Andy Ezeani
Tuesday,March 31 2026
Blessed are the dead. At least, they have been spared the possibility of being put to test by circumstances which may lead to the repudiation of the principle that defined who they were.
Think of Chief Bola Ige, the assassinated Attorney-General of the federation and former governor of Oyo State. Ige was reputed to be uncompromisingly principled.
He was acerbic and gifted with a tongue that was so sharp that it could cut like a razor. Ige was noted for calling a spade its name. He brooked nothing that undercut democracy.
In the heady days in 1997 when the military dictator, Sani Abacha, sought to muscle his way from totalitarianism to democratic leadership of sorts, the air around the country became delicate.
While the political environment was seized by a spirit that reeked of raw deceit and intimidation, defiance was not far away. Abacha corralled the existing five political parties into a corner and got them to respectively adopt him as their presidential candidate.
The presidential election that was being planned was clearly headed for a fraudulent coronation, a sham. Nigerians were left bemused at what was playing out, but the remote-controlled party leaders were galivanting around, singing like canary that Abacha was the best thing that ever happened to Nigeria and that he was specifically created by God to manage the complexities of Nigeria. It was absurd.
To be fair to Abacha – something not many are ready to do till date – the national economy under his supervision was in fairly good shape.The exchange rate was stable and healthy. Electricity supply was stable. Various other critical indicators in the national economy were substantially friendly to the average citizens. But he was a dictator.
His maneuver to continue in office through arm-twisting was extremely vexatious. Wanting to access a palace through the back door will always appear awkward.
Bola Ige, like many other Nigerians, was miffed at what was playing out on the political scene. In dismissive frustration, he branded the five political parties that adopted Abacha, ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’. That was quintessential Ige. Nothing healthy was expected from those impaired fingers. Nothing good came from them, subsequently.
Chief Ige died 25 years ago. How would he have reacted to the more bizarre situation at the moment where almost all the state governors including those of the opposition parties have joined those of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to declare support for President Bola Tinubu as the best and only creation capable of superintending over Nigeria, even in the face of adverse facts?
How so similar the refrain and the footwork of this period to those of 30 years ago? A band of 32 governors in a multi-party democracy saying the same thing is clearly an aberration.
Alas, no one can wager with certainty now, what Chief Ige’s reaction would be to the curious emergence of the horde of 32 governors from diverse parties queuing up behind one person. The reason for such uncertainty is empirical.
A number of other persons who hitherto stood, like Ige, as epitome of unassailable principled lives have shed their persona of many decades without qualms, leaving many citizens appalled. Those too were once staunch opponents of such aberrant development as is playing out presently in the political space.
Last weekend, President Tinubu, the 32 governors who have become afflictions to their people and a total number of 8,450 delegates, not counting thousands of hangers on and security personnel, converged in Abuja for the convention of the ruling party.
No attempt was reported to have been made at the convention of a party that has been ruling the country in the last 12 years, to honestly review the reality of the country, or offer a sober message of encouragement to the citizens whose lives have become a daily nightmare.
Nothing was said in the form of an apology about electricity supply that has virtually collapsed in the country. Nothing was said about terrorist attacks and insecurity that are alarmingly eating deep into the country, state by state. Nothing was said about the cost of living.
Nothing was said about the cost of petroleum products, especially Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which has forced many vehicles off the road and raised the cost of transportation to an emasculating level for workers, business persons and ordinary folks. No word was uttered about unemployment.
On the contrary, there were, shockingly, congratulations for a job well done to President Tinubu by the 32 afflictions and the other yokes on the necks of the Nigerian people, gathered at the Eagle Square.
How can Tinubu ever do well if, as things stand at the moment, what he is receiving from state governors is congratulations for doing well? Is this sycophancy or depravity?
Among those who congratulated the President at the convention, for effectively presiding over the affairs of Nigeria, were two afflictions who left the venue of the convention and went home to mourn the killings in their states. One had to place a curfew on account of continued killings in his state.
Over at Kwara state, a town has reportedly emptied out. Citizens locked up their homes, businesses, places of worship, etc, and fled. The residents could no longer carry on with life under unrelenting terrorist invasion.
It will be no surprise if the rampaging terrorists move in and settle in the town. That will be one more foothold secured for the terrorists. Yet the ruling party is in a celebratory mood. Something is terribly wrong in Nigeria.
