When Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency on oil-rich Rivers State last week, the issue took over every waking minute of Nigerians at home and abroad.

Someday, historians are going to make a meal of the various views, declarations and subterfuges at play. By the time the true story of what transpired is fully told, most, if not all the dramatis personae, would have been long dead. What will outlive them is the verdict of history.

But that is still, hopefully, a long way ahead. There is another state of emergency which has been begging to be declared for quite a while. It has festered because the attitude of those in government seemed to indicate that the monster would die a natural death if left unchallenged. Now, the monster of insecurity raging under the mask of armed herdsmen is sweeping from the North through the Middle Belt to the Southwest of Nigeria.

Undeclared War

There is an undeclared war going on in the Southwest between unarmed farmers and fully-armed bandits disguised as herdsmen. Before this current upsurge, conspiracy theorists had predicted that as the Southwest was the most peaceful and most economically vibrant part of the country, some hired killers would soon invade the region to, first, threaten food security and second depopulate the area.

Now, how would one describe the recent cold-blooded murder of five farmers by armed herdsmen at Aba Oyinbo in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, two weeks after murdering 20 farmers in four farm settlements in the same local government area? The local community said they had had enough and invaded the governor’s office in Akure to seek answers.

If there’s a mastermind behind the recent scourge of banditry, kidnapping and outright mass murders inflicted on innocent farmers, rural folk, commuters and community leaders in the Southwest, that evil genius must rank very highly in Hades and counterpart infernal regions. It is all too well planned and executed to be accidental. Anyone with a little knowledge of geography will readily plot the graph of the movement of the killing bands from one part of the country to another. The ensuing pattern will reveal a carefully hatched campaign of violence by gangs of terrorists who have converted forests nationwide to their killing fields.

Three years ago, the innocence of Owo town in Ondo State was breached by mass murderers who invaded a Catholic Church on a Sunday morning and gunned down at least 40 worshippers. Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of blessed memory cast protocol aside as he stood dolefully on the altar facing the array of victims’ coffins and fired a teary salvo: “We have failed to defend these people… Not because we have not tried, but because these forces on the other side are evil and they have support. They will not triumph over us forever!” Akeredolu warned that the Federal Government’s inability to secure life and property in the country would soon leave citizens with no choice but to arm themselves in self-defence.

He later announced the ban on herdsmen and their cattle from Ondo State forests because of their engagement in criminal activities. The Federal Government, which had been helpless in protecting the people, suddenly found its voice. It cautioned that the state government could not expel Nigerian citizens whose right to reside and exercise their livelihoods anywhere in the country was protected by the Constitution. That posture has fuelled the agitation of several separatist groups in the Southwest who argue that the dismantling of Nigeria is the only way to ensure self-preservation.

Para-Security

Shortly after that massacre, the Amotekun security outfit was operationalised. As usual, high ranking officials of the Muhammadu Buhari government opposed the request of some states to establish armed security bodies of their own, claiming that there were already too many guns in circulation. But what manner of federation is this where some vandals are allowed to carry weapons as part of their costume while everyone else must simply run for cover or buy their way out when kidnapped?

In November 2020, in addition to the economic and security dimensions of the problem, marauding bandits further breached traditional mores and taboos with the slaying of a prominent traditional ruler in Ondo State, the Olufon of Ifon, Oba Israel Adeusi. The royal father was shot at Elegbeka community along the Ifon-Benin Highway.

Ondo State lies entirely in the tropics. It is bounded in the North by Ekiti/Kogi State; in the East by Edo State; in the West by Oyo and Ogun States and in the South by the Atlantic Ocean. Strategically therefore, it is a state that links the Southwest to the North and the Southeast and has the capacity for international commerce and maritime travel through the Atlantic Ocean.

The authorities are certainly aware of the gravity of the current situation as evidenced by the recent call by the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede, on his troops to rise collectively and fight kidnapping, banditry, and other criminal activities which were becoming rampant in the Southwest as the terrorists migrated southwards.

Gani Adams, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland had called on the governors of the Southwest not to treat the security threats posed by the herdsmen as isolated incidents because there are no physical boundaries in the forests.

“Apart from the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), there are still over 10 private security groups known as the Southwest Security Stakeholders Group (SSSG) under my leadership and we are ready to flush terrorists and bandits out of Yorubaland with the collaboration of all the governors in the region,” says Adams.

All the para-security organisations which have spoken to the media are also convinced that they can stamp out banditry and kidnapping if given the necessary legal and logistic backing of the state governments and traditional rulers.

Stop The Madness

The nation waits with bated breath for the federal government’s promised intervention with modern ranching to replace the medieval wandering from forest to forest currently practiced by the herdsmen. The establishment of state police is also still a dream.

All men and women of goodwill all over the country want the wanton killings orchestrated by bands of murderous bandits stopped nationwide – whether it is in Sokoto, Kano, Enugu, Owo, Yenagoa, Gboko or Ibadan. The danger of the continued terror of armed herdsmen outside their home territories is that as the years go by, all members of their tribe are unfairly profiled as terrorists and treated as such.

