Few months to the October 1, 1998, terminal date of the General Sani Abacha’s political transition programme, open advertisement of loyalty to the late head of state became a standard for measuring patriotism by his acolytes. Those that shouted louder were considered good citizens and their livelihood secured, while their counterparts who did not join the orchestra were vilified and visited with severe consequences.
Brandishing Abacha Badge, imitating his dark goggles and donning his long flowing kaftan, were instant signs of endorsement for his agenda at transiting from military head of state to civilian president. Appearing in public without the badge was considered a sin against the state. Politicians and top-rate businessmen who did not decode the message and act accordingly paid dearly.
Chairman of the then electoral umpire, the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), Sumner Dagogo-Jack, was to ensure that there was no mistake in pronouncing Abacha president in 1998. In tow, the five registered political parties of the time, United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), Congress for National Consensus (CNC), National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN), Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) and Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM), were instructed to hold affirmative primaries where the head of state was adopted as sole candidate.
Those that disagreed with the arrangement had different stories to tell. Erstwhile Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Dikko (MD) Yusuf of GDM, who tried to kick against the process, was lured to Maiduguri for a pseudo-presidential primary of his party where he was rubbished by compromised delegates. Don Etiebet equally tried to assert himself in aspiring to run on the platform of the NCPN, which he solely promoted and funded, but almost lost his life. Etiebet had actually emerged the flag-bearer of his party but a few hours later announced his withdrawal from the race and threw his support behind Abacha. Reports had it that he was presented with two options by the authorities: contesting against the head of state and losing his business interests or resting the ambition and have his properties intact. Etiebet opted for the latter. He was wise enough to have done so.
With the endorsements from the political parties secured, NECON appropriately briefed and put on alert, the politicians falling over one another in demonstration of loyalty, the next stage featured street marches and musical concerts “pleading” with Abacha to accept the demands of Nigerians for him to continue as civilian president. A certain Daniel Kanu and his amorphous Youths Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA) led the pack in the cacophony. Procured commentators and analysts were unleashed on media houses for interviews in favour of the project. In fact, on Monday, June 8, 1998, one Uche Momah, who then packaged himself as the president of Igbo Speaking People in Lagos, was in our newsroom in the then Post Express, wanting to grant interview on why Nigerians needed to support the transformation project, when news broke on the CNN that Abacha, their principal, had died. I did not know when he scurried out of the complex.
Fast-forward! Twenty-eight years after passing through the pains of the entire democracy processes being programmed to actualise Abacha’s transmogrification agenda, Nigerians seem headed for same gory path, no thanks to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who, in a bid to satiate his desire for a second term, is not taking any chances but runs through the democracy space like a hurricane. Every plot, every strategy, no matter how bizarre, is being activated and tailored towards the project. It commenced with blackmailing or coercing first-term governors and other officials to defect from their political parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), decapitation of the legislature, evisceration of the judiciary and instigation of crises in the opposition parties.
Other aspects of the arrangement are quite elaborate, with precise characters reenacting similar roles by groups and individuals as in the Abacha era. Seyi Tinubu, the President’s son, and his gang are out in many parts of the country, wooing and cajoling young urban professionals (Yuppies) to key into the mass movement contraptions that bear same briefs as Daniel Kanu’s YEAA. Entrepreneurs who do not want their businesses to be ruined by vicious government agents have no option than to sign into the movements. From his corner, Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma, complements the drive with Renewed Hope Ambassadors, with a mandate to rake in politicians from opposition groups, applying diplomacy and subtle threats. That was the job the then Minister for Special Duties, Wada Nas, did for Abacha. To weaken the opposition, former Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, is acting the spoiler in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while Julius Abure is the point man in the Labour Party (LP). The late Senator Arthur Nzeribe played same role for Abacha.
In his midnight declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election, even when the results were yet to be fully uploaded, immediate past chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, commenced replaying the ignoble role of Dagogo-Jack’s NECON in foisting Abacha on the nation. There are fears that Yakubu’s successor, Prof. Joash Amupitan, a Tinubu appointee, will work on the same template. Foot soldiers are already on the roads hyping the Tinubu-messiah mantra. At most public functions lately, Tinubu’s campaign jingle; “On your mandate we shall stand…”, is virtually taking over the place of the national anthem, while the President’s trademark cap, is becoming the mode of dressing.
Principled opposition figures like former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, are being called names and portrayed as unpatriotic elements for daring to challenge Tinubu. The last straw, so far, in the exercise is the Senate’s shocking rejection of mandatory electronic transmission of results on election day, which if allowed, would have seen the president losing even in his polling unit. The gameplan is to clear the way for the president and return him for a second term without contest.
Now, it needs be stated that Tinubu seeking a second term is within his constitutional rights. It is rather the way it is being pursued that is giving cause for concern. Incidentally, Tinubu, while in opposition, had presented himself as the face of democracy in the land. As Lagos State governor, Tinubu was the person among his peers, that stood up to the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s overt gravitation to civilian autocracy. The battle was extended to Obasanjo’s successors – Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. But whatever Tinubu had against these predecessors have paled to insignificance at the rate he is trampling on the democracy guardrails in the country. If you say it is hypocrisy at work, you may not be wrong. But it clearly reflects the views by Harvard University political scientists, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, in their 2018 publication on comparative politics titled; “How Democracies Die”. 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”.
