The elections are in clear jeopardy. In Benue, a state ruled by a priest, state-financed hooliganism targeted at the opposition has sprouted. If a presidential candidate of one of the major parties cannot move around freely, then the elections, even if they hold, will be a sham.
When Governor Alia barred Obi from entering Benue last year, many thought he was clowning. I said Alia was a total Alikirija. I could not put childishness and cynicism beneath a priest who had left the altar of God for the altar of filthy politics. I could not, however, associate Father Alia with political barbarism. I could have bet my farm that Alia, even if duplicitous enough to speak from both sides of the mouth, still had a sense of boundaries. I took it for granted that he knew where to stop. I could not conceive him possessing the same menace as a Wike or an Okpebholo. He ought to have known he was still an ambassador of the Church. He could be an inept governor, unable to lift the poor of Benue, failing woefully to keep his electoral promises. What a man in a cassock must not be is a purveyor of violence. A man who understood sacredness would keep brazen desperation away from elections.
But this is not about a fallen father. Alia says he had no hand in what befell Obi under his nose. He wants us to believe he was guilty only of prophesying it. It could be argued that Obi’s compassion for the victims and survivors of the series of massacres in Benue incites public revulsion against a Reverend Father-governor who belongs to the ruling party and defends the president’s abject inability to protect Benue from the recurrent bloodbaths.
The piece is not about Alia. There is a spreading culture of political intolerance. There is a scheme of political strangulation. There is a design to wither the opposition, bind it, and render it moribund so that Tinubu may retain office without a contest. There is a concerted effort to make the elections a fait accompli, even if they become a total charade. The blockade in Benue can damage democracy, however it is probably less worrying than the other forms the political malignancy.
Sunday Igboho has been resuscitated and rehabilitated. He now moves around with the swagger of a Chief of Army Staff. He has a band of mercenaries called Iru Ekun. They are armed to the teeth. Igboho postures as the saviour of the Yoruba race but right now he is proud to double as a Tinubu enforcer . He has announced to the country that, while his quest for a Yoruba nation is in abeyance, opponents of Tinubu will not be allowed to flourish in the Southwest. The role Igboho and his gang will play during the elections is foreseeable. In 2023 , Mc Oluomo warned the Igbo to stay away from the March polls in Lagos. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Igbos who dared to vote were chased way or battered at the polling booths by thugs loyal to Oluomo. With Igboho licensed to roam and raid, elections in the Southwest may not have any credibility.
Former Niger Delta militant Tompolo, who retains guns and daggers as a government military contractor protecting crude pipelines, now champions Tinubu’s re-election across the country. Tompolo makes billions monthly from a federal security contract. It is therefore in his business interest that Tinubu is re-elected. Tompolo has not threatened anyone. Despite his background, he has not yet brought any hint of brutality into a plan that already stretches as far as Katsina. But the growing number of government mercenaries championing Tinubu’s re-election undermines any claim that the coming elections will be free and fair. Hopefully Boko Haram does not become part of the effort. It has been reported that the federal government has reached a temporary truce with the terrorist group. The opposition ought to know the terms of deal. Unlike the taciturn Tompolo, loquacious Asari Dokubo, who also runs a private army, has sworn to do all he can to return the president to office. With the desperation on display among Tinubu’s men, these sub-state armed groups could be given wider, more dubious roles in this election.
In Edo, Okpebholo threatened Obi. Obi’s sin was that he came to the state to support a nursing school. Okpebholo said Obi could enter the state only with his permission. The next time Obi was in the state, he was attacked by thugs. Okpebholo has promised to deliver 2.5 million votes to Tinubu. Perhaps he would rather have opposition supporters remain indoors on election day. The wanton use of threats and violence against opposition leaders is inimical to democracy. The naked intimidation of the opposition supporters into abstention now appears to be a general Renewed Hope Agenda strategy. I had thought the idea belonged only to Wike and his Rainbow coalition of carnivores and cowards .
The president has a duty to deliver free and fair elections. But if he thinks that all is fair in politics, his silence in the face of intimidation and sabotage against the opposition is not surprising. The opposition must fashion a strategy to contend with the menace. If the government is unwilling to conduct a free and fair election, the opposition must not lend credibility to a farce. It must boycott the elections. But both the threat and eventual execution of a boycott will only force accountability if the opposition finds unity and speaks with a common moral voice.
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