AFTER quelling what, to all intents and purposes, was a peaceful protest by economically challenged Nigerians over insufferable high cost of living, President Bola Tinubu has moved quickly to consolidate his grip on power. Taking a page from the archetypical fascist playbook, he summoned a meeting of the National Council of State, NCS, on Tuesday, to pass a vote of confidence in him and the Council obliged.

For those who may not know, the NCS idea, which was introduced by General Murtala Muhammed in a broadcast on July 30, 1975 after overthrowing General Yakubu Gowon, was to create an advisory body.  

“The structure of government has been re-organised. There will now be three organs of government at the federal level namely: The Supreme Military Council, The National Council of State, and the Federal Executive Council,” he said.

On return to democracy in the Second Republic, the 1979 Constitution enlarged the Council’s membership to include the President, Vice-President, former Presidents and Military Heads of State, former Chief Justices of Nigeria, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Governors and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.

The Constitution gave the National Council of State the responsibilities of advising the President in the exercise of his powers with respect to national population census, prerogative of mercy, awarding of national honours, and appointment of members of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC; National Judicial Council, NJC; and National Population Commission, NPC. The Council also advises the President whenever requested to do so on the maintenance of public order within the federation or any part thereof and on such other matters as the President may direct.

While former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan attended the meeting physically, and Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar joined virtually, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida kept their distance.

Kwara State governor, who also doubles as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, obviously happy with the outcome of the meeting, crowed that the Council lauded Tinubu on the way he is governing the country.

“The high note of the meeting was a unanimous passage of a vote of confidence in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian armed forces,” Abdulrazaq told journalists.

Really? How on earth could anyone say that Tinubu is governing Nigeria well and the country is headed in the right direction?

To be sure, I wasn’t surprised that Buhari decided to cut his political soul mate, Tinubu, some slack. It is tantamount to failure reinforcing failure. But what would make the other leaders binge on the same false narrative? Could it be lack of courage to speak truth to power – in the manner of the three wise monkeys of the Japanese pictorial maxim that “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil?”

Tinubu drafted in some of his poster lieutenants – Ministers of Solid Minerals, Finance, Budget, Works, Trade and Investment and Agriculture – to make presentations. The National Security Adviser, NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, briefed the Council on the security situation in the country, as Dele Alake put it: “Especially on issues before, during and after the nationwide protests.”

Throwing more light on what transpired, Finance Minister Wale Edun said he updated the Council on the progress the Tinubu administration was making on the economy in terms of the macroeconomic policies and the “encouraging results”.

“In broad terms the economy is growing. The balance of payments, in particular, the trade balance and a current account balance are in surplus. The exchange rate is stabilising, and inflation, though high, uncomfortably high for the liking of Mr. President and his team, is slowing and it is set to fall,” Edun crooned.

“But in particular, there has been support for the economy from investors, foreign investors, by way of portfolio investors, domestic investors, who are participating in important private-public partnerships, particularly infrastructure sector and foreign direct investment, is beginning to recover, I would say so.”

Apparently they wowed the August body with their submissions, hence the confidence vote. But this is tiring and monotonous sing-song of the Tinubu orchestra since May 29, 2023. The government continues to claim, falsely, that the economy has turned the awful corner where the execrable Buhari government left it.

But these claims are far from the reality that stares Nigerians in the face. The same policies that Edun is touting have not only triggered the worst cost of living crisis since 1960 but also pushed millions of already impoverished Nigerians deeper into poverty and unmitigated misery. There is hardly any Nigerian, except those in government and their rent-seeking partners-in-crime outside who thrive on government patronage, that can claim to be better off today than 15 months ago.

Tinubu’s macroeconomic policies have wiped out Nigeria’s middle class, literally. Hunger is stalking the land even as the spectre of corruption continues to haunt the country to perdition. Nigerians have never been hungrier. Of course, that was the reason for the 10-day #EndBadGovernance protest. But expecting members of an elite club of serving and retired government top guns, most of who live on government rent, to complain may be expecting too much.

But the really embarrassing thing is the fact that Gowon, Abdulsalami and Jonathan agreed with Tinubu that the hunger protest was a movement to effect a change of regime by force. We can excuse Buhari because he and Tinubu are birds of the same plumage. In 2020, Buhari levelled the same allegation against #EndSARS protesters.

Alake, who claimed that “the Council thanked Nigerians at large for resisting any unconstitutional move to change the government,” further said, rather hubristically that “if anybody is not satisfied with the government, there is always an election coming, so you wait for an election and cast your vote” as if the votes will ever count.

It is sad that these statesmen never cared a hoot about peaceful protesters, fellow Nigerians, who were killed in cold blood by trigger-happy security men for no crime other than asking for good governance. Hundreds of youths have been rounded up and clamped in prisons by a regime that is bent on using them as a war trophy to scare aware any would-be protesters in the future.

Meanwhile, even as the police and DSS are busy quelling the protest and making sure that no protester ever raises his head again while Tinubu is on the saddle, the NCS didn’t even raise as much as a whimper over the noxious campaign to expel Ndigbo from the South-West starting August 20. Beside the very feeble and hypocritical protestations from Tinubu, who claimed he was offended by the campaign, there is no investigation into the matter. Of course, the government knows those behind the campaign, the chief instigator being Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu’s top media adviser.

Nigeria has become a police state with the government devising means to exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. Public officials are so disrespectful of the citizenry. The legislators continue to legislate their vexatious and toxic personal ideas, wishes and preferences as Tajudeen Abass, Speaker of the House of Representatives, wanted to do with his obnoxious counter subversion bill. Those in the judiciary have absolutely no respect for the Constitution they say is their prerogative  to interpret and chieftains of the executive arm of government continue to talk down on the people as the National Security Adviser, NSA, did on Wednesday when he warned Nigerians not to mistake Tinubu administration’s “commitment to peace for weakness.”

As I noted here last week, Tinubu is not a democrat. He is an autocrat who believes in and fervently craves power absolutism. If unresisted, by the time he is done with Nigeria, the so-called General Sani Abacha dictatorship will pale into insignificance. Nigerians have a patriotic duty to resist the creeping dictatorship otherwise we are headed for the notorious “Heil, mein Führer!” (‘Hail, my leader!’) saga as Germans did under Adolf Hitler. Nigeria can ill-afford a “Dear Leader,” an authoritarian leader who demands unquestioning loyalty.