Sliding into despotism

The indicators of Nigeria’s slide towards dictatorship, despotism and anarchy are rising by the day and living in Nigeria is increasingly becoming hellish, short and brutish.
A seventeenth century state of nature in which an ethnic Jihadist militia, believing god has granted them ownership rights over lands occupied by other people from time immemorial, proceeds to kill men, women and children, pillaging and destroying communities, raping and abducting women; removing fetuses from pregnant women’s wombs; invading Churches and spilling the blood of priests on the altar; burning homes and occupying territory, while the government of the day first ignores the carnage; then invents excuse after excuse on behalf of the murderers; next pressures communities and state governments to yield land to the rampaging militia; and then goes outside the country to proclaim that the killings are being carried out by foreign mercenaries, contradicting all its earlier pronouncements. This in summary is how the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has responded to the activities of Buhari’s rampaging kinsmen, the so-called Fulani herdsmen.
It is clear that there are only two plausible explanations left-complicity (or worse-instigation, encouragement and support) or incompetence, andsome may suggest both!
When a country’s leader travels to another nation to visit that other nation’s leader, especially one who proudly proclaims his country’s interest come first; and excuses the large scale murder of his own citizens within his country, on the basis that the killers were foreign mercenaries, what he really does is forfeit his claim to leadership! The first duty of sovereign leaders surely is to protect the lives, property and well-being of their citizens.
As the 2019 elections draw nearer, we now see an additional pattern-Senator Shehu Sani, who is engaged in a running battle with his state governor, the tempestuous Nasir El-Rufai was suddenly said to have been named by some arrested criminals in some grievous offences; the same sequence has played out in respect of other regime “enemies” particularly in the National Assembly-Senators Isa Misau, Dino Melaye and now the Senate President himself, Bukola Saraki. The developments in respect of Melaye and Saraki were particularly scary! I do not defend the individual Senators on any specific allegations but surely the pattern we are observing suggests targeting of senior members of the legislature by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Kpotum Idris on behalf of the Buhari presidency. It appears clear the intent was to incapacitate Dino Melaye while a recall effort was sponsored against him by his state governor Yahaya Bello; the matter with Saraki is more blatant, shocking and disconcerting-the IGP had refused several invitations from the Senate to discuss the prevailing insecurity in the land. The Senate had taken the trouble of tabulating all the killings in Nigeria in 2018, running into thousands, but the IGP shunned the Senate sending subordinate officers to stand in for him. Instead the IGP then invites the Senate President to answer for charges of armed robbery in Offa, Kwara State by his alleged political thugs. I do not condone the keeping and/or arming of political thugs and indeed that practice is one of the major factors behind our failing political culture, but I certainly do not believe Senator Saraki is guilty of armed robbery! Can anyone imagine the damage to our national reputation and institutions as our Senate is so dragged into the mud? Reports indicate that both the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives have received notifications from the Department of State Security and Police that their security details from both agencies were being significantly reduced!
While other African countries are showing signs of a renaissance, Nigeria’s leadership seems focused entirely on a narrow ethnic and religious mission of re-enacting, or more appropriately in their minds, completing a 17th century Jihad and consolidating a sectarian and tribal hegemony over 21st century Nigeria. The mandate for changing Nigeria into a modern democratic and progressive nation, admittedly granted by naïve, deceivedor delusional Nigerian voters under false pretenses has been shunned in favour of nepotism, tribalism, hegemony and continued corruption, as long the corrupt person is “on our side” rather than the opposition. While Kenya under Uhuru Kenyatta seems poised for a new era, after achieving an unprecedented national reconciliation and launching a real battle against corruption; Nana Akuffo-Addo inspires hope of an intelligent and clear-thinking Ghanaian government ready to challenge African stereotypes of poverty and dependency; and my long term hero, Cyril Ramaphosa taking power in South-Africa and sparking a new African consciousness of government accountability and popular democracy, the conversation in Nigeria is about herdsmen killing thousands, accusations of murder and armed robbery against Senators and a leadership that cannot articulate an agenda for development but instead embraces ethnic, communal and religious conquest! What a squandered opportunity! What lack of vision!!!
In 2015, many Nigerians took our economic and political progress for granted when they voted for Muhammadu Buhari. His antecedents as a military dictator who had scant regard for democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights were well-known. His limitations in economic policy and management were also not hidden from anyone who paid attention to Nigeria’s history. Buhari however proclaimed himself a “reformed democrat” and many Nigerians chose to believe him. Three years into his tenure, Buhari has praised the late despot, General Sani Abacha who murdered his opponents and stole billions of dollars from the national coffers; and seems to be slipping fully into a military mindset determined to intimidate and subdue the National Assembly and the judiciary, including the Supreme Court. Nigerians and the international community must firmly discourage Buhari from this path, or else our democracy will be imperiled. We can’t afford to return to the days of despotism and dictatorship.

Opeyemi Agbaje