Editorial
Tinubu’s state capture: Fear Mahmoud’s silent INEC than our pale trembling governors!
“As we can see and understand, Nigeria’s situation is bad. The more the immorality and corruption of a nation, the more the nation sinks into chaos, insecurity, conflict, discord, division, disunity, depression, youth restiveness, confusion, violence, and underdevelopment.
“That’s the situation mostly in Nigeria in the reign of Baba-go-slow and Emilokan. The failing state status of Nigeria is confirmed and glaringly indicated and manifested for every honest person to see through the consequences of the level of our pervasive corruption, mediocrity, immorality, misconduct, mismanagement, perversion, injustice, incompetence, and all other forms of iniquity.”
This was Olusegun Obasanjo in November, 2024. The former President who till date holds the trophy of the longest-serving Nigerian leader was speaking in his keynote address at that year’s edition of the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum held at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, where he warned that Nigeria was fast assuming the unenviable status of failed state.
Now, could anyone accuse Obasanjo of being hollow or bereft on issues concerning Nigeria? He not only led the country for three years as military Head of State, but as civilian President for another eight, totalling a record, 11 years. History also records him as holding the rare record of the Nigerian leader to supervise the first military to civilian transition and the first civilian to civilian transition.
So, when he warned that Nigeria was in danger, he spoke from a position of authority. Obasanjo, no doubt has a bird’s eye view of Nigeria. The evidence of this is more apparent in how he reputedly ran the most balanced model of governance since 1999, where issues of nepotism, tribalism or favouritsm remained nonexistent or at worst, insignificant.
He had warned further: “State capture is one of the most pervasive forms of corruption. What is happening in Nigeria—right before our eyes—is state capture, where public institutions are subject to undue influence from vested interests.”
What other demonstrable evidence could anyone be looking for than what Tinubu has turned Nigeria since May 29, 2023? At the time Obasanjo spoke in November last year, he had relied on multiple examples. Today, Tinubu’s long list of impunity has continued to stretch. More bizarre and outlandish democratic bad behaviours practically spraying raw pepper in the eyes of those who love the concept and savour the allure of freedom of choice are replete.
The sad story of Rivers State where Tinubu imposed an illegal State of Emergency is enough evidence to jolt anyone still in doubt to reality that Tinubu’s pitch to pocket Nigeria has reached to its final destination. No doubt, it is only a matter of time before Nigeria becomes another Lagos, where the state sleeps and wakes up on the whims and caprices of the President, even after he left power some 18 years ago.
In all these the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) – the body charged with conducting major elections in Nigeria, is the main culprit. That it has produced the deadly chemical to kill the Nigerian democracy is putting it mildly. The 2023 presidential election remains the perfect example to this. This was an election, Nigerians under the heavy yoke of then President Muhammadu Buhari, had sought to make a major statement.
Home and abroad, they had mobilised themselves using the social media. Luckily, Buhari, either because he was no longer a candidate and was therefore willing play the spoils-sport or he was actually imbued to leave behind at least one positive memory to his name, had assisted the process by signing the 2022 Electoral Act into law.
With that document, introducing a large dose of electronic elements into the electoral system through the Bimodal Verification System (BVAS) and the Independent Result Viewing Portal (IREV), Nigerians, especially mobilised to taking their destiny into their hands by creating their New Nigeria.
Unfortunately, as they were banking their new wave of electoral revolution on the hope of a flawlessness of these devices as had earlier been tested and proven, they never took into account the evil machinations of the same INEC, which oiling the wheels of its own wicked devices.
The result of that unholy scheme was made manifest on the morning of the presidential election of February 23 of that year, when they were told that their votes could not be uploaded on the IREV portal – signally the abrupt end of the credibility of the electoral process.
Till date, more than two years after, Mahmoud Yakubu, the INEC Chairman, who told the world that development was a result of technical glitches, has not been able to explain that term and how it came about. It was the dashing of hope for both Nigerians and global spectators who had believed the turning point had come and the African Giant had finally woken up.
Of course, what is left by that damning outcome was sealed by the judiciary, where judges audaciously asked for the scrotums of the white-headed ants from litigants. Not even one dissenting voice came from them, as was in the past, at least to pacify the people.
