Recently the political space has been further heated by the narrative from the Tinubu camp that some people are ‘plotting’ to foist an interim government on the country. The subtext is that the ‘plotters’ are using the call for interim government as a veneer to stop Bola Tinubu, who was declared President elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), from being inaugurated as the President on 29 May 2023. The Department of State Service (DSS) lent legitimacy to the alleged plot by announcing (without naming names) that it had indeed uncovered a secret plan by some people to foist an interim government on the country through mass protests.

While I do not personally believe in interim government or the idea of military rule, I will argue that those who are peacefully canvassing for any of these options, have not broken any laws of the land and as such should not be criminalized. In fact, I believe that such calls for interim government or even for military rule as an alternative to what we currently practice are mere expressions of the frustrations with our democracy rather than an attempt to target any person. Besides, not only does the country’s constitution not recognize an interim government, it is almost impossible for anyone to foist an interim government on the country – even through the doctrine of necessity – without an active buy-in of President Buhari who has repeatedly insisted that he would hand over power to Tinubu on 29 May 2023 and had already set up a Transition Committee for that. In this sense, the narrative that some groups are plotting to install an interim government seems to be a red herring.

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