Tinubu’s desperation endangers Nigeria’s democracy
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Former Rivers State governor Chibuike Amaechi buried his mother, Ezinne Mary Oruah, on May 5, 2026 in Ubima, his ancestral Ikwerre hometown. It was a celebration of life. At 89 years, she lived long and well. Her son was not only a two-term governor but also Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly for eight years and Minister of Transportation. When his ministerial tour of duty ended, he set his eyes on the country’s ultimate political diadem – presidency. He is Atiku Abubakar’s running-mate in the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
So, it was not surprising that high profile politicians from all walks of life and ethno-religious persuasions, including Atiku and his wife, Titi; former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running-mate Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke; former governors Liyel Imoke, Emeka Ihedioha, Celestine Omehia, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke; former PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, etc., were there in solidarity.
While the attendance list made a loud statement, what is even more telling was the absence of Nyesom Wike, the FCT Minister, who was Amaechi’s Chief of Staff and successor at the Brick House – seat of Rivers State government. But had he limited his antics to just boycotting the burial, perhaps nobody would have noticed. Typically, he stretched the pettiness by cajoling the City Boy Movement, a jejune APC political pressure group, to organise a reception for him at the St. Martins Anglican Church, Omagwa, a community in Ikwerre LGA, just a short distance from Ubima, on the same day.
Though both Amaechi and Wike are Ikwerre, they hail from different local governments. While Amaechi is from Ikwerre LGA, Wike hails from Obio/Akpor where he was chairman. So, assuming without conceding that there was any urgent need for a civic reception for him on the same day that Amaechi was burying his mother, decency would have dictated that he does that in Obio/Akpor.
He didn’t and the only reason he chose Omagwa for the reception was to disrupt the flow of traffic to Ubima. Consequently, the Port Harcourt-Elele highway was irreverently blocked, creating a heavy traffic gridlock that obstructed vehicular movement, including the convoys of Osinbajo, Atiku, Obi and other dignitaries. I was caught up in that bedlam, a foretaste of what to expect in this silly political season where APC’s politics of bitterness and intolerance, if unchecked, will be a precursor to unmitigated violence.
All over the country, rather than persuading voters, APC stalwarts are resorting to intimidation and outright threats. Like the boy sent by his father to steal, who, rather than going stealthily, breaks the door with his feet, these political urchins are emboldened knowing that in Tinubu, they have a father who believes that “all is fair in politics.”
Thus, Kuje Area Council chairman in the FCT, Danjuma Shekwolo, late August, warned residents to either vote for the APC in 2027 or leave the council area. “I have said in my area council, it’s either you’re doing APC or leave the area council. I am not arguing with you. With confidence, I am saying it.”
On September 4, the newly sworn-in chairman of Ohaukwu LGA, Ebonyi State, Paul Ituma, warned opposition politicians to steer clear stay unless they are willing to lick Governor Francis Nwifuru’s spittle. Ituma issued the threat barely 24 hours after Nwifuru not only threatened to remove any chairman who fails to win his council area for the APC in the 2027 elections, but also directed them to “deal with the opposition mercilessly.”
Speaking after his inauguration, Ituma said: “Anybody who wants to bring sand to put in my garri should not come to Ohaukwu. Anybody who is fighting the governor of Ebonyi State is my enemy from today and will be treated like an enemy. If you are not of APC’s stock, don’t come close to us. This is the time for politics. I don’t have a shop at the International Market or Okwo Ngbo Market; politics is my business.”
Earlier, Osun East Senator, Francis Fadahunsi, issued a similar threat ahead of the August 15 Osun governorship poll, when he told APC supporters to “kill” members of the rival Accord Party.
On September 3, Yobe State APC chairman, Muhammad Gadaka, speaking during a party campaign and mobilisation rally in Nangere LGA, urged married women to divorce their husbands if their spouses prevented them from voting for the APC in the 2027 elections.
But long before official campaigns started, Sunday Igbogho, a Yoruba irredentist, made a highly incendiary comment in March threatening opposition political parties not to ever come to the Southwest for campaigns.
“If you know that you are crazy, campaign for one Atiku or Obi in Yorubaland. No more ‘useless’ Atiku or Obi in Yorubaland… Tinubu for second term; beyond 2027. A 100 per cent. After eight years of Asiwaju, we’ll pray for extra years. Throughout Lagos and Yorubaland, it’s for Asiwaju. We will all vote for him,” he boasted.
Instructively, all these malcontents are either chieftains of the APC or self-confessed Tinubu apologists. It may well be true that the president didn’t send them on this diabolical errand. But one thing is clear: they are doing it to please him, which explains why they are treated with kid gloves.
For the avoidance of doubt, Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, guarantees freedom of movement for all citizens. It states that every citizen of Nigeria has the right to move freely throughout Nigeria, reside in any part of the country, and cannot be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry or exit. Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act guarantees the fundamental right of every citizen to life.