So, with INEC and the judiciary, both obviously compromised, crashing the foundation on which the huge electoral edifice the people had hoped, every other thing came cascading down like a pack of badly-arranged cards, such that since then, not a single election has passed the test of integrity.
The system, having returned to the Hobbesian era, where might was right, politicians behaving true to type, have upped the ante, now pushing the envelope by “winning” all the local governments in their states, which would soon be extended to winning every ward and then, 100 per cent of the votes, to complete the madness.
So, in the main, we are not worried that Sheriff Oborevwori, Governor of Delta State on Wednesday collapsed the entire Peoples Democratic (PDP) structure in the state into the All Progressives Congress (APC). That has long been expected. He knows his reason and Nigerians too know – crooked INEC – compromised judiciary – simplicita!
Bur we daresay, let the entire governors of Nigeria with their supporters join forces with the APC to back Tinubu, that boat will plunge into the sea like the Titanic. The outcome of the 2023 presidential election has proved that much that people remember many things before casting their votes.
Further we say and further we maintain, no amount of political machinations, plottings or compromises would suppress the weight of the Tinubu disaster, aptly captured as T-pain if the present hunger, deprivation and unwarranted deaths pervade the land.
Again, we believe that even if the entire vault of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is moved into the streets in 2027 to buy votes, it will neither obliterate nor diminish the impact of Nigerians wincing under the brunt of being among the highest in the world’s misery index.
Peter Obi, without a governor backing him, as presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in that 2023 election proved to the entire world that party structure pales into insignificance when faced with the determination of the people.
Our take therefore is that Nigerians must today worry more, not about the number of governors jumping into the APC ship, but how to ensure that 2027 does not repeat the electoral robbery where Obi’s supposed 15 million-plus votes were reduced to six million and the 22 states he supposedly won pruned down to mere 12.
Remembering the words of Tunde Bakare while warning about the dangers of Tinubu’s ‘Motor Park politics’ and impact of state capture – “No man is wise enough nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power,” we state that the only way to avert that danger is to stop Mahmoud and INEC, who seem to have tactically remained silent amidst the entire commotion, while waiting for 2027! They are the real danger! Not Tinubu! Not the governors!
It began less than 10 minutes after taking the oath of office. In his address to the nation, he uttered those three-letter words – subsidy is gone. The ink with which he signed the documents declaring him President was yet to dry.
That was it. From that moment, Nigerians have known nothing but poverty, tears and death. It was a declaration that came out of impulse rather than articulacy. It was not even contained in his original speech prepared for the occasion. But it sprouted out – from a rash, unthinking and impetuous mental construct.
But the effect was instant, the impact direct. From that moment, Nigerians have never known peace. Every thing took a cue. Minutes after, the news broke that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol had jumped from N189 to N550. It was that instant. Today, it hovers around N1,500.
The effect: Within minutes, transportation cost quadrupled. So too, commodity prices. Caught unawares, marketers, who had earlier thought it was a day of the rains as customers rushed to their shops, soon became suspicious and then got wiser – these were not ordinary customers but smart alecs playing a fast one on them.
They stopped selling, retrieved the items they could from those who had not disappeared with their goods and closed shop to study the situation properly. Hours after, they responded. A plate of eba and soup, went up from N200 to N1,000. Prices hit the rooftops.
In fact, the vehicle transporting what used to be Nigeria, which had been moving at a horse and buggy pace in the days of Muhammadu Buhari, stopped abruptly, engaged the reverse gear and began galloping backwards. That has remained the ugly, parlous tale of the Tinubu days, since May 29, 2023.
Now, the expectation would be that the President and his government that wrought such a horrendous punishment on the polity, would themselves take some blows. But nada! Instead, the opposite was the case. Within months of plunging the citizens into the untold hardship Tinubu went on a binge, spending money – in the words of Olusegun Obasanjo, former President – like a drunken sailor.
Few weeks after, as Nigerians were reeling and gasping in pain from the impact of their new situation, 469 newly-minted Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), rolled out from factories in Japan, where they were produced into the premises of the National Assembly for the just inaugurated members.
