No, Mr. Tinunubu, You’re Not a Democrat

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

President of Nigeria

On Thursday, 12th March, 2026, during an interfaith breaking of fasting of Ramadan with the bigwigs of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and members of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), the Nigerian media quoted Mr. Bola Tinubu, the president of Nigeria describing himself as a “die-hard democrat.”

Immediately, I checked the meaning of a democrat and discovered that Mr. Tinubu was just blustering, and he possesses none of the qualities of a democrat. So, the first casualty in Mr. Tinubu’s claim of being “a die-hard democrat” is the truth. There’s nothing that is what Tinubu says it is, not his age, name, education, or occupation. Nobody believes Bola Tinubu. The only persons who believe him are his innumerable appointees and cronies feeding fat on the state.

Hear Mr. Tinubu: “There’s no doubt about that. I’m a die-hard democrat, and I follow the belief wholeheartedly, committedly, to a united Nigeria. That principle, that philosophy will live and die with me.”

Folks, a democrat is someone who believes in democracy (rule by the majority) founded on free and fair elections. A democrat is a constitutionalist. He believes in the rule of law. He treats everyone equally.

It seems Tinubu and his supporters have forgotten the fact that he got less than 10% of the votes cast by 26.71% of the 93 million registered Nigerian voters in the 2023 presidential election. To be precise, only 8,794,726 Nigerians voted for Mr. Tinubu in that election. On the other hand, 14,582,740 Nigerians voted for the opposition candidates, meaning they voted against Tinubu. But the way Tinubu is throwing his weight around, you’d think that he won a landslide mandate. A “die-hard democrat” who polled less than nine million votes in a presidential election of a country of more than 200 million people needs to take it easy.

One recalls that in 2015, the Nigerian media pooh-poohed former President Muhammadu Buhari’s singular effort at publicly declaring his assets as not far reaching. For the records, President Umar Yar’adua also declared his assets in 2007. But since 2023, Mr. Tinubu has refused to publicly declare his own assets, to even match what Buhari did and it’s radio silence from the same media. How can a “die-hard democrat” hide the size of his assets from his compatriots even if the media fails to hold him accountable?

But by far, Mr. Tinubu’s greatest anti-democratic streak has manifested itself in the way he’s actively bludgeoning the opposition. Recall that our previous democratic leaders in the First Republic had been forthright about the realities of governing a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like Nigeria. Therefore, they established formal political party alliances to hold and administer the country. Thus, between 1959 and 1964, during the First Republic, the conservative Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) led by Sir Ahmadu Bello went into coalition with the National Council of Nigeria and the Camerouns led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and together they formed the central government with Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as the Prime Minister. Again in 1964, the NPC and a faction of the Action Group called the Nigerian National Democratic Party led by Samuel Ladoke Akintola as well as the Mid-Western Democratic Front and Niger Delta Congress formed the Nigerian National Alliance.

Remember also that in the Second Republic, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe entered into an alliance. The NPN had won the presidential election but lacked the majority in the national assembly to pass legislation. Thus, the two political parties formed an accord that enabled NPP stalwarts to take cabinet positions in the Alhaji Shehu Shagari administration while the NPN took control of the national assembly.

There was also the Progressive Peoples Alliance, which was formed in 1982 after the collapse of the NPN-NPP accord. The alliance was made up of the UPN, NPP and factions of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party and Peoples Redemption Party and was meant to challenge the NPN in the 1983 general elections.

Also, in 2007, President Umar Musa Yar’adua was candid enough to admit that the election he won was flawed. Thus, he invited the main opposition political parties to join him in a government of national unity (GNU). The All Peoples Party (APP) accepted the invitation and took some cabinet positions.

Contrariwise, in your tenure, Mr. Tinubu, we see you bypassing the political parties. Instead, you’ve this obsession to drag governors, legislators and individual politicians into the All Progressives Congress (APC) using massive resources and strong-arm tactics. No wonder the fortunes of the opposition political parties are diminishing fast. Every reputable opposition party - Labour Party, the PDP, etc. - has factionalised and is facing one existential crisis or the other. And Nigerians are asking you, Mr. Tinubu: how can political parties be in this hopeless, splintering state in the time of a president who has declared himself a “die hard democrat”? 

