by Mohammed Bello Doka
30 March, 2026
Nigerians must confront a chilling reality: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s grip on power is tightening with ruthless efficiency, and the whispers of a third term are not speculation—they are the opening salvo of a calculated agenda. Despite commanding 31 out of 36 state governors under the All Progressives Congress (APC) as of March 15, 2026, an overwhelming 73 senators out of 109 in the Senate, and 231 members out of 360 in the House of Representatives, Tinubu is not content with democratic dominance. He is hell-bent on annihilating every vestige of opposition to forge an iron-fisted one-party rule over Nigeria.
I have always said it, and the facts now scream it louder than ever: no one builds a one-party state and then voluntarily adheres to term limits. The machinery is already in motion. As early as January 2024—less than eight months into his first term—posters bearing Tinubu’s image for a second term flooded the streets of Abuja, turning the Airport Expressway and key arteries into premature campaign billboards. That was not enthusiasm; it was a declaration of intent. Now, in March 2026, the same playbook escalates: traditional rulers, activists, and influencers are openly floating constitutional amendments for a third term, all while the 2027 presidential election remains 10 months away on January 16, 2027.
On March 29, 2026, the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, publicly predicted that “many Nigerians may call for a constitutional review to enable Tinubu to serve more than two terms,” citing the president’s “decisive leadership” in economic reforms. This followed HRH Emir Muhammad Sanusi II’s stark warning on March 5, 2026: “If Bola Tinubu gets reelected, God forbid, he will seek a third term, and the National Assembly will approve it because he has them in his pocket.” Actor Ganiu Nafiu (Alapini Osa) on March 11 demanded a third term to “fix Nigeria.” Yoruba activist Sunday Igboho, in mid-March videos, vowed to push “Tinubu for second term… beyond 2027… we will still beg him to continue.” Even critic VeryDarkMan, days before the Oluwo’s statement, accused Tinubu of preparing for 2030. These are not isolated voices—they are symptoms of a system being rigged in plain sight.
Must every Yoruba man who gets into power seek a third term? The question is uncomfortable but unavoidable. From Obasanjo’s failed 2007 elongation bid to the current frenzy, the pattern raises troubling ethnic undertones in a multi-ethnic federation already fractured by suspicion. Yet the real threat transcends ethnicity. It is the methodical destruction of opposition under the guise of “reforms.”
History offers at least five unambiguous global warnings of exactly how one-party dominance or overwhelming majorities are weaponized to entrench dictatorship—with catastrophic consequences for nations and their people.
First, Russia under Vladimir Putin. United Russia secured a supermajority in the Duma through controlled elections and defections. In 2020, Putin engineered a constitutional amendment resetting term limits, allowing him to rule until 2036. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned, imprisoned, and died in custody. The result? A rubber-stamp parliament, suppressed dissent, and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that isolated Russia economically and killed hundreds of thousands.
Second, China under Xi Jinping. The Chinese Communist Party already held total control, but in 2018 Xi abolished presidential term limits via the National People’s Congress. Dissent is crushed through surveillance and re-education camps. The Uyghur genocide, the erasure of Hong Kong’s freedoms, and a slowing economy under centralized diktat have left millions in fear while projecting global aggression.
Third, Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His AKP party built an overwhelming parliamentary majority, then pushed a 2017 referendum converting Turkey to an executive presidency. After a failed 2016 coup, Erdogan purged over 100,000 judges, teachers, and military officers, jailing journalists and opponents. The lira collapsed, inflation soared above 80 percent, and Turkey slid from NATO ally to authoritarian outlier.
Fourth, Venezuela under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) captured the National Assembly through populist majorities and court-packing. Term limits were ignored via judicial fiat. The result: hyperinflation peaking at 1,000,000 percent in 2018, over seven million refugees fleeing starvation, and a once-richest oil nation reduced to bread lines and blackouts.
Fifth, Uganda under Yoweri Museveni. After seizing power in 1986, Museveni removed term limits in 2005 via a parliament he controlled through patronage and intimidation. Now in his fifth decade, he has jailed opponents, rigged elections, and presided over corruption scandals that have kept Uganda’s poverty rate stubbornly high despite donor billions.
These are not distant footnotes. They are blueprints. In each case, an elected leader with initial majorities methodically eliminated checks and balances, then rewrote the rules for perpetual rule. The consequences were never abstract: economic ruin, mass emigration, human rights horrors, and international isolation.
The dangers of such dictatorships disguised as democracies extend beyond ordinary citizens. They devour the very political elites who helped build them. In Turkey, Erdogan’s former allies in the AKP and military were among the first arrested in post-coup purges. In Russia, oligarchs who once bankrolled Putin found themselves exiled or imprisoned when they fell out of favor. In Venezuela, early Chavista insiders were sidelined or exiled as Maduro consolidated power. The lesson is brutal and consistent: once term limits fall, loyalty becomes disposable. Yesterday’s kingmakers become tomorrow’s political corpses.
Here in Nigeria, the script is unfolding with clinical precision. Tinubu is already positioned as the sole APC presidential candidate for 2027. Almost every returning APC Governor in the 31 controlled states will run unopposed. Senators and House members are already jostling for the same “anointing” under the APC umbrella, trading independence for survival. If this one-party coronation materializes, what is the future of democracy? A hollow ritual where elections become formalities, opposition parties are starved of funding and media, and the National Assembly exists only to amend the constitution on demand.
The January 2027 election is not distant—it is tomorrow in political time. Yet the third-term agenda cannot even wait for it. This is not governance; it is conquest. Nigerians who value liberty—regardless of party, region, or faith—must reject this path now. The whispers are here. The posters appeared too soon. The constitutional amendment talk is not hypothetical. If we remain silent, we will wake up in a Nigeria where “democracy” is a word on paper and power is a life sentence.
The time to worry is not after 2027. It is today—March 30, 2026. Because once the iron grip closes completely, reopening it will demand a price no nation should ever pay.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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