Put the cost at N100billion – that is N160million for each unit, plus other charges. Reason: The lawmakers needed the vehicles because of their good suspension system, to navigate the so many bad roads in Nigeria. Yes, you heard right. How could they think well and make good laws after the hassles of the bad roads? Tinubu saw reasons, acquiesced and voila!
But it did not end there. Tinubu suddenly realised that Kashim Shettima, his deputy, needed a new home “befitting” his new office. Pronto! A voucher of N21billion was raised and he had it. Till date a haze still hovers over the project.
The last news that was heard was that Number Two refused to take residence because the entire environment, including the toilets was wired to the teeth to monitor him. And Number Two needed privacy.
Again, in the same weeks, Oga Patapata, also realised that Madam needed to transport more comfortably. Pronto! It was arranged. Another voucher was raised for cars for the Office of the First Lady. Cost N1.2billion. Of course, madam needed the comfort for peace at home.
Naturally, since transportation is not done by land alone, he also took care of that. For the sea, a yacht was procured. Cost N5billion. Because the birds in the presidential fleet were not good enough, Tinubu did the needful.
He enriched the fleet with the one befitting of his status and had it transformed to mimic the US Air Force One. To complete the status symbol project, he also added a replica of The Beast, the US presidential automobile.
Ironically, the funds used in procuring these luxury lifestyle, came, not out of productive ventures of Nigeria, but through borrowing. Today, Tinubu has practically borrowed Nigeria blind, doubling or even tripling that of his predecessors.
Meanwhile Nigerians had upped the ante from mere groaning and skreiching. Citizens, unable to take it anymore, now stop their hitherto sleek vehicles on the Third Mainland Bridge and plunge into the Lagos lagoon to end it all. The option is now more rampant than remote and occasional.
Many others, taking the Socrates option, now drink hemlock and many more simply sleep off without any intention of waking up. That is where we are. That is the new Nigeria – the Tinubu Nigeria. But there is more.
Terrorists and the landlords of the forest, having now discovered that the Commander-in-Chief has other fancies than security and welfare of the people – the constitutionally-declared primary purpose of government and scant regard for the citizens, have practically gone haywire. They have taken over and established their authority.
Presently, outside those wantonly slaughtered or butchered in their homes like animals at the abattoir, incinerated alive while sleeping on their beds, among other forms of decimation, many more citizens are now spending months, going to years as victims of captivity with them in various forests in Nigeria.
In their rampage, the terrorists have since broken all barriers considered out of place hitherto. One of their escapades is the present videos of the school children and teachers taken from Oyo State. The gory imagery captures the current Nigerian story.
For instance, on Thursday, just as the sound of heavy celebration was going on in neighbouring Ogun State as the world marked the Ojude Oba yearly carnival, two of the victims, one of them with a toddler on her back, were pleading for their lives, as others went through various forms of torture, including heavy whipping like beasts.
Don’t forget that the terrorists had earlier slaughtered one of their colleagues. In the new video, the totally terrified women, informed that they had chosen another victim to be similarly eliminated. Yet, no word about rescue! Terrible!
Interestingly, if not painfully, Tinubu’s response, in the few cases he bothered, was to see the crisis through the politics lens. His most recent reaction was to tell the world that the harvest of attacks and carnages ravaging the country, were sponsored by his political enemies, intent on shoving him out of power. That to him was all that mattered.
Now, where are your powers as C-in-C? They are mostly found in the most disgraceful economic and political acts of impunity. Nigerians now waking up to hear of the award of brain-dazing contracts such as the N15trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Badagry-Maiduguri Highway – with scant regard for official regulations, is now becoming more common than rare.
Few days after one of the teachers was beheaded and the video of the hideous act made to circulate on the social media, the President and his All Progressives Congress (APC), party, rolled out the drums of his winning the party’s ticket to contest the 2027 presidential election.
To say that it has been three years of weeping, wailing, mourning and gnashing of the teeth, is a clear euphemism. There is no starker way of putting it than calamity – pure, unmitigated catastrophe – disaster.
