After weeks and months of contestations, we have come to an unfortunate turning point. Those who are tutored in the Machiavellian school of power have seized the stage. They are in the saddle. Going by the bile and bad blood that went into the contest, we should expect reprisals. The yahoo in them will be manifest. They will be crude, rude, brash and, even violent. That is the stuff conquest is made of. You have to ride roughshod over the vanquished.
Honour will have no place in their rule and reign. It never had while the contest lasted. Decency will be a strange bedfellow in the affairs of the new men of power. They do not even understand what that means. It will be a period in our national life when the unscrupulous will wear incivility like a crown of glory.
All of this began with the conduct of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu. That was the man that promised Nigerians the best of elections and gave them the worst of it instead. After his misdemeanor, the man showed no remorse. Instead, he chose to persevere in villainy. Mahmood’s disposition since he assaulted democracy through the 2023 presidential elections shows that he does not care a hoot about how Nigerians feel about his indiscretion. He exploited the fact that outrage died in Nigeria long ago. He knows that the people will only grumble inwardly until they internalize the violation visited on them. For the typical Nigerian, nothing is worth dying for.
Many have said it repeatedly, and I agree, that the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, who contemptuously announced the result of the governorship election in the state in clear usurpation of someone else’s function, was only borrowing a leaf from Yakubu, his boss. The INEC chairman was a bigger culprit. Yunusa-Ari was simply a fast learner. He wanted to replicate Yakubu’s misdemeanor at a lower level. Like Yakubu, Yunusa-Ari knows that nothing will come out of his infraction. Nigerians have entertained themselves as much as they can with the matter. They have moved on to other issues. Yunusa-Ari, I would say, is having a good laugh wherever he is now.
Since dubiety begets dubiety, Yakubu and Yunusa-Ari begot an offspring in the rascal called Lamidi Apapa. Like others before him, this man is a paid agent of some mischief makers whose mission is to unsettle the Labour Party, the political platform on which Peter Obi is standing to claim victory in the February 25 presidential election. The unbidden agenda in Lamidi’s action is to create crisis within Peter Obi’s Labour Party and, possibly, use same to weaken his claim to presidential victory. This was the brief Lamidi and his gang got from their paymasters. Now, the man is prancing about, claiming to be the national chairman of Labour Party. The plot is to create as much bad blood and disaffection as he can within the party with the aim of making it a weak platform for electoral contest. That is how low we have sunk as a people. Impunity has grown wings to the extent that nonstarters can challenge their superiors to a duel in a most impudent manner.
To lend credence to the suspicion that the aforementioned brigands are not alone in their mission of violation and destruction, our courts are aiding and abetting their recklessness. The Supreme Court of Nigeria, a once respected institution, has gone to seed. It now shoots randomly from every angle. There are no abiding standards. No scruples. Contradictory judgments have become its stock in trade. It is so banal that even lay men can see through the gaps and somersaults. It is such a shame. The wig does not fit any longer. The law may be an ass as they say, but those who manage our justice system should be careful not to reduce our temples of justice to juvenile playgrounds.
But the dance of dishonour did not start with these new converts. The likes of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State perfected the art of shamelessness long before the Yakubus and Lamidis of the new disorder came into the scene. Anybody who recalls how much Wike lampooned the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the past cannot but shudder at the cross politics he played during the 2023 general elections. He played in the camps of both the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party. No honourable person will approbate and reprobate at the same time.
It was the burden of dishonour that restrained Wike, for instance, from announcing his preferred presidential candidate after he had told the world that he would publicly announce same and go further to campaign for the candidate. Apparently working in concert with Yakubu and the rigging machinery of the APC, Wike saw the futility of a public announcement. He was probably given the template of how the election was going to be won and lost. So, he played along.
It was the same Wike who, while nocturnally working for Tinubu/ Shettima ticket, ate his words. He had earlier condemned the provocative Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC just like many Nigerians did. But when the price was right, Wike threw honour to the dogs. Same faith ticket did not matter any more. What manner of lesson will the upcoming generation of Nigerians learn from the likes of Wike? The answer of course is dishonour.
But all hope is not lost yet. Regardless of the recklessness of the unpatriotic ones who have brought disrepute to the country, a significant number of Nigerians of the younger generation do not appear ready to move in the direction of the dishonourable clique. They demonstrated this much during the last general elections. Nigerians voted in a manner that showed that they want to move away from the old order. Even though the discredited old order subverted their will, it is obvious that the dishonourable gang will not have their way for too long. Nigerians of goodwill and good conscience are poised to do battle with the benighted souls. The battle has just begun. The victor cannot celebrate because he is haunted by the unknown. Having run foul of what is right in the eyes of God and men, those who imposed themselves on the people are perching precariously on a cliff. Time will tell how this dangerous gamble will play out.