But not all Fulani people are terrorists! You try and say that to the indigenes of a town whose traditional ruler, second only to the gods, is picked up like a common dog on the highway, gasping in the pool of his own blood. This unspeakable horror is happening in the Yoruba region where the indigenes have historically had hundreds of years of interaction with cattle herding Fulani without stress. If you can’t read between the lines, may your soul rest in peace.

As popular singer, Asha, famously crooned:

There’s fire on the mountain

And nobody seems to be on the run

There is fire on the mountain top

And no one is a-running…

Before we all start running helter-skelter, I hereby beg to move for the declaration of a State of Emergency on Security.

One of the things I find most wondrous about God is the way He distributes children. Oh yes,  I’m a Christian and I strongly believe that God is the ‘giver’ of children. I do not believe that even IVF can work without God's say-so. 

Ask the gynecologists, they will tell you. Even they cannot explain why some couples have to try IVF five times while others are successful at the first attempt. Let’s even assume that you are a scientist and you have answers to the IVF question, can you explain why a woman living in the slum can naturally conceive triplets and deliver via the vagina, while the one living in the lap of luxury with all the necessary medical fixtures and fittings can’t successfully deliver a healthy baby even through Caesarean Section? 

A virgin keeps her body chaste, the marriage bed undefiled and yet, doesn’t get pregnant after 10 years of marriage. But a runs- girl who’s had three abortions has a baby within one year of marriage. The doctor gives a woman a clean bill of health and okays her husband's sperms, yet five years of consistent hard labour in the bedroom and there’s still no patter of little feet intheir home.  Did I hear someone muttering Juju and witchcraft? Should we go there? Because I don’t know how an Australian or American will be able to relate to how witches eat up fetus in Africa. But our belief is our belief. And it ain’t going away because Oyinbo people  don’t share our thoughts and logic on the topic. 

However, the questions running around in my head were actually started by a younger friend who just discovered she’s pregnant, shockingly, disturbingly and needed counsel to even accept it. 

Bose had lost out in two marriages by age 39 because she couldn’t conceive. Her two husbands have also moved on, or so we all thought. Now at 43, she’s pregnant and didn't know a baby was growing inside her until she vent to the hospital to ‘treat this malaria that wouldn’t go’. Do you get my drift? She was married to her first husband for 11 years and never conceived once and now, wait for it, an accidental Okafor's Law night and she’s now 16 weeks pregnant. 

Bose and Ayo, her first husband, met at an industry event in Abuja, found out they were staying in the same hotel. He invited her to share his early morning tea ritual like they used to. One cup of tea led to many things, and Okafor’s Law took over. According to Okafor's Law, once a man has had a woman, he can have her again. It is not a law that I like but it is what it is. Ayo had Bose. Bose had Ayo. Bose is pregnant. Whatever prevented the two of them from making babies in 11 years, somehow could not stop them that wet morning. 

Bose had given up on conceiving naturally. She had started an adoption process. She is a busy, very busy woman. Which explains why she explains her constant persistent feverish feelings away with stress and malaria. Should she have let her heart and body yield to the touch of Ayo's body and his Okafor finger? How would she have known she was still fertile or even ovulating at that particular period? Maybe this was her only chance of becoming a mother. Maybe she had been ovulating actually regularly but because she was no longer paying attention, years or months of opportunities had passed her by? Or was it only Ayo’s swimming soldiers that could find her uterus? 

Unexpected Pregnancies,  they leave you at the corridor of you-go-explain-tire. They leave the pregnant woman or couple puzzled, confused, asking themselves questions only God has answers to. For instance, how does Bose convince Ayo’s wife that she did not get pregnant intentionally, to trap Ayo and ruin his marriage? Should she tell Ayo, the accidental father? So she becomes what, a single mother, side chick or second wife?

The only thing an accidental pregnancy like Bose’s has an answer to is yes, she will keep the pregnancy. It’s a much awaited pregnancy, a miracle even if conceived in questionable circumstances. Bose, we have advised to keep the pregnancy, take good care of herself and then let tomorrow take care of itself. Easier said than done? Well, beggars can’t be choosers. 

A 51-year-old woman misses her period two-months after her newly wedded daughter announces she’s pregnant, how complicated is that? About to become a Grandma and pregnant. Her monthly period were irregular, very irregular. Her husband and incoming Grandpa is still very active in between the sheets but Mummy and Daddy had their last child 17 years ago and so they thought they were in the clear. Madam was sure that menstruating three or four times in a year meant that she was an old layer whose egg-laying years were behind her. What did they know?  God, the giver of children who does not consult gynecologists just showed up with a surprise package,  specifically wrapped for them. It is their year of multiple blessings. 

Incoming Grandma, according to quick EDD (Expected Delivery Date) calculation, will be due for delivery about the time she is supposed to begin Omugwo. 

What to do? She’s at crossroads, right? If you were offering her a map, what should she do? Go ahead and attend antenatal clinics with her daughter? Or take a long deep breath and have a face-saving abortion, then ask God for mercy later? What will you do if you find yourself on this corridor?

