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.