Bola Tinubu, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has warned that any military incursion into politics would be a misadventure that would be resisted by Nigerians and Lagosians in particular.
Tukur Buratai, a leutenant general, and chief of Army Staff, CAS, had raised the alarm bell over attempts by politicians to influence his officers and soldiers to carry out acts against their professional calling. However, many Nigerians reacted swiftly by condemning any attempt at truncating democracy in the country. Tinubu was emphatic yesterday, at a special parliamentary session organised by the Lagos State House of Assembly to mark the state’s 50th anniversary, that Nigerians would never allow the military to rule the country again, adding that Lagos and indeed Nigeria would resist any coup attempt. “I want to lend my voice to this speculation. The news was everywhere that some people were trying to entice the military out of the barracks to stage a coup. Such move would be resisted,” he warned.
He said those who think they can scuttle the democracy for which many had died and sacrificed their lives, are surely mistaken as Nigeria has gone too far for such a thing to happen.
Tinubu noted that Lagos State, in particular “will never provide a fertile ground for coup plotters to hatch their evil ideas.”
Continuing, he said such anti-democratic forces would not find the fertile ground “to plant their seeds in Lagos. We will not buy their product. It is a bad product. In Lagos, we will definitely reject it. Lagos will resist it and move away from it.”
Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos State governor, also said military incursion into governance is antithetical to constitutional democracy.
Speculations over attempts to stage a military coup began soon after
President Muhammadu Buhari embarked on another medical vacation recently.