Rauf Aregbesola, former Minister of Interior, says Nigerians have the opportunity in 2027 to prevent what he described as an assault on democracy.
Speaking in a video shared on his X page on Tuesday, Aregbesola, the national secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), made remarks about President Bola Tinubu’s popular campaign phrase, “Emi lokan”, used ahead of the 2023 elections.
Tinubu, during a campaign in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, used “Emi lokan”, a Yoruba phrase meaning “it’s my turn”, to tell his supporters that it was his turn to be Nigeria’s president.
However, in the video, Aregbesola, a former ally of Tinubu, likened “Emi lokan” to despotism.
“Nigerians have the opportunity today to prevent the assault on democracy,” he said.
“Despotism is a single word for “Emi lokan”.
“Despot. A man who believes that he has a divine right to administer space and time. That’s ‘Emi lokan, not ‘awa lokan’, not ‘egbe lokan’, not ‘eeyan lokan'” Aregbesola said.
“Emi… that is affirming a divine authority. A divine right to rule. If that was not well understood then, I want to believe that Nigerians now know what it really means. So, we are now having it not just being merely said rhetorically but being physically demonstrated.
“But Nigerians have the opportunity today to prevent the assault on democracy.”
However, Aregbesola, who was a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) before defecting to the ADC, was missing from the opposition party’s campaign council list released in September by Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.
Aregbesola’s omission is particularly notable given his prominent position in the party’s national leadership and his role in its grassroots mobilisation.
Bolaji Abdullahi, national publicity secretary of the ADC, told TheCable that the absence of some party leaders from the campaign council should not be interpreted as a sign of estrangement.
Abdullahi said the party’s machinery must continue to function even as the campaign organisation gets into gear.