A passenger boards a bus. The city is a little rough but he has taken his customary precaution; there are two women on the bus. He turns into the gaze of a wiry man with a Bible and the man smiles and nods at him. He imagines he is a peripatetic evangelist biding his time before unleashing the word of God on some lost sheep. As the bus lurches forward, he prays the traffic is kind. His pregnant wife is waiting at the antenatal clinic.

As he scans the tributaries of cars and humans, he thinks about his failure to japa when he had the opportunity and wasn’t married. A billboard jolts him out of the reverie. The bus has deviated. All the faces around him are blank. As he glances about, wondering whether it is safe to ask a question, someone nudges him hard on the back of the head. “Lie down! Lie down! barks the wiry man. He hides his head in his hands and slumps to the floor of the bus. The man hits him with the Bible. Then, he knows he is alone. It’s his first time on a  ‘one chance’. 

The country has been through a lot. Hopes smashed by democracy. Locust years of military rule. And a return to democratic stagnation. Two years ago, it chose a pro-democracy activist for president. Many said the elections were flawed and badly rigged. But we ought to believe the courts so that we aren’t called fascists. The man had helped to push away the military. And as the governor of Lagos, he was comparatively good. He had championed the opposition and helped prevent the country from sliding into a one-party state.  His warts and conspicuous shortcomings not withstanding, he was the kind of man who could fix the country if he managed to fix his ego and appetite. 

His supporters said he was the most prepared. The man said he hit the ground running. Others said he hit it stumbling, implementing good policies haphazardly, concentrating power in his tribe unabashedly, and oozing arrogance. Indeed, he inherited a little mess. But he came without a vision.  And didn’t seem ready to submit himself to the rigours of the reforms he was dishing. 

Soon hunger seized the land.  Political leaders continued to live large. Hypocrisy was the rule. Inflation jumped through the roof. Hunger  Protesters were charged with treason. The children amongst them weren’t spared. Until they were arraigned. In court their startled eyes and gaunt bodies in tattered clothes tortured the conscience of the passive public and got them a reprieve from the stony hearts in government. But the decadence is systemic. The largest road contract ever went to the crony of the master strategist. Yet he said he was transforming the country and asked for patience.  The hungry have to be silent or they become saboteurs intent on dragging the name of the country into the mud because they ought to know that reforms come with excruciating pains. 

Now with the election drawing closer and the opposition gathering into a coalition, the government appears seized by another bout of anxiety. The statistics from the national bureau have started to become increasingly suspicious. They bear no resemblance to reality. The anti-corruption agency’s activities have started to reveal a curious pattern. Yahoo Yahoo boys and opposition state governments. Delta, Akwa Ibom and recently Bauchi. The opposition called it witch-hunting and said the president had become desperate for re-election. Remarkably, former state governors who had been indicted by the same EFCC but appointed by the president into his bloated cabinet have not been arrested and prosecuted. 

The suspicions of the opposition appeared confirmed when the president declared a state of emergency in a rich state held by the opposition. He suspended an elected governor and the House of Assembly and replaced them with a sole administrator. Only Tinubu, his advisers and some of his political associates believe he acted constitutionally. The National Bar Association described his actions as unconstitutional and reckless. The opposition said he had become a full-blown dictator. 

The frazzled people of Rivers, whose elected governor and legislature have been suspended, are still stunned. The illegal declaration needed the support of two-thirds of the members of both houses of parliament. It seemed impossible. While the masses were anticipating the imminent humiliation of the wayward president, the leaders of the national assembly used voice votes to determine a two-thirds majority. A head count was rejected to determine the quorum. Perhaps it would be too accurate. A suspicious attendance register was preferred. Many called it Yahoo Yahoo politics 

Elections are due in two years. But there is a clear and present danger. A sole administrator has been sent to Rivers. His six-month stay couldn’t be extended. They made him swear an oath. Nobody knows what part of the constitution demanded the oath from the illegitimate appointee. The retired Admiral is not perturbed about the constitutionality of the engagement. He is eager to step into the rich troubled waters. The implications are mind-bending. The entire southeast, where civilians and security agents have been battling an insurgency, could be ripe for this treatment. To nullify the president’s unpopularity in the region. All the governors could be sent packing by a presidential pronouncement backed by vague voice votes in the national assembly. Sole administrators could be sent in from Osun and Sokoto to take over the region. Little wonder opposition leaders called the president’s action a coup. 

The government is no longer afraid of the people. That was how Bishop Onah, the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka described the situation in Nigeria. He concluded that the country was doomed. If the constitution is raped while the lawmakers cheer, then the Bishop is spot on. The country is on  a ‘one chance’ bus careening down a one-party slope. All opposition governors are effectively at the mercy of the president.  With his whimsical emergency powers ordained by this ridiculous Rivers precedent, the opposition is now his footstool.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It’s easy for any President to foment crises in a state or to let an existing one fester. Then, he can proclaim  and gazette a state of emergency ostensibly to prevent the breakdown of law and order. Then, of course, with the nefarious use of voice votes to defeat the mandatory requirement of an absolute majority of the totality of the parliament, he is the King of the Federation. Only the naive still have faith in the supreme court to stop the president. The country is on a ‘one chance’ . The bus of democracy has veered off. It’s  taking us to autocracy. 