Yet, on Tuesday, Igboho’s threat in March was given fillip by the Benue State governor, Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, a Catholic priest. Obi, the NDC presidential candidate, has adopted interactive town hall meetings, tagged “Obi Talks Nigeria” as a direct campaign strategy to engage voters ahead of the 2027 elections. The idea is to interact directly with Nigerians. It is innovative but tasking – a campaign strategy that can only be adopted by a candidate who is sure of himself.
So, on that fateful day, he headed to Yelewata, a community in Guma LGA of Benue State, where he was scheduled to make personal donations to victims of the June 13, 2025 armed herdsmen attack. But he could not reach the beleaguered community because Benue youths wielding sticks and throwing stones, blocked the Makurdi-Gboko Road, chanting “Obi go back, Obi go back.”
And Obi, indeed, went back. Thereafter, an exultant Alia accused him of looking for trouble. A statement by his Commissioner for Information, Solomon Iorpev, said: “We are supposed to guarantee his safety and protection but an instance where no letter was written, we could not guarantee his safety. This is not the first time he is doing this. He is just looking for our trouble.”
Really?
This level of executive arrogance is unbelievable. It is absurd to insist that a presidential candidate must get the permission of a governor in a campaign season to meet with fellow citizens, more so when the Benue State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Cletus Nwadiogbu, said the police command was informed about Obi’s visit, and the command not only deployed personnel to provide security but also instructed the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations to personally lead the team.
Obi’s decision to turn back may have prevented the situation from escalating but it was not a happenstance. It was carefully scripted. Governor Alia was testing the political waters on behalf of his masters.
In July 2025, Edo State governor, Monday Okpebholo, insisted that Obi must obtain security clearance from him before visiting the State, otherwise his security would not be guaranteed. And when Obi visited, gunmen were sent after him. He only escaped death by the whiskers.
Obi’s crime was that earlier in the month, he visited St. Philomena Hospital School of Nursing Sciences in Benin, where he made a donation of N15 million. Rattled by the warm reception accorded him by the staff and students of the school, Okpebolo, a man lacking in self-confidence, went berserk.
As if choreographed, the Kaduna State Police Command took the baton of infamy from Okpebholo when it stopped a planned rally by Obi’s supporters in honour of his birthday on the specious excuse of a purported intelligence information, which it claimed revealed that certain criminal elements were planning to infiltrate and hijack the rally.
As if that was not bad enough, The Nation newspaper gleefully reported last year that a so-called National Association of Polytechnics Students (NAPS), barred Obi from their campuses nationwide. The leader of the association, Eshiofune Paul Oghayan, not only declared Obi a “persona-non- grata” on all Polytechnic campuses across the country but also barred him from coming near a distance “of not less than 10 kilometres from any student community.”
In April 2025, Governor Alia cautioned Obi against visiting the state for a humanitarian mission without official clearance, citing security concerns. Obi subsequently canceled the trip, citing the politicisation of his charitable efforts. Yet, when terrorists descended on the state and slaughtered innocent people in their sleep, Alia didn’t see that coming.
In January 2015, the APC spokesman, Felix Morka, in an Arise TV interview accused Obi of “crossing the line” in his public criticism of Tinubu’s administration and ominously warned that he “deserves whatever comes his way and he should be ready to take it.” Nigerians, aghast and nonplussed, demanded a retraction and an apology from him. None came.
In my July 24, 2025 column titled, Only in Jagaban’s Nigeria, I warned that if the threats were allowed to fester without a forceful challenge, Nigeria would be on the slippery slope towards anarchy.
“If unchallenged, it will get worse because these harassments are dress rehearsals for the political battle ahead, in line with Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu’s media adviser’s 2023 warning to Ndigbo against “interfering” in Lagos politics in 2027… Nigerians must, therefore, take these anti-democratic capers of the Tinubu administration serious. Anyone who thinks it is all about Peter Obi misses the point. It is a dress rehearsal aimed at testing the political waters. It is an existential threat to Nigeria’s democracy. In Jagaban’s Nigeria, opponents do not have the luxury of a political free pass… For the sake of our democracy and our country, Nigerians must resist this madness. If not, governors in APC-controlled states will determine who comes to their states to campaign in 2027,” I wrote over a year ago.
It is a shame that APC that has been in power for almost 12 consecutive years and a government that is chasing four years in office is resorting to intimidation and violence as strategy for winning elections.
Political intimidation is a sign of weakness, not strength and it will ultimately backfire. No matter how young President Tinubu claims to be, he is old enough to know that the political path he has decided to tread can only lead to democracy Golgotha as was the case in the First Republic.
The earlier he pulls back, the better for him because at the end of the day, he alone will account for what happens to Nigeria’s democracy under his watch and time is of the essence.
