When history ultimately records the democratic journey of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu may not be remembered as the father of modern democracy he once styled himself to be. Rather, he may be remembered as the man who, once power was within his grip, did everything possible to extinguish the oxygen of democracy — credible opposition.
In recent months, Nigeria has witnessed a worrying pattern: the strategic dismantling of opposition political parties by a presidency that claims to believe in multiparty democracy. Whether it is the manufactured crises within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the internal sabotage of the Labour Party, or the sudden co-option of opposition leaders into government under suspicious circumstances, the pattern is clear: Tinubu is waging a war against the very idea of democratic plurality.
It is ironic. Tinubu, a man who rose to national prominence as a resilient voice of the opposition during the Obasanjo years, who boasted of building a formidable political structure from Lagos against a PDP-dominated federal government, is now using the same federal instruments to crush the oxygen of dissent and disorganise rivals. The very tactics he once decried, he now deploys with ruthless precision.
Democracy thrives on vibrant opposition. The very legitimacy of any ruling government is enhanced, not weakened, by the presence of strong, credible challengers. A President who deploys state apparatus to sponsor factions within rival parties, compromise judges ( allegedly), or intimidate dissenters is not strengthening democracy, he is kneeling on its neck.
We have seen political leaders threatened with arrest or investigation the moment they oppose government policy. We have seen lawmakers herded like pawns into midnight meetings at the Villa. We have seen party conventions disrupted by court orders conveniently issued in the dead of night ( allegedly oh), and we have seen opposition figures defect under duress or disappear into silence, neutered by compromise or fear.
This is not democracy. This is a creeping dictatorship wrapped in democratic robes.
More dangerously, this subversion is being carried out with the active connivance of some elite within the South — men and women willing to trade political dignity for appointments, contracts, or protection from prosecution. What they fail to see is that once democracy collapses, no one is safe — not even the favoured.
Nigeria is bigger than any political party or president. The people must understand: the destruction of the opposition is the destruction of choice. When opposition dies, tyranny thrives.When tyranny thrives, the very masses now cheering will become its victims.
Those of us who still believe in constitutional order, who understand that democracy is not just about winning elections but respecting institutions, pluralism, and process, must speak now. Not for partisan gain, but for posterity. A nation without credible opposition will become a nation without accountability. Where there is no accountability, there can be no justice, no peace, and no progress.
Bola Tinubu still has time to pull back. History still watches. But if he continues this path of deliberate opposition strangulation, he will not be remembered as the builder of modern Nigeria that he ludicrously tells himself he is, but as the architect of its democratic decline.
The alarm should be sounded, and Nigerians should wake up. For when the last opposition voice is silenced, and the only chant left is praise from the fearful, the death of democracy will not be reversed by prayer or propaganda.
As for me, I have long been committed to democratic values and have served under the banner of the PDP with sincerity, loyalty, and vision, but what does one do when a party once positioned to rescue Nigeria is now held captive — gasping for breath under the weight of a knee pressed down by Tinubu’s proxy warlords?
We must be honest: a political platform that cannot breathe cannot lead. And a nation that cannot offer the people real alternatives cannot be called a democracy.
In the coming weeks, I will consult my conscience, my people, and my God. But I am not indifferent to the budding tsunami of coalition forces rising across the land — forces determined to break the grip of tyranny, revive our institutions, and give Nigerians space to breathe again.
For in the final analysis, loyalty to party must never trump loyalty to country — or to truth.
