Presidential monologue – Part 34

Good morning, Mr President. Let me note from the beginning that the country’s presently is under your watch. Things are pretty hard for Nigerians to the extent that we are witnessing suicide by hanging of citizens. Only a few days ago, the United Nations warned about the looming death of about 2.6 million children in our country due to Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).  As a friend and citizen, I am duty-bound to warn you. The core of my augury is that you are being railroaded into autocracy by those you chose as your team.

The statement from the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Kemi Nandap, who spoke at a news conference convened by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa at the Defence Headquarters involving heads of security agencies and Service Chiefs, is most alarming. It amounts to placing Nigerians in the diaspora on the watch list for alleged sponsorship of the #Endbadgovernance protest who would be arrested upon arrival in the country. Nandap stated unambiguously, “We have identified some diaspora sponsors;  they are on our watch list. We will be notified of any attempt they make to enter the country, and they will be picked up and handed to the appropriate authority”.

I hope the Abacha years are not here with us. The above effusion from the security apparatchiks is an affront to the democratic rights of Nigerians to protest against policies they reason are against their general interest.  This is a throwback to the military years when we all whirled under their jackboot. Mr President, you were also a victim. I doubt if you are part of this design. Maybe some elements in the security establishment want to prove their loyalty to justify security expenditure. Don’t be deceived as their actions would only alienate you from the governed. Mr President, you are obliged to serve and obey the general will, not the sinister counsels of your sycophantic servants.

As a result of the last protest, over 2000 people are reportedly behind bars. This number has augmented those of the #EndSars who have been languishing in detention centres across the country since 2021. What is more, the reported raid on the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the vandalisation of Iva Valley Books, a not-for-profit bookshop opened in 2017 to provide resources for the education of trade unionists is alarming. When a government and its security goons begin to attack books, it is a descent into a dictatorship of the fascistic hue.

In response to the NLC incident, a statement by Socialist Labour notes that “The recent clampdown on the #Endbadgovernance protests is a clear sign of a government that fears accountability and is desperate to maintain control through force and intimidation. The regime is making political prisoners of anyone brave enough to speak out. We did not fight against the military only to see our democratic rights eroded by those who once claimed to be partners in that struggle. The power of democracy lies in collective action; now is the time for all progressive forces to unite”. This is not good for the image of the country.

The security forces were not satisfied with the raid on NLC in Abuja, they also raided the Office of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) on August 9, ostensibly to stop a Symposium that was being organised by Education Rights Campaign warranting the condemnation of the leadership which called “on the Inspector-General of Police and the Lagos State Police Commissioner to call these people to order from stopping a lawful and peaceful assembly.” According to its statement, the stoppage would amount “to gross violation of rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech”.

Mr. President, you might not know but that before your inauguration and the intrigues of thwarting the process, it was at the CDHR’s office that the Think-tank for Democracy, led By Professor Lucky Akaruese and myself among others, held a press conference to defend your mandate.

President, please do not allow yourself to descend into an authoritarian shell; avoid every authoritarian temptation like a plague. Remember, security always gives way to conspiracy. Also, do not forget the transient nature of power. Eight years is too short to be carried away by the allure of power. My humble advice to you, sir, is to order the release of all Nigerians detained over the last protest and those held for the #EndSars protest of 2020.

Recall that Comrade Shehu Sani had urged you during the last Democracy Day dinner at the Villa that you should release those detained and made light of the matter by making the point that they learnt the act of protest from you. It is one of the ways you can endear yourself to those whose affairs you superintend.

Let me end with excerpts from the eternal words of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 –1822,) an English Poet who mused on the vanity of power in his poem, Ozymandias, ‘My name is Ozymandias,/king of kings:/Look on my works,/ ye Mighty,/ and despair!’/Nothing beside remains. / Round the decay/Of that colossal wreck, / boundless and bare/The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Odion Akhaine is Professor of Political Science, Lagos State University, Ojo Campus.