The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mohamed Marwa, has recounted how he went against military orders to sabotage the 1999 Lagos State governorship election of Bola Tinubu.
According to him, the military hierarchy was concerned about Tinubu’s popularity and pro-democracy activism.
Marwa, who was then the military governor of Lagos State, stated that he refused to manipulate the election because the Yoruba people showed him great love and supported his administration, despite their hostility to the federal government at the time.
The NDLEA Chairman, according to a statement by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, spoke on Saturday during the public presentation of “Buni Boy,” a book by the late legal luminary Niyi Ayoola-Daniels, in Abuja.
The book chronicles themes of justice, duty, and national unity, values that Marwa said shaped his own life and career.
Marwa said the support he received from Lagos encouraged him to conduct a free and fair election that brought his successor to office.
“Even though the Head of State then, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, did not interfere in my conduct of the election, the military hierarchy tried to influence the outcome. They were concerned about the popularity and strong campaign of then-Senator Bola Tinubu, who had been a vocal pro-democracy activist with NADECO against the military government.
They instructed me to prevent him from becoming governor. I, however, chose to conduct a free and fair election, which produced the most popular candidate as governor of Lagos State. The rest, as they say, is history,” Marwa was quoted as saying.
He said the experience reinforced his belief that the country’s diversity and democratic ideals must be preserved.
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗔𝘀 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽!