You removed subsidy on fuel, electricity, telecommunications services, etc., and asked us to make sacrifices for the country. You assured us things would improve. But before things could improve, we saw you buy yourself an extremely costly and fuel consuming car called Cadillac, an Airbus plane and a yacht. And so we ask: Mr. Tinubu, which sacrifice are you making for the country and its people?

You promised us good roads. Instead of rehabilitating our good old roads, we see you rush to award contracts for the construction of the roads you never promised. Few Nigerians are aware that the contract for the construction of the over-priced multi-billion dollar Calabar-Lagos highway is awarded to HighTech, which belongs to Mr. Gilbert Chagoury, someone you described as your business partner. According to you, this highway is going to be built with borrowed money as this country doesn’t even have the means to do it. Any wonder the highway originates from Chagoury’s Eko Atlantic? The conditions around the Sokoto-Badagry highway contract are worse. The Sokoto - Badagry highway has no completion period or price tag. It’s a blank cheque for Chagoury, Mr. Tinubu’s partner, to smile to the bank as he wishes.  

At every campaign stop in 2023, you promised the country regular electricity supply but now we see that what you actually mean is regular solar power supply for the presidential villa at Aso Rock, not the homes of the common people. Imagine what might have been gained in terms of electricity supply if Mr. Tinubu had deployed half of the billions he’s committing to his whimsical and self-interested Lagos-Calabar highway.

You promised to stop borrowing but you borrowed 21 billion US dollars, 15 billion Japanese Yen and two billion Euro, among other unaccounted loans and Nigerians haven’t seen the benefits of these colossal loans and they’re asking, where’s all this money kept? Ealier on, this administration had borrowed $3 billion from the AfriExim bank to "stabilise the Naira." Our "die-hard democrat" president is not done with borrowing. The Senate has just approved for him - a few hours after the request - to draw another $6 billion loan from Abu Dhabi.

You promised Nigerians two thousand tractors, but on the day you “unveiled” them, you introduced your Chicago university “classmate,” a young man from Ukraine whose age belies your claim. Well, Nigerian farmers are still waiting to receive the tractors to till the land as another rainy season approaches. You promised Nigerians plenty of agbado, but you delivered extreme hunger.

No, Mr. Tinubu. You’re not a democrat. You’re mortally fearful of other politicians and political parties preparing to contest elections against you and the APC, and you’re doing everything to frustrate them. The former Attorney General, Abubakar Malami; the former Minister of Labour, Chief Chris Ngige and lately, the former governor of Kaduna, your biggest political hostage, are all being hounded precisely because they’ve opened campaigns against you and the APC.

Between last year and now, the activities of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) have been sabotaged many times by thugs suspected to be sympathetic to the ruling party. The ADC and its supporters have been attacked in Cross River, Edo, Kaduna, Kebbi, Lagos, Rivers states, etc. On Saturday, 14th March, 2026, in Bakassi local government area of Cross River state, an ADC gathering was sacked by thugs. On Friday, 20th March, 2026, in Eleme local government area in river state, an event organized by the Young Women Forum was equally attacked by hoodlums. The aim is clear: frustrate the opposition - in a democracy led by a “die-hard democrat.” If this is how these thugs behave before the elections and the security forces are “helpless,’ then it’s left to imagination if this “die-hard democrat” president can sincerely facilitate free and fair elections!

Before our eyes, anti-democratic elements have been enabled to go to court and get it to ban and disqualify opposition parties from contesting the next elections because our "die-hard democrat" wants to be the sole presidential candidate. You’re absolutely frightened by the consequences of what might be a free and fair election in 2027. This is unprecedented, and whatever decision the court arrives at regarding this prayer to ban the opposition parties will have a far-reaching effect on what remains of our democracy.