Embracing a mentality for continuous growth and improvement is crucial for development especially in the political arena.

However, after the events that culminated in the declaration of a state of emergency and the affirmation of such by the two chambers of the National Assembly, questions as to the developmental trajectory of Nigeria’s democracy have again come to fore.

When President Olusegun Obasanjo declared emergency rule on the Plateau in 2004, the first time such was done since the First Republic crisis, he suspended the democratic structures in the state.

The same action in suspending the democratic structure was also done in Ekiti State when President Obasanjo similarly declared a state of emergency in that state following the flux that followed the controversial impeachment of Governor Ayodele Fayose.

Whatever, when President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013 responded to the insecurity fuelled by the Boko Haram insurgents in the three Northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe with a state of emergency, the nation’s democratic ethos had greatly improved. That was about the time Jonathan also appointed somebody he had never met as the country’s chief electoral umpire.

Jonathan did not go the Obasanjo way of suspending the governors in the three states that were at that time regularly under attack of Boko Haram.

While President Jonathan was commended for his espousal of constitutionalism in leaving the democratic structures in place for the period of the state of emergency, there were, however, some who still felt the declaration was unnecessary.

One of those persons was the national leader of the then Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In a terse response to the 2013 declaration, Tinubu saw the move as essentially political aimed at suppressing the then opposition ahead of 2015.

He said:

“It has become crystal clear, even to the most incurable optimist, that the country is adrift.”

While excusing the three governors from blame, Tinubu said:

“No Governor of a state in Nigeria is indeed the Chief Security Officer. Putting the blame on the Governors, who have been effectively emasculated, for the abysmal performance of the government at the centre which controls all these security agencies, smacks of ignorance and mischief.”

Affirming that the governors and other elected representatives should not be undermined on account of the state of emergency, Tinubu continued:

“The President’s pronouncement, which seeks to abridge or has the potential of totally scuttling the constitutional functions of Governors and other elected representatives of the people, will be counterproductive in the long run.”

But how the president walked back on his own assertions is one that has amazed many. If he as a fighter for democracy upheld the sovereignty of the people’s democratic choices, it is shocking for many that he in his time uprooted elected democratic structures in Rivers State.

Even the argument for the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers is still vacuous. Is it in the realms of insecurity? Rivers State is much safer for many than many other states terrorised by insurgency in the North.

The fact that there is a political crisis in the state is, however, indisputable. That crisis was essentially fuelled by the fact that the House of Assembly was split with a majority of the lawmakers aligned against the governor. That apparently should not be a problem. But the governor and his traducers turned that into a major crisis.

Whatever problem that flowed from the immobility of the state legislature was corrected by the recent Supreme Court judgment.

For whatever reason the implementation of the pronouncements of the apex court should have been allowed to have free course. But, however, the president, apparently for political exigences did not have the kind of patience with the rebellious political godson of his minister, Nyesom Wike.

The expectation of many that the National Assembly would call the president to order by restoring the governor and the lawmakers was dashed when the leadership of the two houses railroaded the two chambers to approve the proclamation last Thursday.

The action of the two houses inevitably confirmed for all that opposition in the two houses is gone. The progress that the country had seen in the evolvement of its constitutional culture especially in the proclamation of emergency rule has now been reversed.

Its a pity that when history recalls when this occurred that not only will Tinubu be mentioned, but Senator Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abass will get prominent positions as facilitators in the reversal of our democratic culture.

To denude something is to remove the covering over it. In geography, that is physical geography, it refers to the natural process of weathering. Now, “what is weathering?” you might ask.

A piece of soft rock is likely to suffer much damage if you leave it in the open and rain beats it all day. The smooth surface will then not be so smooth anymore. Further exposure to rain, especially very long exposure, will see the stone getting smaller still. If this goes on throughout the rainy season, the stone will keep getting smaller, until it disappears altogether.

But what if there is some tough substance inside the stone which the rain cannot break down by its continuous impact? That substance is all that would be left after the rain has done its worst.

But lest we forget, it is not only water that is considered an agent of denudation in geography. Chemicals and abrasive objects and substances, too, have a hand in the matter; but our business here today is not geography; whether physical, human, or regional geography, no! but the subject matter of denudation comes in here because we are thinking of the denudation of values, the denudation of national character, and the denudation of any sense of shame and dignity in national affairs.

And this is now about the Federal Government, no! It is about us as a people today.

Just look around you today. Everyone, and everything is shocking you, is that not so? Are you not also shocking yourself, perhaps by some views you now express and also by some formally forbidden things you now do? Be honest about it, at least to yourself, no one is watching.

It is as if a barber is seriously at work, scraping everyone’s fine crop of hair and revealing the type of misshapen skull beneath the false reality. You are looking for men and women of integrity, right? You can’t find them, can you? But are you a person of integrity yourself? That is usually the unasked question.

