₦airaland Forum

President Bola Tinubu
Before #EndSARS or the 2023 presidential election, many Nigerians remember Tinubu as a man who fought against military rule in the 1990s during his defiance of General Sani Abacha’s oppressive regime. But now, in 2025, Nigerians are asking, Did Tinubu fight dictators only to become one himself?

Tinubu was forced to leave Nigeria for safety after General Sani Abacha’s military takeover of power resulted in a string of arrests, detentions, harassment, and threats against his life. Undeterred, he went as far as joining NADECO abroad in exile in 1994 to continue fighting for democratic governance and the restoration of rule in the country and returned in 1998 after Abacha’s death.

Throughout his career, Tinubu positioned himself as a protector of democracy—so it seems. As governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, he clashed with then-President Olusegun Obasanjo over constitutional breaches in 2004, opposing Obasanjo’s imposition of a state of emergency in Plateau State on May 18.

The declaration by Obasanjo came after months of violent interfaith conflicts between the Muslim and Christian populations in Jos, the state capital, and the surrounding areas, which resulted in the displacement of thousands of people and the deaths of over 2,000. Chris Alli, a retired major general, was named the sole administrator for six months after Obasanjo suspended the state assembly and Plateau governor at the time, Joshua Dariye.

Tinubu denounced the action as an attack on Nigeria’s federal system, claiming that Plateau’s democratic rights were taken away without pursuing state-level remedies or dialogue.

“It is unfortunate and illegal; this has to be discouraged. It is a bad precedent. What the president of the country has done, I pray it doesn’t stand,” Tinubu was quoted as saying in 2004.

Again, in 2013, he criticised President Goodluck Jonathan for declaring a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, arguing that the decision was an “unpardonable mediocrity” that bypassed constitutional checks, warning that it risked turning the northeast into a militarised zone under federal control.

He claimed that Jonathan had “emasculated and intimidated” the governors with the declaration and that the action had sabotaged the elected officials’ and governors’ constitutional duties in the three states.

“Let all those who love this country genuinely advise the federal government not to tinker with the mandates of these governors under any guise. It is a potentially destructive path to take,” he wrote at the time.

“Hiding under some nebulous claims that border on the intractability of the security challenges posed by Boko Haram or some acclaimed traditionalists who have killed some policemen to render ineffective the constitutional powers vested in elected governors and other representatives of the people, perceived as not amenable to manipulation for the 2015 project, amounts to reducing serious issues bordering on the survival of the country to partisan politics.”

But now, as President of Nigeria, Tinubu, who ran on the promise of renewed hope, finds himself accused of the very authoritarian tendencies he once opposed.

His recent declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State, suspending an elected governor, his deputy, and all members of the state assembly, leaves many Nigerians asking what went wrong and slamming him as “Tinubu is an Abacha in Agbada.”

Tinubu is not that man you knew decades ago. From a man who fought Obasanjo against federal imperialism,he has turned to a man who removes a state gov unconstitutionally

Power they say corrupts,absolute power they say corrupts absolutely. Rivers State | Tompolo | Section 305 pic.twitter.com/x9ZBNDLXE6

— Opeyemi Marcus (@ArakunrinSugar) March 19, 2025

This thing will become the modus operandi once this man feels untouchable in a second term. He’ll trigger violence in certain states with his hatchet man and subsequently dissolve all democratic structure. Tinubu is attempting to become a dictator. https:///YDpYK3B24i
‘Demola Olarewaju (@DemolaRewaju) March 18, 2025

Tinubu is not that man you knew decades ago. From a man who fought Obasanjo against federal imperialism,he has turned to a man who removes a state gov unconstitutionally

Power they say corrupts,absolute power they say corrupts absolutely pic.twitter.com/uKlt4bfRxj Benue Voice🕊 (@Aloo_Tordue) March 19, 2025

Dictator General Amoda Sangodele Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Coup Plotter against the Government of Rivers State.

Fubara remains the Governor. Wike is the aggressor. Rivers Oil and 2027 are the interest pic.twitter.com/jMUrZwkxsJ Sen Nenadi Parody (@SenNenadParody) March 19, 2025

This is how Nigeria has degenerated under Tinubu’s watch. Tinubu has ruined Nigeria and ruined the little peace Nigeria had before his emergence.