Another close look at the composition of your jumbo cabinet will reveal that you’re not a democrat. What’s democratic about appointing four ministers from Ogun state? What’s democratic about having the duo of Wale Edun and Taiwo Oyedele (the tax fanatic) as ministers of finance? What’s democratic about handing over the key sectors of finance, petroleum and security to appointees from one ethnic group in a diverse country like Nigeria? Whether on a religious basis or the North-South divide, these appointments are chauvinistic, unwarranted and undemocratic.

What’s democratic about refusing to implement national budgets? Your administration failed to implement the 2024 and 2025 appropriation acts and now claims to be running them concurrently with that of 2026. Certainly, you’re the first and only “die-hard democrat” to have refused to implement national budgets duly passed by the national assembly. Even die-hard dictators like General Ibrahim Babangida and General Sani Abacha were able to implement national budgets.

To be clear, our “die-hard democrat” president has embarked on polygonal schemes to “win’ the 2027 election: amass a gargantuan war chest, buy up or coerce the opposition governors (32 as at the last count) and politicians to support his re-election; arrest and detain those resolutely opposed to him, appoint a malleable and religiously biased chairman for the so-called Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), position your gang in the anti-corruption, judicial and security sectors of the country, etc. It looks like every state institution has been readied to aid and abet the continuation of the Tinubu presidency beyond 2027. As for Joash Amupitan, his discredited “Christian genocide” theory has thrown him up as a manifestly biased and bigoted fellow purposely appointed to look after the interests of a particular religion and political persuasion. Yesterday, Wednesday, April 1, like the usual April fool joke, Nigerians witnessed INEC chairman's treacherous but dangerous act of misinterpreting a court judgement which led him to "de-list" the names of Brig David Mark (rtd) and Ogbeni Ra'uf Aregbesola as chairman and secretary, respectively, of the ADC, in deference to his employers. Professor of Law, Joash Amupitan, are you loyal to APC/Tinubu or Nigeria 

Mr. “die-hard democrat” president, your foreign policy is a disaster. Your overbearing attitude has since led to the exit of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from the ECOWAS. In September 2023, you capriciously recalled Nigeria’s ambassadors from foreign missions, and now you have a problem replacing them. Recent agreements you’ve signed with Britain, France, Israel and the USA all portray you as self-seeking and a lackey of foreign interests as the contents of these arrangements are hidden and confer no tangible benefits on the average Nigerian. Since your presidency began in May 2023, no worthwhile foreign leader has visited Nigeria. Nobody wants to be seen physically standing with you in Abuja, for obvious reasons. The best you can get are invitations to visit these leaders in their capitals and we watch as you gleefully hop into your tokunbo airbus plane and go and meet them, after all, your job has overwhelmed you! In the past, your itinerary had taken you from Abuja to the Middle East to Japan and from there to Brazil and back to Nigeria with nothing to show for it.

No, Mr. Tinubu. You’re not a democrat. The prefix demo means common people. Yours is no government of the common people. The common people in Nigeria are catching hell as they’ve been doing since May 2023, and you’re not worried. You don’t even address press conferences or sit down for media interviews so that the common man will see and hear you champion your own policies. It’s on record that your predecessor allowed himself to be interviewed by Al-Jazeera, the BBC and CNN. 

Likewise, nobody trusts you, Mr. Tinubu, when you say you want a united Nigeria, because you really don’t. Back in 1997, you had said in an interview published in the Sunday, 13th April edition of Thisday newspaper that you didn’t believe in a united Nigeria. Today, your appointments and allocation of public resources preponderantly in favour of a particular section of the country loudly prove that truly, you don’t believe in one Nigeria.

Your presidency is ethnicised. Your government communication is based on announcements and press releases manufactured by a dozen presidential advisers and special assistants. Your government is dominated by the rich and the powerful, charlatans, cowards and cronies, and other unproductive persons. Your administration is irredeemably corrupt, greedy, inefficient, insincere and unjust. You’re unable to account for the proceeds from the removal of fuel subsidy. Contracts awarded by your administration are inflated and non-transparent. What productivity or value have the likes of Atiku Bagudu and Bello Matawalle or Ibrahim Geidam and Shuaibu Abubakar Audu added to governance?

