A FEW days ago, Felix Morka, the spokesman of Nigeria’s ruling party, crossed the lines without realising it. He was reminded by the politically wounded Obi foot soldiers, when he accused the opposition chieftain, Mr Peter Obi, of crossing the line in his criticisms of the Tinubu Regime, warning him to be ready for what would come his way.
Trust the Obidients, ever dutiful to their principal as Mr Morka is dutiful to his, ever vigilant lest something nasty befall their Obi, sent over 400 text messages graphically threatening to deal with Mr Morka, for overstepping his bounds and crossing the lines.
Rather than crucifying Obi to draw sympathy for a regime knocked for its anti-people policies, the engagements produced unintended public relations effects: the hunter became the prey, the accuser ended up as the accused, forced to eat his words. Fearful of the Obidients, Mr Morka denied ever threatening Mr Obi.
The stage is set for an inevitable confrontation between the government crossing the people’s lines through its accommodation of the IMF/WB policies, and the electorate pushed below the poverty line by the precepts. Whether like Ghanaians or the Senegalese, the people would triumph over the ruling party or not would depend on how the opposition remains selflessly focused on the engagements.
How did Mr Obi offend Felix Morka, to have attracted his authoritarian outburst? Recently, Peter Obi took the Tinubu regime to the cleaners for its economic policies, highlighting that his businesses are being grounded by the regime. Therefore, to Felix Morka, the regime’s policies are lines, and any attack on them constitutes crossing them, unacceptable political transgressions to the party and government attracting appropriate sanctions.
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The Morka threats remind one of the authoritarian state (colonial and post-colonial) with barricades beyond which Nigerians weren’t allowed to cross. In the 1940s, Abeokuta Women crossed the lines by embarking on revolts against a colonial tax policy. The Enugu Colliery workers also crossed the lines of the colonial state, and on 18th November 1949, the colonial version of the Morka package was dished out to them: 21 strikers were shot to death.
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During the Nigerian Civil War, the pacifist Wole Soyinka went beyond the barricades of the military authorities, facilitating his prolonged incarceration. General Obasanjo’s attempt to test the will of the Abacha junta, got him an unexpected package. Whilst Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a leading pro-democracy figure, having crossed the ways of the military had to flee into exile to avoid the type of their Morka treatment.
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Since the 18th century American and French revolutions, there has been a global drift against authoritarianism. Reinforced by the global democratic crusades of the last century, national political spaces softened, enabling opposition leaders to knock the policies of governments without a serious backlash. Regretfully, the APC-led regime is uncomfortable with the long-established democratic praxis, unleashing an overzealous party apparatchik to erect authoritarian barriers against its government.
Political providence has thrusted an onerous responsibility on Messrs Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, Nigeria’s opposition leaders, not to abandon their 15 million supporters in the cold, transforming them into the new conscience of the nation.
Without Atikuents to defend him, Mr Abubakar has been more critical of the policies of the Tinubu regime than any opposition leader, now and then taking it to the cleaners for overstepping its bounds in the Calabar-Lagos Coastal highway; NNPC/OVH Deal; NNPCL’s $3.3 billion Crude Oil Prepayment Deal, etc., echoing General Buhari’s and President Tinubu’s political acrobatics to deliver Nigerians from the rule of a “Pharaonic” party in 2015.
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Mr Morka hasn’t realised that in a democracy, it isn’t only the government that has uncrossable lines. Opposed to his lines are the people’s lines beyond which no regime should cross without a democratic sanction.
When democracy degenerates to a level where citizens are threatened because they criticise government policies, the gestapo of authoritarian regimes come to mind. Any democratic tin gods thinking that they could wilfully and anyhow cross the people’s lines should be ready for what would democratically come their ways in 2027.
Since May 2023, PBAT and a few top political subordinates have been crossing the people’s lines, unmindful of the consequences. Former President Jonathan wilfully crossed them, and was democratically shoved away in 2015. The immediate past Ghanaian President Akuffo Addo also overstepped his bounds, crossed the people’s lines by implementing all the therapies of the IMF/WB, paid a hefty political price: recently voted out of power. The authoritarian outburst of Mr Morka is to water down the backlash of the crossings in 2027.
When Morka lines can’t even rein in powerful out-of-control functionaries of the regime, it becomes herculean to effectively erect authoritarian barriers to political opposition. An APC senator crossed the lines of his party (the APC), got the Morka package; but he is yet to be effectively gagged into unconditional submission to the state.
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Since neither the pungent criticisms of the PDP governments, nor leading public protests against them, attracted any retributive package from the state in 2015, then how could knocking the APC government for its draconian policies by opposition politicians, none of whom led any public protests, be grounds for asking them to be ready for what would come their way?
The stage is set for an inevitable confrontation between the government crossing the people’s lines through its accommodation of the IMF/WB policies, and the electorate pushed below the poverty line by the precepts. Whether like Ghanaians or the Senegalese, the people would triumph over the ruling party or not would depend on how the opposition remains selflessly focused on the engagements.
When democracy degenerates to a level where citizens are threatened because they criticise government policies, the gestapo of authoritarian regimes come to mind. Any democratic tin gods thinking that they could wilfully and anyhow cross the people’s lines should be ready for what would democratically come their ways in 2027.
Jahun, a commentator on public affairs, writes from Dutse, Jigawa State Capital. He can be reached via email@ aminuhabibu58@gmail.com.