Bola Tinubu is the most terrible dictator to ever rule over Nigeria as President. Every part of Nigeria has been plunged into… pic.twitter.com/pgV3iY9Obq
Mezie Abia (@MezieAbia) March 19, 2025

Tinubu saw an opportunity to be an authoritarian & he took it. It must have been his life long dream. And Fubara has to take the blame for this.

If you knew you were not going to honor whatever commitment you had with the devil, you should have just walked away; Honorably Ejiróghene Peters (@ejirogh3ne) March 18, 2025

"Meet General Bola Tinubu, the Nigeria coup d’etat president who dethrone an elected sitting governor because he disagree to become his slave

If Nigerians didn’t rise against him he’ll turn everyone his slaves. And ahead of us doom and anarchy." pic.twitter.com/7rs1jozWeO
Ibrahim Muhammad (@Andyibro) March 19, 2025

Tinubu has always been a tyrant, he’s not a democrat. During Nadeco days he wasn’t on ground, he escaped on exile.

MKO Abiola, Abraham Adesnaya, Anthony Enaharo, Fayemi, Dele Aleke, Dele Momodu, Femi Falana and others. Tinubu is an Abacha in Agbada. OTUNBA (@ManLikeIcey) March 18, 2025

“It is unfortunate and illegal; this has to be discouraged. It is a bad precedent. What the president of the country has done, I pray it doesn’t stand" Tinubu was quoted as saying in 2004.

Again, in 2013, he criticised President Goodluck Jonathan for declaring a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, arguing that the decision was an “unpardonable mediocrity” that bypassed constitutional checks, warning that it risked turning the northeast into a militarised zone under federal control.

Jonathan had “emasculated and intimidated” the governors with the declaration and that the action had sabotaged the elected officials’ and governors’ constitutional duties in the three states.

“Let all those who love this country genuinely advise the federal government not to tinker with the mandates of these governors under any guise. It is a potentially destructive path to take,” he wrote at the time.

"When tyranny & oppression come to the land, it will be in the guise of fighting crime". James Madison (U.S President 1809-1817)

-"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." -Desmond Tutu.

-"You can also commit injustice by doing nothing." -Marcus Aurelius.

-"....Those who gave up their liberty for their safety doesnt deserves neither their liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

-....The oppressed man loves and respects only one man, his oppressor, and he has only one dream in life, which is to join the class of oppressors, in order to fulfil his own fantasies.("Pedagogy of the Oppressed"- Paulo Freire, Brazilian Author).

-"No evil deed will go unpunished. Any evil done by man to man will be redressed.If not now then later. If not by man then by God. For the victory of evil over good can only be temporary' - Late Dele Giwa

Factcheck0001:
u Igbos in your mischievous ways looked away when fubara was misbehaving only to crawl out from your hole when it's time to pay after him don price..

Racoon:
Face the bloody hypocrisy of your demigod and leave a tribe out of your warped prismatic worldview. "Emancipation from mental slavery, none but us could free our minds" Bob Robert Nesta Marley. Words on marble

omenka:
History appears never to teach your kind any lesson because you're too dumb to learn..

omenka:
Ediots like you were amongst those who started clamouring for a military takeover after your patently deceitful candidate lost the election. Today, just ONE STATE appears to have been used to test your conscience, and just as expected of a brigade of lying conmen you guys are, y'all failed the test woefully.

You sit in your echo chambers of alternate reality with your mental emptiness and conjure up all manner of idiotic ideas about the fate of the country. History appears never to teach your kind any lesson because you're too dumb to learn.

You had better crawled around some quiet corner and lick your wounds quietly, you perpetual loser.

MightySparrow:
Tinubu invited both Fubara and Wike to Aso Rock to settle the rift. He couldn't. The state is suffering in the hands of gladiators.


The citizens also don't make sense. They should have neutralized these gladiators: house of assembly members, Wike, Fubara etc or close families of any of them and prevent future occurrences.

Rivers will never know peace with these vultures and their cronies still in power.