Nigeria On The Cliff Edge Of A Bloodbath Under Tinubu’s Watch?
By
Coker Onita
Without sounding alarmist, I must say that discerning minds and even the deaf and the blind can perceive that the signs are ominous for the 2027 elections. Mr. President himself, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria’s Commander-in-Chief, led the charge and fired the first salvo. He gave the hint when he met with the much-respected Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in the State House, Abuja, precisely, July 28, 2026.
“All is fair in politics”, he was quoted to have said.
Tinubu was reacting to the charter of demands by the Bishops. He further spoke about the political contest ahead, saying they would “wrestle each other to the finishing point”, adding that he would not make it easy for his political opponents to remove him from office.
And as if setting an example for his political followers, APC literally set Osun State on fire during the August off-cycle election. The sleepy, civil service state witnessed a gale of confusion, terror and death before, during and after the gubernatorial election. However, happily, hostilities have subsided.
As the war lasted, many residents were harassed, hounded, intimidated and bullied. A sitting APC Senator of the Federal Republic openly told his political supporters to “kill” opponents. His supporters roared in approval when he spoke. But for quick steps taken by the security agencies, and his subsequent recapitulation, several more lives would have been lost. Or how does one explain the deployment of 30 Commissioners of Police to 30 local government areas, a battery of other security personnel, including the military, for a state election? An aberration you’re wont to say. But it must be added that the Osun State electorate stood firm and roundly rejected APC. They voted their conscience and Senator Ademola Adeleke won convincingly.
Having read Tinubu’s script, or so it seems, Mr. Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo, Chairman, FCT’s Kuje Area Council, Abuja literally wore his own toga of oppression and intimidation a few weeks ago when he addressed a group of youths, named: FCT Youth Network Leadership, who were expected to conduct elections the following weekend. He said with a note of finality that any citizen of his Area Council, who will not vote for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 Presidential Election, should “relocate”. As far as he is concerned the quantum of projects executed by Mr. Nyesom Wike, the FCT Minister, and the President should not be contested by anybody in his Area Council. To him: “Anybody who is not for us is against us”.
A few similar incidents across the country have gone further to confirm the plausibility that there may be fire on the mountain, a gradual but steady decline in our democratic evolution; indeed, a journey to perfidy and total destruction of all the gains made since 1999.
Is Nigeria on the cliff edge? God forbid!
A few days ago, in faraway Borno State, Mallam Saginaw Buba, Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, sparked widespread condemnation when he threatened to cut off the fingers of his political opponents if they failed to support APC, his political party, during the forthcoming elections. He made the incendiary remarks at the campaign launch organised by City Boys Movement, a political support group for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.
The one l find most reprehensible, reckless, uncivilised and unbecoming is a sitting Governor of a state, issuing out threats and intimidation to newly-elected local government chairmen in his state. Mr. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, Governor of Ebonyi State, told his newly sworn-in local government chairmen that any of them who fails to “deliver” his LGA to the ruling party, APC, in 2027 election will be removed; ditto all the ward councillors.
I have, most dishearteningly, found that other governors are using the same felonious tactics to oppress, bully and intimidate their political opponents. In Zamfara State, Governor Dauda Lawal has issued a similar order. So has the Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Muhammed Umaru Bago.
The Chairman of APC in Yobe State, Alhaji Muhammed Gadaka, threw caution to the winds when he urged women to divorce their husbands if they didn’t allow them to vote for APC in 2027.
He said: “If you leave the marriage, l will marry you and pay your dowry”.
What a costly, irresponsible and intimidating joke!
With this spate of unprovoked threats and poisonous comments, where do we go from here? Will the ruling APC win by force in all the states, local governments and wards? Where are justice, equity and fairness? In our quest to return the incumbent, should we replace our hard-earned democracy with autocracy? Why fan the embers of hate, disunity, bigotry, oppression and suppression of opposition? Are we going to war? The answer is a capital NO.
Our leaders, not dealers, will do well to reconsider their evil positions, not to set the nation on fire that nobody will be able to quench. Let’s return to the path of sanity, peace, civil liberty and progress. It’s only then that Nigeria’s future is guaranteed. Otherwise, under President Bola Tinubu’s watch, we may be heading for an unmitigated disaster of no mean magnitude, the end of which nobody can predict. With the present state of insecurity, hunger, starvation and banditry the nation is literally on a cliff edge. Nobody should push the nation over the cliff. Otherwise… God, help Nigeria!
- COKER ONITA IS THE FORMER PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF TODAY’S CHOICE MAGAZINE, AND EDITORIAL CONSULTANT AND COLUMNIST OF INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS LIMITED. HE WROTE FROM LAGOS.
