Nigeria, one just one year has slipped from a democracy to an elected tyranny. What are the signs of a tyrant?
You only need to look into history to capture the signs of a tyrant. From Stalin to Hitler, from Abacha to Buhari, there is a consistent thread. Tyrants don’t respect the law, tyrants clamp down on free speech and opposition, tyrants operate under the cover of secrecy and deceit, and there are several other signs of a depot.
Here are 7 obvious signs of a tyrant compiled by Facebook user, Tam. St. Lawrence.
1. HE DOESN’T USE LAW
They don’t use law. They use law for their interests. They don’t go by law, inter
national, federal, local, nothing! They go by whatever is expedient to protect the interests that are at stake.
2. HE SILENCES OPPOSITION
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
3. HE LIES & DECEIVES
One of the consistent signs of a tyrant is his ease at telling lies. Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.
They create ministry of propaganda to ensure the people get just only what they want them to know. They hoard information at will as long as it suits their purpose.
4. PASSING BUCK
Tyrants flow with a strong sense of self righteousness and never take responsibility for any wrong in order to keep up with its deceits. They blame just anybody or anything for their faults no what how obvious it is.
5. HE ONLY APPOINTS PEOPLE OF HIS CORE VALUES
Tyrants, out of innate fear of their wicked intention and that of losing power, surrounds himself with people of his group. People that cannot challenge him or people that has revered respect for them.
The desire for power and the fear of losing it is the bedrock of tyranny.
6. HE KEEPS THE PEOPLE POOR
It is also in the interests of a tyrant to keep his people poor, so that they may not be able to afford the cost of protecting themselves by arms and be so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for rebellion
7. HAVING THEIR KILLER GROUP
All tyrants have their killer group to spearhead their interest.
REMEMBER
Martin Luther King, Jnr said, “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal”.
