Off-season elections: Tinubu’s test of loyalty to his political mentor’s ideology

The names Bola Tinubu and MKO Abiola are synonymous with democracy in Nigeria. It’s common knowledge that President Bola Tinubu played a pivotal role in the course of pursuing to reclaim his master’s electoral victory through every known institution of repute. President Tinubu’s political formative stages were characterized by repression and intimidation by the military junta of General Sani Abacha.

MKO Abiola of the SDP won the presidential election conducted in 1993 in a landslide cutting across the six geo-political zones of the country. The victory in that election was short-lived by the orders and directives of the military junta of General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) which annulled the victory based on what he said was for national unity.

It was after the nullification that President Tinubu then Senator-elect of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) swung into action by forming a movement known as NADECO. This body is made up of a group of activists, who are democratically inclined.

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President Bola Tinubu’s loyalty to his political mentor’s ideology even at death, as encapsulated in the NADECO norms shall be put to the test in the upcoming off-season governorship elections in the three states of Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi respectively. This election is going to feature different political parties which include APC, PDP, SDP, ADC, NNPP, LP and others.

President Tinubu would be keenly watched by Nigerians, Africans and the world on whether he is going to support the kind of brigandage elections that had previously taken place in these three states under the government of President Buhari or stick to the credible election mantra of his NADECO group. The process of the election exercise and the outcome will be a test of President Tinubu’s democratic credentials.

Abdullahi Ocheja wrote from Abuja