That of course brought to an end the endless fear and trauma for the people who have had to live around Ikoyi Road in Lagos or who have had to work there. From Obalende to Keffi and parts in between, that was the perennial war zone in the battle for political power in Nigeria. That battle did not require any ward congress or national convention. There was no TVC, PVC or card reader. Our cities did not have to be defaced by all kinds of political posters, some with very annoying faces. There were no banners and bill boards. No radio or TV adverts or bitter documentaries were produced. Indeed there was no umpire required; no INEC, no NEC, no FEDECO, no NECON.
It was the rattle tattle of firearms and the booming of shells that would tell you that ‘elections’ were in progress as soldier shot at brother soldier to determine the last man standing. The people ran helter-skelter or peeped through their windows while the ‘elections’ lasted. You had to tip-toe past Radio Nigeria’s ‘Broadcasting House’ not just because of the fear of the dead buried in Ikoyi Cemetery just opposite BH. If you were not very careful, you could get caught in the cross fire in the battle for the control of Broadcasting House, a very priceless asset, when Nigerian soldiers held their ‘elections’
When the guns went silent, you knew that the elections were over. The ‘President’ had lost when the ‘returning officer’ is a once unheard of soldier most likely in dark goggles, who shows up on NTA, the national television network and delivers a speech that begins with ‘fellow Nigerians’. The guy would real out a litany of reasons why the ‘gallant men in uniform’ had decided to overthrow the ‘ruling cabal’.
Did the great English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, have a future Nigeria in mind when in his seminal work, Leviathan, he wrote about the ‘state of nature’ in which life is ‘nasty, brutish and short’? In this part of the world, the winner takes all and the losers are buried in unmarked graves. For the Nigerian soldier, life was indeed nasty, brutish and short. Who knows how many of these young men lost their lives driven by the desire to be superior to others for the purposes of self-gratification and self-protection often clothed in some flowery patriotic words?
Let us come to today. If you look at today’s Nigeria, nobody will blame you if you came to the conclusion that Nigeria has two capitals. There is the official capital controlled by President Goodluck Jonathan elected under the banner of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). That capital is Abuja. That is where you will find the Central Bank, the Federal Ministry of Finance, INEC, the Ministers and the Service Chiefs. Of course, there is Lagos, the other capital controlled by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an unelected but charismatic man whom some refer to as ‘Emperor’ and others fondly call ‘Jagaban’. Jagaban is the effervescent title given to Tinubu by HRH, Alhaji Aliyu Dantoro, the Emir of Borgu,
Lagos is Nigeria’s economic nerve center, the nerve center of the Nigerian media, the nerve center of Nigerian entertainment and the nerve center of the very vocal Nigerian civil society movement. Lagos is also the nerve center of Nigeria’s most co-ordinated opposition party since independence, the All Progressives Congress (APC) built by the big force of will of the rather small statured Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his uncanny strategic understanding of Nigerian politics.
I have watched some of the incredibly one sided documentaries on Tinubu. I believe that the documentaries do not only tarnish Tinubu but rubbish the Federal Government of Nigeria. If any Nigerian can commit the atrocities hung on the neck of Tinubu and yet the person can openly walk the streets of our country a free man, the conclusion of any rational and unbiased person would be that the facts cannot withstand scrutiny or that the government is terribly incompetent.
I do not know what political divide you may belong to but the fact is that Tinubu has succeeded in doing for Nigeria what the country has wanted for many years – two strong parties that can give Nigerians real alternatives. From independence, Nigeria has labored to have two major parties. With the many mergers during the first republic, it did not work. During the second republic, we saw the NPN and NPP gang up against UPN come to nothing. Ibrahim Babangida and Humphrey Nwosu launched their experiment with SDP and NRC and it crashed on June 12, 1993. Whether Bola Tinubu has been a crook, Robin Hood or simply a master tactician, time will tell but there is no question that he has succeeded where many have failed. Any true democrat will tell you that an unchallenged and dominant PDP would have meant a civilian dictatorship. My guy, that is not much of a democracy.
Do you know that the two major political parties in Nigeria are using international political consultants and pollsters? The verdict of most discerning watchers of Nigerian politics is that if the elections were held on February 14 as previously scheduled, for the first time in Nigeria history, an opposition party would have dusted the ruling party hands down.
That is why since the election postponement, the war has shifted to Lagos, the capital city and home turf of the opposition APC. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has for all intents and purposes relocated to Lagos and has made Lagos his command headquarters. From Lagos, GEJ is ‘shelling’ Ogun, Osun and other states in the South West. During the week, the PDP governors stormed Lagos for an ‘interactive session’. Supporters of the PDP will tell you that this is proof that things have changed and Nigerians really do not want ‘change’. The APC guys will tell you that it is a sign that GEJ and his people are desperate. Their example will be that even Governor Ayo Fayose could not help but deploy the reputation of his mother in the battle.
APC’s Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha had to abandon the battle in Imo during the week and head to Lagos to defend the APC home turf. General Muhammadu Buhari was also in Lagos for a very colourful and interesting interactive town hall meeting with Nigerian youth and students. He was with the likes of Oyegun, Amaechi and Co.
It appears that there is an agreement between the armies of both parties that the North has been captured by one of the parties and the East has gone the other way. It appears that the thinking is that the South West will determine the prize. Anyone who tells you that he knows how this will end is a liar. You now know why the battle has been taken to the doorsteps of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the big guns and big money are now assembled and are firing from Lagos.
Jagaban oh Jagaban! They say that you have money in the zillions. Tell me, do you have as much money as the man who has the key to the vault of the Central Bank? They say that you are the master of the game. This is the time to show us truly what you are made of.
Two weeks to go! It is crunch time. This is where the rubber meets the road. It is not only the kitchen sink that will be hulled in now, these next two weeks, the bath tub and the toilet bowl will be deployed in this ferocious war for the control of Nigeria’s resources, a war in which the winner takes all. Na Waa!
Is it not funny how the more things change, the more they remain the same? 23 years after Babangida packed his bag and baggage and left Lagos, the war for the political control of Nigeria is once again being fought on the streets of Lagos. Chikena!
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