Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has warned that Nigeria is heading toward the political and institutional collapse that befell Mobutu Sese Seko’s Zaire.
He accused President Bola Tinubu of building an authoritarian structure centred on personal power rather than national interest in a statement shared with NEWSNGR on Thursday.
Dalung said Tinubu’s rise mirrors Mobutu’s strategy of cultivating a powerful cult of personality that elevates the leader above the state.
According to him, Mobutu projected himself as “the Messiah of Zaire” and “the All-Knowing Leader,” while Tinubu’s political machinery is now promoting a similar aura through the “Emilokan” doctrine, symbolic initiation practices, and the framing of the president as Nigeria’s only stabilizing force.
“Just as Mobutu dismantled institutional integrity and replaced it with worship of the supreme leader, the Emilokan culture is shrinking critical inquiry in Nigeria,” Dalung said. “We are witnessing a growing pressure to submit to one man’s political supremacy.”
He argued that Tinubu’s administration is deliberately weakening the opposition in a manner that resembles Mobutu’s tactics of coercion, bribery, and co-optation of rival parties into his ruling MPR.
Dalung claimed the unprecedented wave of defections into the APC, driven by inducements and political horse-trading, is pushing Nigeria toward one-party dominance.
“What Mobutu did to Zaire’s democracy is exactly what is happening here,” he said. “Opposition voices are being neutralized not by ideology or performance, but by financial seduction and political capture. A system with no opposition simply becomes a dictatorship.”
Dalung also drew parallels between Mobutu’s cultural reengineering- such as renaming the country and enforcing “Authenticité” – and Tinubu’s symbolic reforms, including the change of the national anthem and ongoing discussions about renaming Nigeria.
“These things are not harmless,” he warned. “They are political tools designed to rewrite national memory, distract citizens from governance failures, and stamp a regime’s identity on the nation. Mobutu did it, and Nigeria is seeing it again.”
The former minister accused Tinubu of entrenching nepotism by giving his family unusual influence in state affairs. He cited the growing public criticism of the First Lady’s alleged interference and described Seyi Tinubu’s movements with heavy state security as an “emerging parallel power centre.”
“This is the same pattern Mobutu used to elevate his children as extensions of state authority,” Dalung said. “When family becomes government, a nation is already on a slippery path.”
Dalung further claimed that corruption is now being weaponized as a political management tool, arguing that inflated contracts, opaque policy decisions and selective anti-corruption campaigns are being used to reward loyalty and punish dissent.
“In Mobutu’s Zaire, corruption was not an accident – it was a system,” he stated. “Nigeria today is adopting that same system. Corruption is becoming currency for political survival.”
He also lamented what he called “hero worship” around the president, noting that some government officials and loyalists now display exaggerated reverence during public engagements.
“When governors and ministers kneel or sit on the floor before the Emilokan chief priest, what message are we sending?” he asked. “Mobutu demanded such adoration. It is dangerous for any democracy.”
On the economy, Dalung accused the government of weaponizing hardship to weaken public resistance, saying worsening inflation, subsidy shocks, unemployment, and insecurity have turned survival into a daily battle.
“A hungry population is easier to manipulate,” he said. “Mobutu used poverty as a tool of control. Nigeria is drifting along that same trajectory.”
He added that the government’s handling of insecurity mirrors Mobutu’s style of controlled instability. According to him, selective military responses and unaddressed lapses in security operations are creating the perception of a deliberate strategy to maintain public fear.
“Mobutu allowed militia groups to thrive so he could appear indispensable,” Dalung argued. “Nigeria’s security failures today look too patterned to be accidental.”
Dalung added that unless Nigeria reverses course, it risks replaying Zaire’s tragic collapse, where institutions were hollowed out and the state existed solely to protect one man and his network.
“A nation built around one individual cannot endure,” he said. “If Nigeria continues down this path, it will become another cautionary tale – just like Zaire.”
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