By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

BOLA Ahmed Tinubu is said to be a democrat. He flaunts his self-exile as the certificate for that sacrifice and the sacrifices of those who stayed home and faced General Sani Abacha?s bullets do not matter.

Many died. Others were thrown into irrecoverable circumstances. There is no memory in their names.

Tinubu does not know these things. Rather, he behaves as if he was at the centre of the democracy (?) we appear to have. Hundreds of thousands of very ordinary Nigerians routinely seized Nigeria, asking Abacha to leave. Return to civil rule, not necessarily democracy, was won with their lives.

Did Tinubu spend the discomfort of exile admiring Abacha? Were there hints that he picked from the five Abacha-created political parties that were falling over each other to adopt Abacha? We watched in amazement at Abacha?s version of democracy that we never expected in Nigeria.

Abacha was military. Abacha hardly spoke to us unless to issue another order. Abacha kept the same type of distance that Tinubu maintains on issues that affect our people. Abacha too was democratic if not a democrat. An election was on the way in which he would have been the only candidate.

Where Abacha was greedy with power, he still wanted us to beg him enough so that the will of Nigerians would be expressed through his election. We started begging him, just anything to please Abacha.

The million marches started. Parts of Nigeria started begging him to save the country. Millions of prescient Nigerians did not know Abacha was a nationalist, a lover of Nigeria.

Abacha was spartan. He saved billions of Dollars for Nigeria. Did he know that those after him would not be as prudent? Nigeria gets ?returns? of the money Abacha saved abroad for Nigeria. He has gone for 27 years.

Tinubu is different. He is not greedy, but strategic. Nigerians one thought had balls to tell him democracy was not a one-party state are on long queues trying to reach him with the same message ? only Tinubu until 2031.

He has not even completed two years of his first tenure and he has been nominated to run for a second term as the only candidate of his party, and other parties that have pledged their unalloyed loyalty to him.

It Is the type of loyalty one of my colleagues calls ?blind loyalty?. Any suggestion of clarity on issues is deemed opposition. Blind loyalists do not wear glasses. They will not permit themselves to see anything, lest they say something wrong.

There is a problem, though. Tinubu has claimed there was nothing wrong with one-party state. He wants more people to join his APC where newest joiners are ahead of those who have ?suffered? for the party.

He wants us to be patient because his arrival has put Nigeria on the path of steady growth and progress.

What has changed? We are urged to suffer today for a better tomorrow? Whose tomorrow? Abacha was a man of few words. He acted.

Tinubu has transited from President to a god whose worshippers place above the law as they in obeisance crave for his attention for one more minute as politicians of note. They anticipate his wishes and go beyond what he wants.

We are the ones turning Tinubu to a different democrat. He visits a State to ?commission? projects, the Governor joins the President?s party, hands his own party over to the President.

The Ill-fitting attires they wear sometimes flash on the screens as if it is a clown?s day. It cannot be. We are dealing with lives, many of who have done nothing wrong to put them on the front line of today?s crushing poverty.

Hope is still expressed in tiny voices that stake their right to be seen and heard in the fleeting din to ?off the mikes? unless for those who say that one-party state is a democracy.

We hail Nigeria. It is still our own dear native land where the various tongues and tribes with their differences will stand in brotherhood.

Nigeria has too many tongues for one language to utter them.

Finally?

FOR the second time in about three years, the picture of a baby strapped to the dead mother?s back has made a round of the social media. In each case, the baby was alive, unaware of the mother?s death. In the recent case, the baby was still sucking the mother. Both heinous acts were blamed on ?foreign bandits?, who if we understand the Federal Government, cannot be attacked or removed from Nigeria because ?they are not Nigerians?. The equipment we keep buying to fight insecurity cannot be deployed against ?foreign bandits?. How do we find pleasure in explaining the patterned death of Nigerians with trite platitudes? The attitudes are more tormenting than the vacant stare of the babies which reminds the so-minded that care has taken a long vacation. Nothing stops the hollow rites of swearing to adhere to the demands of the Constitution. Section 14(2) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 declares that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Could what is going on be the appropriate interpretation of the Section?

JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede and his supporters believe that whatever went wrong with the 2025 UTME was about them and they are in the best position to find the answers. What happened to the 2025 may not be isolated. The ?glitch? explanation does not say anything ? the cause, whether it was targeted at some candidates, as some claim, if it can happen again, and what and who are responsible. Further investigations are required by bodies other than JAMB and those who work for it, including those who stopped the teary Professor Oloyede from resigning. The entire test should be redone for all candidates.

EXCLUSION of the South East in major projects used to be muted but the Tinubu administration confirms it openly. The intentionality of the decisions also comes with a finality that cannot be lost on anyone. We have not done with the exclusion of the zone from a pre-census committee, the only zone so treated when Tinubu and Company also made no provision for the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority. Senator Kenneth Eze, APC-Ebonyi, in a motion lamented the exclusion of the Anambra/Imo River Basin from the 2025 budgetary provision for irrigation. Senate Leader, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, popularly called MOB, quickly said the motion would be withdrawn to enable the Senate leadership discuss the matter with the Minister of Water Resources. Nothing was wrong with the exclusion of South East from a N380 billion irrigation budget that was spread across the country. The motion must have rankled MOB. How dare Senate Eze? MOB is chiefly credited with the bill that changed the national anthem from the 1978 one to the 1960 anthem.

IT took a closed-door session to calm nerves on Tuesday when Senate President Obong Godswill Akpabio tried to stop Senator Henry Seriake Dickson from making a contribution on Nigeria?s growing insecurity. ?Mr. President, with due respect, you are not the President of Nigeria. This is the Senate, and we all have equal voices here. We are elected to represent our people, and you cannot continue to act in a way that stifles this legislative body,? Dickson said. Akpabio responded, ?I have no intention of overriding anyone?s opinion. My duty is to maintain order and ensure decorum in this chamber.? What happened in the closed session was only for the Distinguished.

?ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

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