Like the whirlwind, 20th October and its attendant protests have come and gone, Nnamdi Kanu is yet to be released and justice is yet to be served. But history already had it imprinted on the book of records that a man known as Omoyele Sowore accepted to be the gadfly, the catalyst. He has geared the tardy steed to some revolutionary motion, by insisting that Nnamdi Kanu is released for the medicals, tried without prejudice and in line with the dictates of our laws without the judiciary reduced to a toothless bulldog. He only coughed and the capital city is thrown into revolutionary panic; his daring words and voice stripped the Police of sleep and smoked them out of their holes. They are forced to emerge in their madness, deployed via the power of their guns, tear gas canisters and batons. Is Sowore a human, a spirit or curse invoked on the corrupt leaders of the State, her lumpen citizens? Is he a Prophet sent to reset the State and its operatives from perdition?
William Gumedes, in his introductory remark on Mandela’s “No Easy Walk to Freedom,” presented an objective account of our leaders and their dynamism, capitalizing on factors that make persons who have once stood for justice lead the charge for its trample. He spoke eloquently to the making of leaders, stating that someone who occupies a position of authority and holds and exercises power is not always and necessarily a leader. Leadership is about the quality of an individual’s actions, behaviour and vision.
In his words:
“The failure of most African liberation-movements-turned-governments is the moral corruption of the leaders and parties who hold power, even if they have a just cause, impeccable ‘struggle’ credentials that give them the moral high ground and the right policies in government.”
“Suddenly finding themselves with state power and all its trappings—from a position of extreme poverty, powerlessness and marginalisation to access to fabulous wealth, unlimited power, often over life, death and the fortune of others—has corrupted many liberation movements turned governments, whether in Africa or Eastern Europe. Often leaders and parties have seen themselves, because of their newfound power, not only as above the law, but above the strictures of good, responsible personal and moral behaviour. Mandela, when he was President of South Africa, was that rare leader who did not allow new-found state power to corrupt his personal moral behaviour, decency and honesty of leaders and members.”
“In the context of political parties, governments and leaders, we are talking about democratic morality which transcends narrow religious and cultural traditions and ethnicities. Implicit in democratic morality is personal behaviour that is both ethical and honest, a sense of duty, and governance according to the values of the constitution and in the interests of the widest number of people rather than for personal enrichment or the interests of a small elite.”
It is from the aforestated point that I like to address President Tinubu, a highly favoured president of the most populated African country, Nigeria. It is not untrue to say President Tinubu embodies the choicest pro-democratic credentials since the inception of democracy in Nigeria, considering his passionate struggles for the return of power to Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, whose populist win as the president of Nigeria on 12th June, 1993, was stolen by the military government of Aliyu Babangida. Babangida closed his eyes to the impressive comments of both local and foreign observers, wrote a bad story of himself by proceeding to annul the election. Senator Bola Tinubu (now the 16th president of Nigeria) became a founding member of the pro-democracy National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a group which mobilized support for the restoration of democracy and recognition of Abiola as the winner of the 12 June election.
Tinubu spent his early life in southwestern Nigeria and later moved to the United States where he studied Accounting at Chicago State University. He returned to Nigeria in the 1980s and was employed by Mobil Nigeria as an accountant, before entering politics as a Lagos West senatorial candidate in 1992 under the banner of the Social Democratic Party.
Days after General Babangida addressed the Senate and announced his decision to step aside on August 27, 1993, the setting up of an interim government to replace him, Senators debated the speech. On the Senate floor on August 19, 1993, Tinubu unequivocally condemned the annulment, describing it as another coup d’état and urging Nigerians to reject injustice and lawlessness.
“We have a situation that suggests that the abortion of the June 12 election is another coup d’etat,” Senator Tinubu said. “My question is, when are we going to stop tolerating injustices, coup d’etat and abuse by the people on whom we invested so much resources—the public funds of this country?… Yes, it is true that we have a crisis, but for every action, there must be a reaction. This is a self-inflicted crisis because, without the abortion or annulment of the June 12 election, there would be no crisis like this. We have a government that made the law and abused its law. Therefore, the present military administration, by virtue of abrogation and violation of its own decree, has committed a crime,” he said.
Abacha took over on November 17, 1993, and dissolved all democratic institutions, including governors, the National Assembly, and the state legislature. Tinubu and a group of senators reconvened in Lagos, defying the junta. Tinubu, Ameh Ebute, Abu Ibrahim, and others were arrested and kept at Alagbon. The police took them to court and fabricated a case against them. While in police detention, Tinubu continued to fund pro-June 12 protests in Lagos, including the blockade of the Third Mainland Bridge.
After the military dictator Sani Abacha dissolved the Senate in 1993, Tinubu went into exile and became an activist campaigning for the return of democracy as a part of the National Democratic Coalition movement.
Following the seizure of power as military head of state of General Sani Abacha, Tinubu faced numerous arrests, detentions, harassment, and threats to his life, forcing him to flee Nigeria for safety. Undeterred, he joined NADECO abroad in-exile to continue fighting for democratic governance and the restoration of rule in the country. He went into exile in 1994 and returned to the country in 1998 after Abacha’s death, which ushered in the transition to the Fourth Nigerian Republic.
This is the summary of the ideals that once defined President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a pro-democracy activist and ally of figures like Senator Abraham Adesanya. It is instructive to know that President Tinubu once stood for everything his government opposes today: protests, injustice, disobedience of court orders and victimization of activists who have the courage to exercise their freedom of expression. What changed? Is it absolute power that corrupts absolutely or the tide of times?
If Tinubu could recognize some many years ago that the annulment of a credible election can trigger an uprising, as reflected in his submission on the floor of the Senate, why can’t he recognize that hunger, starvation, ethnic profiling and marginalization, killings or uneven distribution of state resources can force some revolutionary protests and actions? Is it fair that peaceful protesters are being attacked with live bullets, tear gas canisters under him as the Grand Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces?
I like to silently state that should Tinubu be objective with himself, he will see Omoyele Sowore in himself. Tinubu used to be a Sowore when it was convenient for him; however, that part of him is now a victim of a deadly disease called “power and moral corruption,” as articulated by Gumedes. It no longer matters if Tinubu embodies trailer-loads of pro-democratic credentials or that the ruling All Progressives Congress is a progressive party. What matters is that there is power, and it has to be used to either oppress opposition figures or consolidate himself in power. If Buhari had illegally nabbed Nnamdi Kanu and clamped him in DSS detention, utilizing the court as a pawn; it is expected that the activist in President Tinubu will right the wrongs.
Lately, it also appears the citizens of Nigeria have also shared in this moral corruption. In a bid to prove this fact, they have done the unprecedented by romancing their oppressors, spiting their fighters. Despite Omoyele Sowore’s notorious struggle for the liberation of Nigeria, the beneficiaries of his struggles are more interested in the fact that he had to abscond from the deadly tear gas than his message. One is forced to ask if what it takes to be an activist is the capacity to chest live bullets and tear gas canisters. In the course of this writing, I got wind of the information that Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer, Alloy Ejimakor, his brother, have now been remanded by a Kuje Court.
President Tinubu can be garbed in his robe of activism again!