The insecurity in the country has hopelessly escalated and is beyond the mental capacity of Mr. Tinubu to handle. People are kidnapped in their homes, slaughtered in the mosques and bombed in the markets. The amount of ransom paid to kidnappers rivals the foreign investment Mr. Tinubu has attracted the country. Before our eyes, Kwara and Kogi and Niger states have been sucked into the gale of terrorism. The commander-in-chief keeps on issuing threats to terrorists and giving meaningless and ineffectual instructions to his troops.

The hope for stable electricity has vanished. Despite Mr. Tinubu’s “if I don’t give you regular electricity, don’t vote for me again” bluster captured on video, there’s no regular power supply. Yet, Mr. Tinubu is digging in for a second term, willy-nilly. The silly scheme of placing consumers on “Band A” in order to reduce consumption has failed to guarantee the minimum 20-hour supply touted by the schemers. Meanwhile, the ineffectual minister of power has resigned from the job and gone to contest the gubernatorial election in his home state.

Speaking further at the Ramadan breakfast event, Mr. Tinubu was quoted as saying “we’re all democrats and we all subscribed to this democracy voluntarily, willingly and we’ve been at it selflessly in the last 26 years.”

Really? Are we all democrats? Are we selfless? You’re denying other political parties and politicians the space to establish structures and canvass support and you say you a democrat? You’re awarding multi-billion dollar ports and roads contracts to your partner, and you say you’re selfless?

“Argue it," added Mr. Tinubu. “Debate it intellectually, interrogate each other, honestly and sincerely but we’re committed to the same thing, peace and stability of the country to it….yes, there must be peace, stability and commitment to rule of law.”

What’s intellectual about the insulting press releases daily churned out by Otunba Bayo Onanuga? The thugs unleashing violence on opposition political events, are they promoting peace and stability? Are they invisible? Sunday Igboho is already threatening that he will not allow Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to campaign in Yoruba land and that he has the support of the Olubadan. Is that the path to peace and stability? Who’s Igboho speaking for? Who’s he working for?

Can the president honestly say he’s committed to the rule of law when citizens, Muslims (under a Muslim/Muslim presidency), are arrested and detained for a long time without trial? Where’s the rule of law when rather than defend its charges against them in court, the state decides to imprison accused persons all through this Ramadan even after they had voluntarily submitted themselves for questioning? Where’s the rule of law when other Nigerians facing mind-boggling corruption cases are seen roaming about and even attending APC meetings?

No, Mr. Tinubu, you’re not a democrat, let alone a diehard one. You cannot inflict such a curriculum of pain on Nigerians moment you bask in opulence and call yourself a democrat. You cannot remove fuel subsidy on the spur of a moment, mismanage the economy, push more than 140 million Nigerians into unspeakable poverty, and call yourself a democrat. In fact, your belief that power is to be grabbed and ran away with presupposes that you’re not a democrat. I mean, that’s what General Sani Abacha did. He took power and attempted to run away with it, and we saw where it landed him. A democrat wins power in a free and fair election and ensures the effective representation of his constituents without fear or favour. A democrat doesn’t run with power. That sounds like an autocrat. A democrat actually surrenders power when he loses election or acceptability or legitimacy!

So, everybody be careful. We’ve descended into agbero democracy in which the presidency and the legislature have apparently merged into one. The judiciary is, well, almost out of depth and breath. Social services have collapsed. There’s neither accountability nor security. Godfathers are encouraged to take control of their states. Beware folks, Tinubu doesn’t intend to defend or allow us to enjoy our freedoms of association, assembly, expression, or choice. He’s building and leading a despotic country. Where’s the 2024 budget? What happened to the 2025 budget? Who forged and gazetted the tax laws? 

No. Mr. Tinubu is not a democrat. He’s erecting his political xanadu on treacherous pillars, and its assured collapse will have tragic consequences for all of us. Zounds!!!