state. In a complex system as we have, such unguarded declarations are uncalled for and must be called out.
There is nothing wrong with Nigeria becoming a one-party system, if the electorate, devoid of manipulation and coercion, choose to do so, with their votes. The beauty of democracy is the people-content and the freedom it accords the voters to make their choices. Democracy is not a guarantee for good governance but it allows the people make their choice, freely. That, unfortunately, is what Tinubu and his goons are denying the people in Osun, Rivers, Lagos and elsewhere. Bode George may not be your model for democracy and good governance. But his alert on the sad developments in some parts of the country, are in order. President Tinubu and his men must pull the brakes before they drive the country to perdition.