Truth be told, the suffocating carriage of the government and its officials at the state and federal levels, is antithetical to the growth and development of democracy.
By Emeka Alex Duru
In the dying days of last August, a hitherto little known Chairman of Kuje Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo, attempted brandishing an authority he clearly lacks. In a widely circulated video on social media, Shekwolo was seen threatening voters in the council that they must either support the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2027 elections or vacate the area. He said; “I have said in my area council, it’s either you’re doing APC (All Progressives Congress) or leave the area council. I am not arguing with you.”
His loose comments were informed by what he claimed as development projects being executed by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, that must be reciprocated by residents by voting for APC. “I cannot have the minister and president doing for us what they are doing. Then, on the day of election, you now come and say you want to match me. I will not do it”, he said.
Few days later when he could not withstand the hostile reactions to his empty threats, Shekwolo buckled and denied the remarks, claiming that his words were taken out of context. But that was quite tepid and cowardly. It had rather become obvious to Shekwolo that he went beyond his marginal powers, as council chairman. In boxing, he could be said to have punched above his weight. Shekwolo is a local government chairman, not the landlord of Kuje. A council chairman has absolutely no authority to threaten residents or political opponents with expulsion from their homes. Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution, guarantees every Nigerian the right to move freely and reside in any part of the country, including the FCT. The same law permits every citizen to belong to any party of his choice and vote for any candidate that appeals to him in an election.
Shekwolo could therefore have been drunk on the precise powers he has as local government area chairman or was merely driven by sheer sycophancy, the type Nigerians dismiss as “notice me” – a languid effort to impress his superiors to remain in their good books.
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But the FCT council man was not alone on the bizarre track. In Borno State, the Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation, Youth and Sports Development, Sainna Buba, was also caught on camera making promises to supporters of the APC , while threatening corporal punishment to those that do not vote for the government. The Commissioner said; “We are now playing politics. Whoever shows us a finger, we will show him a finger. Whoever dares to show us a finger again, we will break his finger. The government is our government. Those who follow us will enjoy the honey; if you refuse, then you will be flogged.”
Neither Shekwolo nor Buba was taken in over their garrulous outing. Of course, they may have drawn inspiration from the utterly lawless Osun East Senator Francis Fadahunsi, an APC chieftain, who issued death threat to members of the Accord Party in Ilesa in the August 15 Osun State governorship election.
These expressions of intolerance are incidentally running in a pattern. In 2023, then Chairman of the State Parks Management Committee in Lagos, Musiliu Akinsanya, commonly known as MC Oluomo, had threatened Igbo voters in the state not go to their polling units if they would not vote for the APC. Earlier in 2015, the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, had sworn that Igbo in the state would perish in the lagoon if they failed to support and vote for then gubernatorial candidate of APC in Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode. The Oba made the statement at his palace while addressing Igbo leaders ahead of the election. In 2023, President Tinubu’s adviser on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga pointedly warned the Igbo in Lagos to steer clear of the State’s politics or face the consequences. Onanuga, curiously, is not from Lagos State. He is from Ogun State but chose to draw a conduct to the Igbo living in Lagos.
In all the instances of obvious intolerance, except Onanuga, other characters involved claimed misrepresentation and put up pretensions of remorse. But that was theatrical and amounted to hiding behind a finger. As they say, the genie is already out of the bottle. The Christian holy book, the Bible has in the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 12, Verse 34 that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The bigots had already let out their thought pattern and nudged their cohorts to go haywire. Could it be this crass impunity by those close to the government that is encouraging supporters of the ruling party to take laws into their hands, to the point of attacking opposition political parties and their candidates? This may not be far-fetched.
Consider, for instance, the recent incident involving Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), in which his convoy was obstructed by youths and suspected thugs along the Makurdi-Gboko Road in Benue State on Tuesday, September 8, 2026. Recall also the ugly spectacle in Benin, Edo State on February 24, 2026, in which chieftains of African Democratic Congress (ADC), including elder statesman and former governor of the state, John Odigie-Oyegun were attacked by hoodlums. The same running culture of violence resonated few days ago in Warri, Delta State, when suspected thugs assaulted members of an opposition party that were in the city to market their programs. These manifestations of intolerance are increasingly becoming the norm, as 2027 draws near.
Under such hazy environment, it may not therefore be out of tune to ask; is this the democracy that Nigerian struggled and spilled their blood for? You may thus, not totally blame those that snigger that the country’s democracy is on life support. They are right in a way. What we have at hand in the name of democracy is not real, properly speaking but a completely different version of that which the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, defined as the government of the people, for the people, by the people. Forget the flowing gowns and other funny attires by the present players, the system as being operated, is more of civilian autocracy. A system that does not show tolerance for the opposition, can hardly be said to be democratic.
Truth be told, the suffocating carriage of the government and its officials at the state and federal levels, is antithetical to the growth and development of democracy. That is part of the argument in the 2018 publication by Harvard University political scientists, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, titled; ‘How Democracies Die’ – an expose on how leaders can subvert the democratic process to increase their power. The authors stress the need to accommodate the opposition and respect the opinions of those with different persuasions. 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”.
Nigeria is tilting towards this dangerous dimension. By the forceful attempts at stifling the opposition, democracy is imperiled.
To be sure, democracy cannot only be said to be alive and thriving when elections are won by the opposition. The ruling party can also come tops in a transparent poll. What matters is the fairness and credibility of the exercise and allowing the voter, the right to make his choice and seeing such, respected. That is why elections are seen as celebrations of democracy; and victory, not a do-or-die affair!
Unfortunately, this is one maxim the promoters of hate speech and violence in the country, cannot stand. But by their unprincipled stance, they are pushing Nigeria’s unity and corporate existence to serious threats.
Hate speech or ethnic profiling, for whatever political or other purposes, is wrong and drawback to harmonious existence and national development.
The Rwandan genocide of 1994 – a mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority, in which an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 citizens were killed during the 100-day period from April 7 to mid-July, started with some groups casting aspersion on others.
Here in Nigeria, unguarded comments by ethnic jingoists played vicious role in the 1966 pogrom against the Igbo in some parts of the country and the consequent 1967-1970 Civil War. Signs of that ugly past are gaining potency as the 2027 election draws near.
Incendiary statements and writings can throw the country into disarray. Both antics are divisive and not in congruence with the laws of the land which permit the rights to vote and be voted for. Politicians and their supporters should be mindful of their utterances before they set the country ablaze.
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