President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it appears, is determined to earn an honorary doctorate degree from the General Sani Abacha School of Political Science, Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
General Sani Abacha pioneered the doctrine of “consensus candidacy” by forcing five parties to endorse him. Today, the strategy is more insidious: orchestrate the implosion of the opposition. We watch in horror as vibrant political platforms are systematically destabilised, fractured, and co-opted, all to clear the path for a 2027 election that risks becoming a predetermined coronation.
The prodemocracy activists who fought military rule now lead the choir, competing to sing the King’s Anthem: “Bola on Your Mandate We Shall Stand!”: a mandatory ritual of loyalty that spans governors, legislators, and even erstwhile critics. This orchestrated, “unitarised voice” is the civilian equivalent of General Abacha’s ‘loyalty badge,’ transforming a democratic president into an unqueriable Kabiyesi through manufactured consensus.
FROM NADECO TO KABIYESI: HOW THE FIRE STARTER BURNS HIS OWN THATCHED ROOF.
But here is the chilling lesson that history, a merciless teacher, always insists upon: Fire does not know who started it.
The ancient lesson is clear: The man who sets his neighbours’ huts ablaze for selfish glory forgets that he removes the village’s only defence against the storm. When you weaponise state institutions to crush dissent and destroy the political balance, you are not securing your reign; you are weakening the entire structure.
The fire that rages today, aimed at rivals, will inevitably be hijacked by the wind of power and turn back. A democratic system that cannibalises its opposition guarantees its own catastrophic collapse. Abacha’s ghost is proud. His pupils must remember: The arsonist rarely sleeps safely when the whole village is alight.
+ Martyny O’Lololo
END
Be the first to comment