Tinubu, The APC And The Ruinous Strategy Of Political Chicanery And Thuggery -By Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

The Nigerian Democracy is endangered. I might be sound as if I am becoming an alarmist but the tall-tale signs are there that the Tinubu’s APC regime has murdered Nigeria’s nascent democracy. From the onset, Tinubu left nobody in doubt as to what his mission to the presidency was. During the campaign preparatory to the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu told Nigerians that it was his turn to rule Nigeria. He told his political thugs that power is not served a la carte and so he instructed them to grab, snatch it and run with it. That charge put his cronies in overdrive mode and Nigeria has never been the same ever since. Tinubu stole the peoples’ mandate and foist himself on the people and he is fixated about holding on to power at all costs.

Indeed the Nigerian hard-worn democracy is in a grave ending at the moment. And the greatest danger to the Nigerian democracy is the inordinate ambition of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to continue to hold on to power even when he has nothing but misery to offer the nation. In the face of obvious woeful performance, Tinubu knows clearly that in a free and fair election, he would lose flatly and so he feels the only way to hold on to power is to impoverish the people, destroy the opposition and prepare the way for unchallenged rigging spree.

Obviously, Tinubu was prepared to steal power ab initio, but, he was not in any way prepared for governance or leadership for what he demonstrated so far is nothing close to purposeful leadership but self-aggrandizement. Since coming to power almost three years ago every step he has taken has always been in the wrong direction. From his choice of ministers, corrupt lopsided appointments, official high-handedness and human right abuses, exclusionist and vengeful policies, wastefulness and insensitivity to the plight of the people, etcetera, his regime has been a tale of woe for Nigerians.

In Nigeria now, there is no more democracy under Tinubu. What looked democracy inherited by the defunct PDP regime has been completely destroyed by the Tinubu’s APC regime. All the organs of the government have been compromised. The state institutions are dead and operate at the whims and caprices of the Tinubu who carries himself like a maximum ruler.

And to distract and hoodwink the people, he inaugurated a powerful propaganda team to push out false narratives about reforms that are non-existent. The propaganda team are spreading lies, hate speeches and misinformation with ethnic slurs and religious bigotry to further divide the country along ethnic and religious lines, another invidious tool employed by his government to incite hatred and mutual recrimination and disunity. Paradoxically, it seems that Tinubu believes that a disunited Nigeria will work for his purpose of manipulating the people.

Without doubt, Tinubu wants to rule like a despot. Having captured the state institutions and other pressure groups, he turned his attention to the other political parties. All the state governors have been coerced into singing Tinubu praises. He infiltrated the opposition parties to destabilize and destroy them using inducement, intimidation and other subtle means to instigate defection to the ruling APC. Those that refuse to defect to the APC are being hunted by the EFCC and ICPC. It is alleged that those that defected are rewarded with cash gifts while some have their corrupt charges with the anti-graft agencies dropped. Today the PDP is almost moribund while the Labor Party is vitiated with the gale defection while the rank of the APC is swelling even when the party is destroying the country. What is democracy with vibrant opposition?  One-party democracy is at best despotism. In a multi-ethnic nation like Nigeria, one-party arrangement that Tinubu is angling is an invitation for anarchy.

Moreover, the electoral law that Tinubu signed into law recently was designed to accommodate rigging and other electoral malfeasance. By the refusal to put the mandatory online transmission of elections result from the polling stations to the INEC server as requested by Nigerians is not only an affront on the electorates but an indication that Tinubu and his APC gang want to manipulate the electoral process. Also the removal of the clause that makes certificate forgery an offense in the electoral law shows that they have legitimized forgery and perjury. And this is unfortunate.

Nigerian Democracy is indeed in great jeopardy as Tinubu is firing from all cylinders in his bid to hang on to power. He began early in his administration by turning poverty into a weapon. The mass impoverishment and misery brought in by Tinubu alias T-pain has made Nigerians susceptible to political manipulation. In the same way, he has also weaponized insecurity which he is using as a tool to intimidate the defenseless citizens. And right now, Tinubu, the APC governors and state agents have taken their assault on Nigeria democracy a step further using violence and insecurity as tools for harassment and intimidation of the opposition.

Last month, Peter Obi the former presidential candidate of the Labor Party and now of the ADC escaped assassination by whiskers when thugs of the APC invaded the ADC party office in Benin and unleashed mayhem on the party faithful. A few days later, Rotimi Amaechi, the former governor of Rivers State and one of the ADC chieftain convoy was attacked in Port-Harcourt. And the accusing finger points to the APC that brooks no opposition. Last weekend, we saw a viral video footage of APC thugs destroying the ADC party office in Bakassi, Cross River State. A day later, it was reported that at Enugu, Peter Mbah, the governor of Enugu State ordered tractors and bulldozers to block the entrance to the Nike Lake Resort where Peter Obi was billed to have a function under the guise of construction to prevent access to the event venue.

All these go to show that there is anarchy and uncertainty in Nigeria now. But unfortunately, while Tinubu concentrates his energy on destroying our democracy instead of governance, his propaganda team and the ignorant members of the public are hailing him as a master strategist and the embattled citizens stood aloof and watch helplessly. I find it distressing and unfortunate that Nigerians feel they cannot do anything to stop tyranny. Nigeria, I must tell you that you can take back your country from the grip of the anarchist by dutifully exercising civic obligations. The choice is yours whether to allow this ugly state of affairs to continue or change it. Long live Nigeria!

Hajia Hadiza Mohammed 

hajiahadizamohammed@gmail.com

An actress, social activist, politician

London, UK