• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

Descent into full dictatorship: Nigerians had it coming

Nigerians

Going into the 2015 general election, I had no illusions that if the choice was a straight one between a so-called competent and incorruptible tyrant and a gentle democrat, Nigerians will overwhelmingly go for the tyrant. Like I argued in a piece in 2013, Nigerians have an atavistic attachment and longing for strongmen. One of Goodluck Jonathan’s vulnerabilities in the eyes of Nigerians, apart from the corruption in his government, is his so-called weakness and lack of a brutal disposition often seen and admired in Nigerian strongmen.

Not long after the ascension to power of Buhari, that brutal authoritarianism he was renowned for began to show in the brutal and extrajudicial massacre of hundreds of unarmed Shiites in Zaria, illegal arrests, harassment and detention of political opponents, justices of the Supreme Court and agitators and the refusal to obey valid court orders. In January 2016, alarmed by the gradual erosion of the rule of law, I wrote a three-part series on the gradual descent into autocracy in Nigeria.

Expectedly, most of the responses I got were from Nigerians who disagreed with me. The summary of the responses and of the reactions of Nigerians to these extra-legal and illegal actions of the government was general acceptance. Most Nigerians bought into the lie that corruption and insecurity cannot be fought strictly through legal means. Like I argued in my 2013, although Nigerians may criticise the authoritarian tendencies of their leaders, they still expect the leaders to “act swiftly or even brutally and bypass laws, if necessary, in pursuance of the common good.” The tendency, in Nigeria, is to equate ‘effective’ or ‘good’ governance with dictatorship or authoritarianism.

It was clear exceedingly early in the day that Buhari wanted total power and authority and care nothing for democratic norms or rule of law. To achieve this, he had to emasculate other arms of government. Since he could not get his favoured candidates to head the National Assembly in 2015, he shifted his focus to the judiciary while waiting for the opportune moment to strike at the National Assembly.

But Nigerians, as usual, were blissfully unaware of what was to come. They still thought we are a democracy with guaranteed rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. It was that thinking that led to the #EndSARS protests

The regime’s wilful disobedience of legitimate court orders, invading and arresting judges of the Supreme Court at their homes, harassing and intimidating judges that deliver judgements deemed unfavourable by the government or some of its agencies were the first signs that it was out to emasculate the judiciary. But most of us were deceived by the so-called fight against corruption and we cheered the president on.

The takeover of the judiciary was completed with the ruthless and extra-legal removal of the Chief Justice from office on the eve of the 2019 elections. It not only sent shivers down the spine of other judges, but it also ensures the administration will always get its wish and the judiciary remains under strict control.

The 8th National Assembly remained a pain in Buhari’s neck. It vigorously resisted the manifest wish and plans of the President to control all arms of government. The level of tension between the two arms could be seen in the record number of bills passed by the National Assembly but refused assent by the president. That tension, in a way, slowed down the president, as he himself later confirmed, and prevented Nigeria’s precipitous descent into dictatorship.

However, the president never stopped trying to take control of the National Assembly. When the more civil routes of sponsoring impeachments against the leaderships and launching bogus false declaring of assets suit against the then Senate President failed to do the job, he became more thuggish, getting the Police to try to link Saraki to a robbery incident in Offa, Kwara state. The last act of desperation was the almost total withdrawal of security details to the Senate president and Speaker of the House of Representatives by the Department of State Security and the police.

The project of full takeover of all arms of government was completed in 2019 when the government got its wish by installing its preferred candidates as leaders of the National Assembly. To confirm the rubber-stamp status of the 9th National Assembly the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, recently declared that “any request that comes from Mr President is a request that will make Nigeria a better place…[and] the Senate will act expeditiously to ensure” its speedy passage.

From then on, it was clear Nigeria was on an irreversible slide to full dictatorship. Once the takeover was complete, anti-social media bills and other such laws that seek to stifle free speech and prevent criticism of the government and which were all rejected by the 8th National Assembly were all smuggled back and are being passed expeditiously and or surreptitiously by the 9th National Assembly.

After Buhari and his party’s success at the polls in 2019, I was under no illusions what his second term might look like and the fate of some of us who had been unrelenting in holding his government. The choice before us was clear: shut up or ship out.

But Nigerians, as usual, were blissfully unaware of what was to come. They still thought we are a democracy with guaranteed rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. It was that thinking that led to the #EndSARS protests. But the Lekki massacre, the clampdown on key members of the protests, restrictions and shut down of bank accounts of those that donated to the protests and the renewed efforts to finally clampdown on social media usage has led to a rude awakening. The pretences are over: Nigeria is now a full-blown dictatorship. Human rights, rights to life, freedom of expression, assembly and association are no longer guaranteed, and no one has the right to oppose, criticise or ask the government probing questions without the government sending security agencies after such an individual.