The admirable miracle that the barber and hairdresser has made out of many coconut-shaped skulls is coming sunder. The head that would ordinarily put a lousy-looking calabash to shame because of its dreadful shape, but which got away with false pretensions at aesthetic appeal because of the barber and hairdresser, is now shorn of all frippery.

Every false reality will always have its duration and lifespan. The worshippers of fads, and of temporarily great men and women who will also eventually fall into oblivion, eventually run out of what to worship. That is when their true identity, their inner wretchedness, finally dawns on them; by which time it is often too late. Yes, they would then not be the right material for building a new order. Because, in truth, they never really believed in anything.

Most of the noisy twaddle of public office and imaginary invulnerability always eventually falls into inevitable oblivion. Those beholden to them are then confronted with something like the story of Ozymandias, for students of history and literature. The most venturesome political posturing are unravelling progressively everywhere. Even the most afflicted today, as well as the winners of the moment, will not believe it if someone walks up to them and says: “More woes are headed your way yet”.

The triumphalism of many will yet unravel. Intimations of contrived political dominance will yet face further denudation. Because the shearer is here!

Every Shearer is actually nothing more than a barber. But his calling is the shaving of sheep wool in the field of animal husbandry. His capacity for unravelling the, sometimes scrawny, creature wielding a massive plume of hairy covering is an old and valued profession. As he is shaving, shearing, or crutching wool off a sheep, the object animal cannot escape having the true condition of its skin exposed.

The creature may have a sore or two beneath the plume of hair, or wool. It may have some rather untidy little bumps here and there. No one sees, or notices, any of these until the shearer gets involved. It is after the shearer’s job that the once impressive-looking creature turns out to be some scruffy piece of work in real terms.

And it is the same with the polity and politics today. The anonymity conferred by all manner of alliances, and tiles, all of which are coverings, has created a false reality that is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. An illusion, plain chimera. Nothing more!

A neuter that struts about with an identity that it actually does not possess. Untruth dressed up as something that has a name! Every sheep’s skin condition is progressively revealed for what it is, as soon as the shearer lays hands on it, takes it to the appropriate corner and puts his shears to work. Forthwith the unravelling comes in technicolor!

Because some animals with hidden defects usually get exposed and diminished after the shearer’s intervention, some sheep merchants, especially those with sheep of questionable doubtful credentials, would prefer that the shearing job will not be done in public if they had their way. Because once the shearer’s skills leads to the discovery of some irremediable deformity, endemic skin blemish or some underlying condition that was hitherto concealed by the mass of well-kept hair, it undermines the commercial value of its wool.

That is why the shearing, or barbing, season for woolen sheep keepers is also the season of cheap-value wool on the side and of cheap sheep meat. So, look around you, all over Nigeria, again today. Can you see the great unmasking everywhere? What is it that dominating elite thinking today? Is it the suffering of the people?

If you take a close look at the growing misfortunes of people in public office, the increasing calls for change by people who cannot change anything, you must begin to suspect that all is not well on all fronts. The youths are under pressure, as they are further inundated by wrong role models.

Now some people are talking about a new political order. Really? To be delivered to us by the very people who do not know that they expired long ago? People who have betrayed each other several times will come together, work together and then give us a better Nigeria? How old is every one of them? Which one of them would agree for the other to be president? Which of them is looking for a younger person to support and project? Just asking.

And the religious and economic elite, two major drivers of iniquity in the land, do not seem to be concerned at all. They see nothing, do nothing and say something; except when patronage for their members is the issue.  Many religious leaders, in particular, are caught up with faith racketeering. They pray, and are regular, at the events of the worst among the people. They bless the dishonest and thank The Lord for their wealth. They applaud huge spending and compulsive celebrations, as long as they are not left out of it. That is how far we have come as a people.

That is also why it is only those in the thick of all the scramble and other beneficiaries of other fallouts, that are still ecstatic in every sense of the word. They are all moving around accompanied by massive security paraphernalia in a fundamentally insecure environment. Their contrived security infrastructure gives them the illusion of safety amidst bandits, terrorists and bombs.

We are on a slow and painful climb to a new day. The climb will get faster shortly. as the winnowing proceeds apace.

The Shearer is at work here. Make no mistakes about that! He is quietly, mercilessly, unrelentingly and meticulously shaving off the headful of hair that has been concealing the true driving spirit behind the orientation of many members of political elite today. We are seeing what fellow phenomenological ontologist and existentialist, Martin Heidegger, called the “progressive un-concealment of the profanity and sham wisdom that has been cloaked in solemnity.”

The Shearer, which is actually Providence by another name, still has much work to do here. We are being given many opportunities to learn and change through sufferings and recognitions. It is all part of a Relentless Unmasking. We are heading for the chilling un-concealment of the hitherto familiar. We are also seeing that the familiar is sometimes not really known for what it is. We are heading for the midday of frightening insights. No more heroes, no role models and no moral exemplars. The reality of the real is the issue now!

