All dictators, both living and dead, were born so, they were not made. Most dictators are cunning, slippery, dangerous and ruthless. They usually seek power with subtlety and high level of pretense, struggling to manifest signs of humanity and patriotism, but when they achieve power, they do not hesitate to unleash their ruthless misdemeanor.
The only way to keep dictatorship in check is the acquisition of a very strong legal system that is difficult to manipulate, as well as the will and action of the people to resist all forms of dictatorship whenever they manifest.
Quite unfortunately, Nigeria lacks these two elements that can resist dictatorship. When the current Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had not grabbed power by any means from the Nigerian electorate, he had criticized and opposed everything he perceived as misrule; disobedience to the rule of law, disobedience to court orders and judgements and disobedience to constitutional provisions.
And quite instructive, the moment he became the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, beginning from the first day, he began to implement anti-people policies that have left the country in tatters. He began by removing fuel subsidy exactly on his inauguration day and since after the removal and coupled with other inhumane policies, poverty, destitution and hunger have remained the trademark of the oil-rich country.
The worst of Tinubu’s anti-people action, so far, is his illegal removal of a duly elected governor and deputy governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara and Ngozi Odu respectively, as well as the sacking of the state’s House of Assembly through the declaration of the ill-fated State of Emergency, and imposing the unconstitutional Sole Administrator, retired Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas on the state.
Amid the hue and cry and uproar across the country, Ibas who was sworn in even before the alleged rubber-stamped National Assembly, has not hesitated to implement an alleged written script with which the political and financial fortunes of the embattled state would be ceded to Tinubu, Wike and the All Progressives Congress (APC), to pursue Tinubu’s reelection come 2027.
A significant trait of most dictators is that they engage in acts of lawbreaking with brazen impunity, as is happening in Rivers State. However, most dictators do not end well. A case still fresh in our memory is the pitiable end of the despot, General Sanni Abacha in 1998.
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