- While the troubling smouldering embers of the 2023 election are yet to be extinguished, still glowing gently and casting an unsettling shadow over Nigeria’s democracy, the president’s henchmen and lackeys are stoking tension and fanning the ashes of ethnic strife and electoral violence
- The problem is the system that allows them to become a law unto themselves. The problem is the system that condones their impunity, that tolerates their vulgarity. The problem is the system that looks the other way as they issue death threats to their compatriots over political differences. The problem here is President Tinubu
On Wednesday, the chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Lagos, Alhaji Mustapha Adekunle, popularly known as Sego, summoned members of the association in the Ajeromi/Ifelodun local government area of the state to a meeting. The meeting was not to deliberate on how to improve the transportation system in Lagos, it was not about how to ensure that public transport undergo overdue radical changes that will move transportation in the state away from the old, crude, unrefined, disheveled and cheerless way to a modern, sophisticated, technology-driven and robust model that will enhance service delivery and ensure that commuters in the state get the best transport experience and value for their money. The gathering was not about socio-economic progress and development.
The meeting was about politics. It was about power. It was about domination and creating a climate of apprehension. It is about instilling fear in hardworking, law-abiding residents of the state. It is about the 2027 election. At the rendezvous, Sego made a frightful remark that gives people a glimpse of what to expect in 2027. He said that anyone who plans to vote for another party aside from the APC risks losing their lives. He stated that APC is the only political party in Lagos and they don’t joke with the party. He also placed a curse on people whom he perceived to be political rivals and enemies of President Bola Tinubu. To cap it all, he stated that what happened in 2023 will not be allowed to repeat itself in 2023. To be clear, it must be stated here and now that Sego’s fatwa does not have a place in our society and should be repudiated by every right-thinking citizen of this great nation.
But Sego’s depraved fatwa and abhorrent utterances are not just a one-off, inconsequential opinion and sentiment, it is a widely accepted position of the APC in Lagos. Sego only vocalised and echoed the unspoken consensus and sentiment of party bigwigs and high-ranking government officials in the State. Over the years, the NURTW has become an institution that has ditched its pressure group objective for distasteful politicking. They have become an institution tethered to the perilous slab of politics and the largely dirty, selfish and inordinate ambitions of politicians.
Sego’s repulsive rhetoric isn’t the first time that a helmsman of the NURTW has issued a foreboding admonition to voters. In 2023, in the build-up to the general election, Musiliu Akinsanyo, better known as MC Oluomo, who was the chairman of the NURTW at the time, in a not too subtle manner, warned Igbos to stay away from the polling station if they were not going to vote for APC. His warning sparked outrage but the police downplayed the severity of his incendiary and provocative remark, calling it a joke. But the worst is yet to come.
Matters came to a head after the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, defeated President Bola Tinubu in Lagos. Oluomo made a public announcement where he threatened to violently attack and unleash terror on those planning to vote for another party during the gubernatorial election that took place two weeks after the presidential election. This time around, he was not bluffing. He followed through with his threat. During the governorship election, the pocket of skirmishes and attacks on voters during the presidential election became a full-blown violent onslaught on the electorate during the governorship polls. Many voters were assaulted and disenfranchised by thugs loyal to the APC. Many of the attacked voters were hospitalised. The targets of these attacks are mostly Igbos. Nigerians of other ethnic stock, especially Yoruba, were also dehumanised and viciously attacked. The message was clear. The APC will not hesitate to use ugly and harmful tactics to win any election.
Also, after the 2023 general election, Bayo Onanuga, an associate of President Tinubu, who is now his spokesperson, issued a statement where he warned that the rejection of Tinubu at the polls will not be allowed to repeat itself and warned Igbos to stay away from Lagos state politics. From monarchs to community leaders, these disconcerting warnings and threats have been issued in different forms by other stakeholders whose sustenance and sustainability of their questionable and unscrupulous ways depend largely on their unflinching fealty to the APC. But Sego is not the problem. Oluomo is not the problem. Onanuga is not the problem. The problem is the system that allows them to become a law unto themselves. The problem is the system that condones their impunity, that tolerates their vulgarity. The problem is the system that looks the other way as they issue death threats to their compatriots over political differences. The problem here is President Tinubu.
Sego has promised to be more vicious and ruthless than Oluomo when dealing with opposition and rooting out residents of the state who are disloyal to the APC. He may have set in motion plans that will cause more carnage and destruction than we saw in 2023. However, he has had this leeway and latitude to embark on such diabolical, criminal and undemocratic expedition because the system and institutions of the state allowed it. After all, he has the ears of the president who sees nothing wrong in undermining democracy and subverting the will of the people for his gains.
Even more worrisome is the fact that this absurdity is happening under a man who is always quick to brandish his democratic credentials and remind anyone who cares to listen about his involvement in the struggle for democracy. However, his actions or inactions are the very opposite of what he wants us to believe he stands for. While the troubling smouldering embers of the 2023 election are yet to be extinguished, still glowing gently and casting an unsettling shadow over Nigeria’s democracy, the president’s henchmen and lackeys are stoking tension and fanning the ashes of ethnic strife and electoral violence. The president has not once condemned the dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric of his men.
The incendiary and seditious remarks of the president’s stooges and associates that threaten voters, especially when such threats appear to be targeted at an ethnic group, not only erode democratic processes and weaken public institutions but also undermine the peace and stability of the nation. So if Tinubu refuses to denounce these reprobrates and distance himself from their reckless and abominable utterances, then one can safely conclude that he supports them. If he does not make an example of them and use them as a deterrent, then he becomes a collaborator, a willing and active participant in a calculated and deliberate move to destabilise the nation and upend our democracy.
If the president stands aloof on the sidelines and watches with glee as his supporters threaten to disenfranchise voters and resort to violence against a particular ethnic group to win his home state for him, he has lost moral duty and a sense of responsibility. His continued silence is at best an embarrassing and irresponsible indifference and at worst a shameful collusion and criminal complicity.
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