The barber is at work. More shocks are heading this way, especially given the reflexes of those who are at different levels of responsibility over the lives of others. We are now like recalcitrant students. That is, students who can only learn the hard way.

The events in Rivers State are as real as the Midday Sun. the denuder has not yet finished. Many may not recover again politically from the current events. Many who recover will hold ashes in their hands, instead of victory.

The barber is still here and still very busy. So, we are clearly on course. A bumpy ride is still a ride. The shearer is not yet done here. Enough said.

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Just look around you today. Everyone, and everything is shocking you, is that not so? Are you not also shocking yourself, perhaps by some views you now express and also by some formally forbidden things you now do? Be honest about it, at least to yourself, no one is watching.

It is as if a barber is seriously at work, scraping everyone’s fine crop of hair and revealing the type of misshapen skull beneath the false reality. You are looking for men and women of integrity, right? You can’t find them, can you? But are you a person of integrity yourself? That is usually the unasked question.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s demonstrably unconstitutional suspension of the elected leaders of Rivers State and his illegal imposition of a retired military lickspittle as sole administrator in the exercise of his otherwise constitutional privilege to declare a state of emergency in any part of the country is the latest addition in a long list of instances of his embrace of the very things he once resented and fought against when he was outside the reins of federal power.

For example, he was brutally censorious of Goodluck Jonathan’s withdrawal of fuel subsidies in 2012. He expressed sentiments in writing and in speeches that resonated with the angst of the masses. He even helped finance a nationwide mass protest that so convulsed the country that Jonathan was compelled to back off his plans.

Yet, one of the first acts Tinubu did as a president in May 2023 was to announce an economically and socially disruptive withdrawal of fuel subsidies that has deepened poverty, annihilated the middle class, and ruptured the very fabric of Nigerian society.

Again, when Olusegun Obasanjo unconstitutionally suspended Plateau State’s Governor Joshua Dariye—along with state legislators— in May 2004 and appointed General Chris Ali as the state’s sole administrator, then Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos rightly called the act “illegal.”

“It is unfortunate and illegal,” he said. “This has to be discouraged. It is a bad precedent. What the president of the country has done, I pray it doesn’t stand.”

In fact, when Goodluck Jonathan declared states of emergency in the three northeastern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa without suspending the elected leaders of the states, which I commended in a May 25, 2013, column titled “The Malcolm Xian Logic in Jonathan’s Praiseworthy Boko Haram Offensive,” Tinubu condemned it as unacceptable federal overreach.

“No governor of a state in Nigeria is the chief security officer,” he said. “Putting the blame on the governors, who have been effectively emasculated, for the abysmal performance of the government at the centre which controls all these security agencies, smacks of ignorance and mischief.”

He contended that Jonathan’s action “seeks to abridge or has the potential of totally scuttling the constitutional functions of governors and other elected representatives of the people” and that it would be “counterproductive in the long run.”

Given an opportunity to give materiality to the principles he espoused when he had no access to federal power, he has become indistinguishable from, and in many cases worse than, the objects of his erstwhile censure.

Tinubu now implements the same policies he once condemned and has become the same personality he once reviled. He exemplifies the aphoristic wisdom (often attributed to historian Ariel Durant or her husband Will Durant) that says, “Today’s rebel is tomorrow’s tyrant.” In Tinubu’s case, he was yesterday’s rebel and today’s tyrant.

Why do most people who initially invested symbolic and political capital in fighting against authority or oppression eventually become the very oppressors they once resisted? Why do firebrands and idealists often morph into the very thing they once denounced after assuming power?

 The evidence of history shows us that resistance to tyranny can, and often does, end in new tyrannies. Critics of war or corruption frequently adopt those same practices when they find themselves in the circles of power.

So, this is beyond Tinubu as a person, who probably never really had any principles to begin with, whose resistance to past oppressive policies was probably mere calculative opportunism.

But why do previously genuinely adversarial people become the very things they once opposed with such regularity? Observers from psychology, philosophy, and political theory have long studied this phenomenon.

A previous column I wrote (and republished twice) on the psychology of power pointed out that “people under the influence of power are neurologically similar to people who suffer traumatic brain injury” and posited that situational, power-induced brain damage may be responsible for this.

Philosophers have also grappled with the paradox of noble ideals curdling into oppression. Friedrich Nietzsche, for example, famously warned of the moral danger that comes with fighting evil too intensely. “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster,” Nietzsche wrote, adding, “if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

Nietzsche’s metaphor speaks to how the struggle for power or justice can warp people’s souls. Revolutionaries and reformers, in attempting to vanquish a “monster” (e.g. a tyrant or an unjust system), may take on the very methods and mindset of that monster.

His concept of the “will to power” also suggests that the drive to attain power can override other moral constraints, so that once the will to power is unleashed, individuals rationalize actions that serve dominance.

French theorist Michel Foucault provides another lens through which we can make sense of the phenomenon of people taking on the very methods and mindset of the beasts of power they once fought.

