Nigeria’s political augury is getting starker: Nigerians deceive themselves when they claim that the country is a constitutional democracy. What is manifesting is state capture with criminal networks manipulating the country’s laws, bureaucracy and public institutions to serve their own interests rather than public good. But every well-meaning citizen should be worried because no one has the monopoly of violence. If the opposition decides to call the bluff of these marauders, as they should do, Nigeria may well be transiting to a mobocracy because it is not always that state might overwhelms a people pushed to the wall with nothing to lose other than their chains. The greed of unconscionable political jobbers is always a recipe for anarchy and Nigeria’s political augury is getting starker by the day.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
What will ever provoke a national outrage? Why is it that nothing shocks Nigerians anymore even when those in power throw the kitchen sink at them? At what point will Nigerians say enough to insults from their so-called leaders? Why is it that our patience has become so elastic that no matter how outrageous the conduct of political actors, Nigerians take everything in their stride and move on? Is this hypnotism?
Why is it that top government officials are increasingly becoming reckless in their actions and words? Most statements made in recent times by the cream of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) – both those in government and the party apparatchik – are provocative, offensive and dangerous. They threaten violence against fellow citizens whose only crime is that they belong to other political parties. And there are no consequences.
Penultimate Thursday, I lamented here that Tinubu’s desperation is endangering Nigeria’s democracy. “All over the country,” I wrote, “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.’”
And I cited many instances. Whether it was the Kuje Area Council chairman, Danjuma Shekwolo, who warned residents in August to either vote for the APC in 2027 or leave the council area; or Ebonyi State local government chairman, Paul Ituma, who warned opposition politicians to steer clear unless they were willing to suck up to Governor Francis Nwifuru; or Nwifuru himself who threatened to remove any council chairman who fails to deliver his council area to the APC in 2027; or Senator Francis Fadahunsi who issued a fatwa ahead of the August 15 Osun governorship poll, when he told APC supporters to “kill” members of the rival Accord Party; or Muhammad Gadaka who urged married Yobe women to divorce their husbands if they prevented them from voting APC in 2027, one thread holds them together: they are all members of the APC.
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The two governors who banned the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic congress (NDC), Mr Peter Obi, from visiting their states – Monday Okpebholo of Edo State and Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia of Benue State, are elected on the APC platform.
Felix Morka, who, in an Arise TV interview in January 2025, accused Peter Obi of “crossing the line” in his criticism of Tinubu’s administration and ominously warned that he “deserves whatever comes his way and he should be ready to take it,” is the APC national spokesman. Sunday Igbogho, a Yoruba Nation activist, who threatened opposition political parties in March not to ever come to the Southwest for campaigns is a self-confessed Tinubu apologist and APC sympathiser. None of these people was either arrested or prosecuted. Instead, in early August, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, donated N100 million and a brand-new Toyota Hilux vehicle to support Igboho’s ‘Iru Ekun Security Network,’ a private militia in a constitutional democracy.
Because nothing happened to those that trod on that odious boulevard before him, this week chairman of Esan West Local Government, Edo State, Blessing Ebhodaghe, threatened to demolish a hotel that hosted an NDC meeting. As if that was not bad enough, he was seen in a video clip warning commercial drivers that they would be barred from a motor park for not wearing APC caps.
Then, on Monday, during an interview on Television Continental (TVC), FCT Minister Nyesom Wike who has been boasting how he will deliver Rivers State and Abuja to Tinubu in 2027, disclosed how elections were “lost” and “won” in the South-South zone, particularly his home state, Rivers, in 2023. The outcome of the presidential election, he revealed, had nothing to do with the votes cast by the electorate. Rather, the G-5 cult that comprised of himself, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, determined who got what.
“We agreed that, look, Atiku is a problem, PDP is strong in the South-South. So if PDP does not win in South-South, it’s a disadvantage to Atiku. Obi winning will not help Obi anywhere. We did that,” he said.
But Wike lied, typically, because his claim is harebrained. If, indeed, Atiku was the problem and the goal was to freeload Tinubu into Aso Rock, wouldn’t it have been easier to let Tinubu win in the South-South rather than enabling Obi in order to stop Atiku?
The truth is that Obi won convincingly in the South-South particularly Edo and Cross River in spite of the machinations of Wike and his fellow political jobbers. He also won in Rivers State by a landslide, which is perhaps the only truth coming out of Wike in ages. “It was only Rivers that we said, ‘No, we have a problem here in Rivers. Obi will not win here because if he wins, he sends a signal somewhere, people may not understand it.’ And we stopped it,” Wike said.
But wait a minute, Obi won Rivers but Wike stopped the victory because it would send a wrong signal? And nothing happened to him? Shame on Nigeria. Shame on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Shame on Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, the then INEC chairman. And shame on all those who are still not only hailing a self-confessed political brigand but enabling his gangsterism.
Of course, even without Wike confessing, I doubt if any Nigerian was in doubt of the Rivers result. A British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) investigation concluded that the 2023 presidential election result in Rivers was unconscionably manipulated in favour of Tinubu. By tallying polling station result sheets published online by INEC, BBC found that Obi actually won the most votes in Rivers State by a wide margin. The investigation showed instances where votes recorded for the Labour Party were significantly reduced or mutilated, while votes for the APC were inflated.
“We added up the voting tally sheets from over 6,000 polling stations in Rivers State, where many of the opposition complaints had been made. While the official result in this state gave a clear majority to Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), our tally suggested that Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) had actually received most votes in the state by a wide margin,” BBC revealed.
In Oyigbo local government area, the media giant noted that Tinubu vote increased six-fold while Obi’s vote halved. The same thing happened in Obio/Akpor, Wike’s local government. According to the BBC report: “The official result for Mr Tinubu was 80,239 votes, but we counted just 17,293 votes from polling station tallies. The count for Mr Obi was announced officially as just 3,829 votes, but the BBC counted 74,033 votes for him on the tally sheets… We found an increase of over 106,000 in Mr Tinubu’s vote in the official declaration when compared with our polling station tally – almost doubling his total in the state. In contrast, Mr Obi’s vote had fallen by over 50,000.”
This was how Wike stopped Obi in Rivers in 2023. That is the sheer brigandage that handed Aso Rock keys over to Tinubu. And this is exactly what they intend to do again in 2027 in order to secure a second term for Tinubu even if his failing health dictates that he rules Nigeria permanently from France or even the outer space.
The loathsome game has already started. As I write, three of Rotimi Amaechi’s supporters have been arrested and remanded in prison custody in Rivers State. Yet, the elections are almost four months away.The magistrate who gave the remand order is alleged to be Wike’s sister-in-law. Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State is the African Democratic Congress (ADC) vice presidential candidate in the 2027 elections.
Nigerians deceive themselves when they claim that the country is a constitutional democracy. What is manifesting is state capture with criminal networks manipulating the country’s laws, bureaucracy and public institutions to serve their own interests rather than public good. But every well-meaning citizen should be worried because no one has the monopoly of violence. If the opposition decides to call the bluff of these marauders, as they should do, Nigeria may well be transiting to a mobocracy because it is not always that state might overwhelms a people pushed to the wall with nothing to lose other than their chains. The greed of unconscionable political jobbers is always a recipe for anarchy and Nigeria’s political augury is getting starker by the day.
