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There are no doubts that Nigeria’s democracy is under stress and demands immediate rescue efforts. Incidentally, those that have benefitted from the system are the ones assaulting the guardrails. President Bola Tinubu, some toadying Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors and other elected officials he is nudging, cajoling, blackmailing or coercing to dump their political platforms and cross over to the All Progressives Congress (APC) are the real culprits here.
They must not be allowed to have their way, else, all the efforts put in by principled and fair-minded Nigerians in pushing back the military to the barracks in the years leading to 1999 will be in vain. It is a tall order but quite attainable. All hands must be on deck in doing so. We shall return to this shortly.
Two days ago, a Facebook social media friend forwarded to me video in which a group of soldiers were kicking and shooting some demonstrators. According to my source, the unruly soldiers were members of the Cameroonian armed forces sent to the streets to disperse angry citizens protesting the return of President Paul Biya for another term in office, following the country’s October 12 presidential election. Cameroon’s Constitutional Council had on Monday confirmed that the 92-year-old Biya won the election. By the endorsement, Biya would be serving his eighth consecutive term, since coming to office in 1982 – 43 years ago. He will, by the victory, remain in power until 2032, making him the world’s oldest serving head of state. Official results claimed that Biya received 53.66 per cent of the vote, while his main challenger, Issa Tchiroma, obtained 35.19 per cent. Tchiroma, 76, previously served as Biya’s spokesperson. The election had been marked by widespread protests. The video in circulation could then be real, even as I could not confirm its veracity. What appeared rather surprising was how my friend and many Nigerians seemed to be taunting the Cameroonians over what has turned out their plight – the Biya challenge! I sharply disagreed with him on this and drew his attention to Luke Chapter 23, verse 28, where our Lord Jesus admonished women weeping for Him on his way to crucifixion: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children”. My friend made light of my response but it really meant much. The Cameroonians are already managing the Biya malady, ours may be more piteous.
Paul Biya and other greedy rulers in Africa, are setting terrible examples on how to undermine democracy in the continent. While we laugh at them and snigger that such can never happen here, the symptoms are manifesting increasingly. In the last few months, four governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have defected to APC, along with their aides and members of the state houses of assembly. Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and other elected officials of the state, led the pack in the cowardly movement. Other PDP governors like Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom), Peter Mbah (Enugu) and Douye Diri (Bayelsa), have mounted the APC train. Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State is on his way out of PDP. Curiously, Tinubu counts the shameless defections as significant to the development of the country and its democracy. However, in a system that is practically on all fours over its poor economy, high cost of living, rising unemployment, near total infrastructure collapse and spiraling insecurity, it is simply hard to understand how the movement of groveling governors and their teams to a ruling party could be celebrated. But the reasons are well known to even the unwary. For Tinubu, the race for 2027 has fully commenced, even without the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), lifting the lids. And the entire scheme is being tailored to a no-contest in which he would have an easy ride for a second term. That is the permutation; and it seems to be working.
The danger however goes beyond 2027. Dictatorship is not a one-off affair. Biya and other rulership principalities in the continent, did not embark on their ignominious paths at a go. They started by testing the waters, knocking off the opposition before emerging the civilian autocrats in their various countries. That seems the way Nigeria is going under Tinubu.
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It thus, amuses to read or hear commentators bet that such cannot take place here. Their reasons are; God will not allow it happen; the complexities of the country will not permit the idiocy. To strengthen their belief, a quick reminder is often made of the misguided attempts by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to go for third term at a time and how the move was thwarted. The analysis is also extended to the transition programme of Sani Abacha in which the then existing five political parties were forced to adopt the General as their common presidential candidate, before the hands of fate struck and he died on June 8, 1998, barely two months to his transmogrification to civilian presidency. With these recollections, Nigerians humour themselves that all is well and in the right direction. But that is not so.
The fact is that things are no longer the same. The templates have changed, the collective will and the current characters in the political space are not the same as in the Abacha and Obasanjo times. The bulk of the Nigerian society then, was united in standing up to the Abacha’s misguided agenda and Obasanjo inanities. It took the Press, the pro-democracy activities, oil workers and even the market women to draw the line and literally tell Abacha, ‘Thus far and no further’. For their daring efforts, some paid the supreme sacrifice, while many were forced into exile.
Under Obasanjo, the National Assembly knew its role in checking the excesses of the Executive, the judiciary was alive and active, the media was aware of its responsibilities as being at the intersection of the state, the citizen and good governance. But as it is today, those noble guardrails of democracy have been desecrated and compromised. The present National Assembly, headed by Senator Godswill Akpabio is a mere caricature of what a legislature should be. Because of the ravaging hunger in the industry and the need to remain afloat, a section of the Press and some practitioners have sold out to the presidency. The civil society has lost its voice, or better, has gone comatose. Tinubu therefore seems to have a free reign.
What is therefore to be done? As stated earlier in the conversation, no effort should be spared in rescuing the country’s democracy from its imminent ruins in the hands of Tinubu. The President and governors may have the resources, the immunity and the influence but the people possess the ultimate power to decide what happens to them. That is the essence of the definition of democracy as “the government of the people, by the people and for the people”, by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America. Any other thing outside that, in principle or praxis, including the procured defections to APC by shameless PDP governors and other elected officials, is out of the norm.