He said, “Power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere.” By that, he means no one is ever truly outside power relations; even the most vicious critics of the most monstrous regimes operate within a field of power. Once the critics take control, he said, they often reproduce the very power dynamics they once criticized, even if their rhetoric changes.

The line between oppressor and liberator can blur: the roles may switch, but the play remains the same. Foucault’s insight is that systems of power tend to self-perpetuate, regardless of who is at the helm, unless conscious effort is made to dismantle those underlying structures.

 In other words, a change in leadership without a change in what Foucault calls the “microphysics of power” is likely to yield similar repressive outcomes. The new boss becomes “same as the old boss,” because the circuitry of power channels them into that role.

That’s why the sadly familiar pattern of “condemning in opposition, then doing in government” is so widespread that it almost seems like a political law of gravity. It’s good to bear this in mind as we read and listen to the pronouncements of current “opposition” politicians who seem like they identify with popular causes and sentiments.

Like Tinubu, today’s opponents of executive overreach may extend their own executive powers once they have the opportunity.

Like Tinubu, they will have a story to tell themselves and the public to justify their U-turn: the situation is different, their actions are for the greater good, their previous stance was based on incomplete information, etc. And indeed, sometimes circumstances do legitimately change.

But when the dust settles, the outcome looks awfully familiar. Pro-democracy activists become a congress of tyrants and justifiers of tyranny; the fierce social critic and human rights activist who once decried abuses now defends them; the liberator who once raged against oppressors now only liberates his stomach. As the Roman philosopher-politician Cicero once wrote, “It is easier to criticize than to do better.”

Fortunately, this cycle is not inevitable. Many thinkers advocate checks and balances, institutional limits, and personal integrity as antidotes, although even those seem to be insufficient.

Nigeria’s National Assembly, as we have seen in the last few years, particularly in the last few days, can neither check nor balance the excesses of the executive. It’s a slavish extension of Aso Rock. The voices of the few honest, conscientious ones among them are drowned out by the cacophony that the rapacious, unprincipled, mercenary self-seekers among them, who constitute the majority, emit. The judiciary is even worse.

It is easy to be disillusioned and to surrender amid this reality. To be frank, I have found myself in that state many times. But power must be continually guarded and checked. Philosopher Hannah Arendt observed that only constant vigilance and a commitment to plurality and law prevent rebels from calcifying into tyrants. 

We must all do our part to hold people in power to account, even if we’re not sure we would do better ourselves. At this point, the only check and balance against creeping tyranny is the democratic rebellion of the people. 

There is an African proverb that says, “When you give someone a goat, you must also release the rope.” This wise saying warns against the tendency of benefactors to maintain control over what they claim to have relinquished. The ongoing political crisis in Rivers State is a clear reflection of this truth. Former Governor Nyesom Wike, minister of the FCT, anointed and supported Siminalayi Fubara as his successor, yet he has found it difficult to step aside and allow his protégé to govern independently. Instead, Rivers State has been plunged into political chaos, with a battle for supremacy between a former leader who refuses to let go and a sitting governor struggling to assert his authority.  Alas! The squabble has compelled President Bola Tinubu to recently declare a state of emergency in Rivers State, citing the prolonged political crisis and governance paralysis. Against the foregoing backdrop, it is not illogical to reason that had Wike truly released the “rope” after gifting the “goat,” Rivers State would have been enjoying political stability today.

Without a doubt, the Wike-Fubara crisis is not an isolated case; it is a symptom of a much deeper problem that has plagued Nigerian politics for decades. Across the country, the godfather-godson syndrome continues to wreak havoc on governance and development. In many instances, outgoing political leaders handpick successors, not necessarily based on competence, but on perceived loyalty and the ability to continue serving the interests of their political benefactors. However, once these successors assume office and begin to understand the weight of governance, they often seek to establish their own authority, leading to bitter power struggles.

We have seen this scenario play out in multiple states. In Lagos, President Bola Tinubu’s political dominance has ensured that successive governors remain firmly under his influence. Although Tinubu has successfully maintained control, not every godfather is as lucky. The conflict between former Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and Tinubu led to Ambode’s political downfall when he sought to exercise independence. In Kano, a similar battle for supremacy occurred between former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso and his successor, Abdullahi Ganduje. Their fallout created deep political divisions in the state. In Edo, Adams Oshiomhole and Godwin Obaseki went from allies to fierce political rivals, leading to an intense struggle that reshaped the political landscape of the state.

In fact, the godfather syndrome has proven to be one of the biggest threats to Nigeria’s democracy. Instead of allowing the electorate to choose their leaders, political heavyweights impose candidates who they believe will serve their interests. The result is that many governors come into office shackled by expectations that they must remain loyal to their predecessors rather than serve the people. This breeds mediocrity in governance, as the focus shifts from development to appeasing political benefactors.

Moreover, the battle for control often leads to instability, which in turn affects governance and service delivery. When a godfather and his successor fall out, the entire state apparatus is often thrown into turmoil. Political loyalists are divided, state assemblies become battlegrounds, and critical governance issues take a backseat to power struggles. The people, who should be the primary beneficiaries of governance, end up suffering the most.