Then comes the big question. Nigeria is already breasting the tape of these ruinous years of the first term. Suppose Tinubu succeeds in renewing his tenure by January next year? Will Nigeria survive five more years of a life like the last three? What will be left of Nigeria? Is there a way out, outside shouting – God forbid!?
Now that Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has fully executed his plot against Siminalayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State, where would it be placed in terms of identity, nuances, ethos and history? Where would it be placed in democratic arrangement and value? In other word, by what name would it be called?
So, this is what President Bola Tinubu’s much-advertised democratic credentials is all about? This is what being listed among the arrowheads in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the body that fought relentlessly against the late Sani Abacha and his henchmen has finally come to?
Is this where “The Last Man Standing” – apologies Tony Elumelu – has ended up? So, after wedging an epic battle for and through Lagos State, against then President Obasanjo and practically defeating him, even if perceptibly, in all the struggles – such as running government without federal allocation for years and surviving the political onslaught that took away other South West states like a tsunami, it has come to this?
Don’t forget that it was this selfsame Tinubu that served as the bastion of opposition in Nigerian politics from when he was Governor of Lagos State, not only standing up against Obasanjo, but undertaking the relentless battles that led to the All Progressives Congress (APC), winning the war eventually in 2015.
So, this is what all the struggles, the speeches, the colloquia, the meetings and the strategies have come to – the end result? So, the definition of democracy, to Tinubu, is selling the dog to buy a monkey – replacing democratic bad-behaviour with democratic-heist? So, this is it?!
Make no mistake about it. What you saw play out in Rivers is nothing but Tinubu at work. It is all about him, it is for him. Never make the mistake of adorning Wike in the toga of a powerful man. That would be a fatal error of judgement. Every power he exercises, real, imagined, inferred or contingent belong to and are exclusive to Tinubu.
Take away the President and Wike would turn to a political meek-lamb or a jellyfish. Fubara would have eaten him for lunch a long time ago. So, Tinubu it is – the reason the klieglights must be beamed on him. That is why he must carry the can in this odious construct in Rivers in particular and the entire Nigerian political scenario in general.
With the picture that assaulted Nigeria regarding the APC primaries that have just held, what is different from the edition we saw in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of old? Is it not worse or the worst in real and imagined terms? What then has Tinubu been fighting all these years?
Incidentally, where we have Wike today, we had Lamidi Adedibu, the Amala Politics exponent, Tony Aneni of the Mr. Fix-it fame and the Uba brothers in Anambra to whom the political firmament in Nigeria once bowed, among many plethora of examples.
So, there is nothing really new about the development, but for the fresh dimension that has been introduced into the narrative by the Wike phenomenon, which is totally novel. Before now it was a case of one behemoth in a political party rampaging the system.
But today, it has gone beyond that. Wike has developed the penchant for taking no prisoners. In his own strange construct, he has now coalesced the entire APC and PDP structure into his shoulder basket, from where he dispenses favours.
Imagine Kingsley Chinda, purchasing APC governorship election form, as a PDP federal lawmaker without first resigning from his original party. That is how wacky it has become. Wackier still is that nobody – not even the APC apparatchik has been able to raise a finger. Why? Obvious answer – the Tinubu factor.
Now, here is the danger. By the heist in Port Harcourt adding to the sequence of political oddities and absurdities since the Tinubu years, it has become obvious that Nigeria is headed towards a Paul Biya’s Cameroun, a Yoweri Musaveni’s Uganda and Zimbabwe under the late Robert Mugabe.
Tinubu, has shown obvious incapacity to tackle the parlous economic crisis in the country with 150 million Nigerians plunged into multidimensional poverty and many more growing the list daily, while also displaying uncommon powerlessness towards addressing the debilitating state of insecurity.
Under his nose citizens are daily being forced from their homes into the forests by terrorists, with some of them taken from their crutching positions, positioned before the camera and slaughtered – heads cut off like animals at an abattoir and video images freely displayed on social media.
Yet, by what has now happened in Rivers State, it has become obvious that Nigerians are not being factored into the whole equation and if they were, scant regard is paid to their opinion, ending in their powerlessness to change the situation. That is the tragedy!
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