“The people are asking for free and fair elections. If the electoral commission can guarantee this, then wait and see how Tinubu and his 31 governors will collapse like a pack of cards.”
Just the other day, Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State swelled the rank of governors flying the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC). They are now 31 in number. That means that only five out of the 36 governors are outside the fold of the APC. Even at that, two or more of the five governors are secret allies of the APC-led federal government. The scenario, right now, is looking ridiculous; even unreal. But that is the reality before us. At first, a good number of Nigerians were scandalized by this embarrassing turn of events. They condemned the defecting governors in unmistakable terms. But that was then. Nigerians are no longer commenting on this incongruity. As a people who cannot stay the course on any issue, Nigerians have since reconciled themselves with the push by the Bola Tinubu presidency for a one-party state. Nothing really matters to Nigerians, and this one too does not matter.
Truly, nothing matters in this earthly space called Nigeria. That is why all that is required to get a governor to abandon the platform under which he was elected into office is gratification. Pay him well and he will do your bidding. Morality and integrity have no place here. There is no consideration for those who voted them into office. Even those who elected the defecting governors do not care a hoot about what is going on. Everything fits into the Nigerian formula. It is a country without abiding standards. It is a land where the grotesque can suddenly become an object of admiration. And that is what we have on our hands right now.
The defecting governors are being admired. They are the wise ones. They understand the Nigerian environment well enough. What they are doing or have done already synchronizes with the Nigerian psyche. While some were induced with filthy lucre, some others were intimidated into submission. In some cases, the two instruments of inducement were deployed simultaneously. Those who do not see the sense in their actions are being written off as naive and politically lame.
The oddity of the defecting governors is flourishing because of who we are as a people. If we are not a peculiar breed of upside down men and women, President Tinubu would not have succeeded in buying up the number of governors that he has in his kitty. How can human beings elected by their people to serve them be this fickle and flippant? This can only happen in a Republic of fools.
If this president were performing, we can begin to find justification for the action of the governors. But Nigeria is in its worst state ever. Never before in the history of governance in Nigeria has an ethnic bigot like Tinubu happened on Nigeria. When he first rolled out his brazen ethnic agenda, there was a loud murmur all around the country. There was even an outcry in some quarters. Even some of his Yoruba kinsmen were nauseated by his bigotry. But that was then. Nobody is complaining anymore. The president’s bigoted approach to governance has been internalized. It has been accepted by Nigerians. Again, this is possible because we are who we are. Nigerians, as we have come to know, are a strange lot. They are adept in hard liberty. They can cope with anything.
So, what can be done about this country that is firmly in the hands of a tiny cabal that controls both power and wealth? Finding a suitable answer to this question is the challenge that Nigeria faces as a country. It is actually at the root of the struggle for change in leadership. In recent years, Nigerians have demonstrated in more ways than one that they yearn for a better country. The generation of Nigerians that bungled the chances of the country to be great is fading away. But their remnants are still holding on to power. Sometime in 2020, young and ebullient Nigerians whose future is being ruined stood up to be counted.
They occupied the Lekki Toll Gate for days, demanding the dismantling of a rapacious order that was ruining their tomorrow. But the revolutionary push failed because the barrel of the gun proved more potent than mere shouts of revolution. The young men and women meant well for their country, but those who wield power, especially lethal power, would not let them. Their voices were drowned by volleys of bullets that flew and boomed around them.
The election year of 2023 was another opportunity. It was the year those who still have hope for Nigeria filed out to effect the change they wanted in the governance architecture of their country. The new Nigeria advocates were lucky at that time. They had an arrowhead who flew their flag. But, again, the cabal stopped them midstream. The dream of a new Nigeria was aborted by the ruling clique.
Another election year is close by. The struggle for a new order has commenced in earnest. While those who want genuine and rewarding change in Nigeria are interested in issues of good governance, those who want Nigeria to remain the private estate of a few are busy forming a club of defecting and conscienceless governors. The thinking here is that governors will seize their states and thereby determine the way the elections will go. But we know that that is hardly the case. Governors have no control over the way the people vote at elections. If anything, governors are liabilities. A good number of the voting population are resentful of their governors. They are dissatisfied both with the conduct and governance approach of their governors. That is why most second term governors who are subjected to free and fair elections hardly make it. This is because everyday a governor spends in office diminishes his popularity. Is it these unpopular governors that Tinubu wants to line up on Election Day to win votes for him? That is what it looks like.
But I am constrained to say that that is not Tinubu’s intent. He knows the governors do not control the votes. Instead, he wants to deploy them as decoys for election rigging. A president who controls more than 90 percent of the governors can claim popularity in their domains even when he is not in real terms. When election is rigged in favour of a political party that controls a state, less eyebrows will be raised. That is the winning formula that Tinubu is working towards. But who is talking about rigged elections? The people are asking for free and fair elections. If the electoral commission can guarantee this, then wait and see how Tinubu and his 31 governors will collapse like a pack of cards.