Without a doubt, the crisis in Rivers State is particularly troubling because it highlights how political godfatherism can derail a state’s progress. Wike was a dominant force during his tenure as governor. He built a strong political structure and was instrumental in Fubara’s emergence as governor. However, instead of stepping back and allowing his successor to lead, Wike has continued to exert influence over the state’s affairs. Fubara, on the other hand, has gradually begun to assert his independence, leading to a bitter fallout between the two.

The Rivers State House of Assembly has been a key battleground in this crisis. Lawmakers loyal to Wike have clashed with those siding with Fubara, leading to legislative paralysis. The in-fighting has also affected governance, as key decisions and policies have been stalled due to the political crisis. Instead of focusing on development and governance, Rivers State has been consumed by political maneuvering and factional battles.

Had Wike truly allowed Fubara to govern without interference, Rivers State would have remained peaceful. The lesson here is clear: political godfathers must learn to let go. Once a leader has handed over power, they should step aside and allow their successor to govern independently. Anything short of this leads to unnecessary strife and instability.

In fact, political godfatherism is deeply entrenched in Nigeria’s political system. Many politicians see public office as an extension of their personal estates, and they are unwilling to relinquish control even after leaving office. This has led to a situation where many state governors operate under the influence of political heavyweights who dictate key decisions behind the scenes.

The only way to break this cycle is to strengthen Nigeria’s democratic institutions. Political parties must move away from the culture of imposition and allow internal democracy to thrive. The electorate must also demand accountability from their leaders and resist attempts to impose candidates who are merely stooges of powerful politicians. Until these changes occur, the problem of political godfatherism will continue to plague Nigeria’s democracy.

For Nigeria to move forward, political leaders must learn to embrace true leadership. True leadership is about service, not control. It is about mentoring the next generation of leaders and allowing them the freedom to govern independently. A good leader should not seek to manipulate or dictate to their successor but should instead offer guidance when sought and step aside when necessary.

The crisis in Rivers State serves as a cautionary tale. It is a reminder that power is transient and that no leader, no matter how influential, can hold onto it forever. Those who fail to understand this end up being consumed by the very system they seek to control.

The problem of political godfatherism is not just a state-level issue, it is a challenge that must be addressed before it escalates to the national level. If not checked, a similar crisis could rear its ugly head at the presidential level, throwing the entire country into chaos. Imagine a scenario where a former president installs a successor and then refuses to step aside, using political influence to control national affairs from behind the scenes. The consequences would be disastrous for Nigeria’s democracy, leading to instability at the highest levels of government.

To prevent this, decisive action must be taken to discourage the culture of political godfatherism. Institutions must be strengthened to ensure that power truly resides with the people and not with a select few individuals who manipulate the system to their advantage. Political leaders must be made to understand that governance is about service to the people, not about maintaining personal control over public office.

If Wike had left the rope after gifting the goat to Fubara, Rivers State would have been peaceful today. But the political crisis in Rivers is just one of many examples of how political godfatherism continues to undermine Nigeria’s democracy. From Lagos to Kano, from Edo to Anambra, the same story repeats itself: political benefactors refusing to let go, leading to instability and setbacks in governance.

Until Nigerian politicians learn that leadership is about service rather than control, the cycle of godfatherism and political conflict will continue. The people deserve better. Governance should not be a personal empire; it should be about delivering progress and development to those who elected leaders into office. If Nigerian leaders can embrace this simple truth, the country’s democracy will be the better for it.

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has asked President Bola Tinubu to reverse the state of emergency declared in Rivers state.

In a statement signed by Abubakar Jika Jiddere, the spokesperson of the forum on Friday, NEF said while the president is empowered under section 305 of the 1999 Constitution 1999 (as amended) to declare a state of emergency on the federation or any part of it, the situation in Rivers does not warrant the proclamation.

“Except perhaps for personal vendetta in alliance with the President’s serving Federal Minister of the FCT and the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, who has been in personal conflict with the suspended Governor for selfish interests rather than public good,” the statement reads.

“The maintenance of peace, public order and corporate existence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria cannot be compromised on personal aggrandizement and should be the primary concern of each Nigerian.

“As such any form of disturbance in any part of the country will have serious negative tendency and impact on the whole country.

“The Federal Government and the President in particular must find a viable and permanent solution to the political crisis in Rivers State, and also immediately lift the suspension of the Governor, Deputy Governor and State Assembly to restore the spirit of democracy, justice and public order.”

The forum advised the federal government not to allow the escalation of political disputes in some other places such as Kano, where there has been a tussle in the state’s traditional institution.

The elders advised Tinubu “to resolve political disputes through negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and adjudication”.

They warned that “the naked and brutal abuse of political power can only pose imminent danger to the democratic processes in Nigeria which is currently facing serious numerous challenges”.

On Tuesday, Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers and appointed Ibok-Ete Ibas, a retired naval chief, as sole administrator for the state.

On Thursday, the national assembly ratified the president’s decision through voice votes.