“The people are asking for free and fair elections. If the electoral commission can guarantee this, then wait and see how Tinubu and his 31 governors will collapse like a pack of cards.”
Just the other day, Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State swelled the rank of governors flying the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC). They are now 31 in number. That means that only five out of the 36 governors are outside the fold of the APC. Even at that, two or more of the five governors are secret allies of the APC-led federal government. The scenario, right now, is looking ridiculous; even unreal. But that is the reality before us. At first, a good number of Nigerians were scandalized by this embarrassing turn of events. They condemned the defecting governors in unmistakable terms. But that was then. Nigerians are no longer commenting on this incongruity. As a people who cannot stay the course on any issue, Nigerians have since reconciled themselves with the push by the Bola Tinubu presidency for a one-party state. Nothing really matters to Nigerians, and this one too does not matter.
Truly, nothing matters in this earthly space called Nigeria. That is why all that is required to get a governor to abandon the platform under which he was elected into office is gratification. Pay him well and he will do your bidding. Morality and integrity have no place here. There is no consideration for those who voted them into office. Even those who elected the defecting governors do not care a hoot about what is going on. Everything fits into the Nigerian formula. It is a country without abiding standards. It is a land where the grotesque can suddenly become an object of admiration. And that is what we have on our hands right now.
The defecting governors are being admired. They are the wise ones. They understand the Nigerian environment well enough. What they are doing or have done already synchronizes with the Nigerian psyche. While some were induced with filthy lucre, some others were intimidated into submission. In some cases, the two instruments of inducement were deployed simultaneously. Those who do not see the sense in their actions are being written off as naive and politically lame.
The oddity of the defecting governors is flourishing because of who we are as a people. If we are not a peculiar breed of upside down men and women, President Tinubu would not have succeeded in buying up the number of governors that he has in his kitty. How can human beings elected by their people to serve them be this fickle and flippant? This can only happen in a Republic of fools.
If this president were performing, we can begin to find justification for the action of the governors. But Nigeria is in its worst state ever. Never before in the history of governance in Nigeria has an ethnic bigot like Tinubu happened on Nigeria. When he first rolled out his brazen ethnic agenda, there was a loud murmur all around the country. There was even an outcry in some quarters. Even some of his Yoruba kinsmen were nauseated by his bigotry. But that was then. Nobody is complaining anymore. The president’s bigoted approach to governance has been internalized. It has been accepted by Nigerians. Again, this is possible because we are who we are. Nigerians, as we have come to know, are a strange lot. They are adept in hard liberty. They can cope with anything.
So, what can be done about this country that is firmly in the hands of a tiny cabal that controls both power and wealth? Finding a suitable answer to this question is the challenge that Nigeria faces as a country. It is actually at the root of the struggle for change in leadership. In recent years, Nigerians have demonstrated in more ways than one that they yearn for a better country. The generation of Nigerians that bungled the chances of the country to be great is fading away. But their remnants are still holding on to power. Sometime in 2020, young and ebullient Nigerians whose future is being ruined stood up to be counted.
They occupied the Lekki Toll Gate for days, demanding the dismantling of a rapacious order that was ruining their tomorrow. But the revolutionary push failed because the barrel of the gun proved more potent than mere shouts of revolution. The young men and women meant well for their country, but those who wield power, especially lethal power, would not let them. Their voices were drowned by volleys of bullets that flew and boomed around them.
The election year of 2023 was another opportunity. It was the year those who still have hope for Nigeria filed out to effect the change they wanted in the governance architecture of their country. The new Nigeria advocates were lucky at that time. They had an arrowhead who flew their flag. But, again, the cabal stopped them midstream. The dream of a new Nigeria was aborted by the ruling clique.
Another election year is close by. The struggle for a new order has commenced in earnest. While those who want genuine and rewarding change in Nigeria are interested in issues of good governance, those who want Nigeria to remain the private estate of a few are busy forming a club of defecting and conscienceless governors. The thinking here is that governors will seize their states and thereby determine the way the elections will go. But we know that that is hardly the case.
Governors have no control over the way the people vote at elections. If anything, governors are liabilities. A good number of the voting population are resentful of their governors. They are dissatisfied both with the conduct and governance approach of their governors. That is why most second term governors who are subjected to free and fair elections hardly make it. This is because everyday a governor spends in office diminishes his popularity. Is it these unpopular governors that Tinubu wants to line up on Election Day to win votes for him? That is what it looks like.
But I am constrained to say that that is not Tinubu’s intent. He knows the governors do not control the votes. Instead, he wants to deploy them as decoys for election rigging. A president who controls more than 90 percent of the governors can claim popularity in their domains even when he is not in real terms. When election is rigged in favour of a political party that controls a state, less eyebrows will be raised. That is the winning formula that Tinubu is working towards. But who is talking about rigged elections? The people are asking for free and fair elections. If the electoral commission can guarantee this, then wait and see how Tinubu and his 31 governors will collapse like a pack of cards.
