The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Buba Marwa, has recounted how senior figures in Nigeria’s former military establishment attempted to derail President Bola Tinubu’s 1999 bid for the governorship of Lagos.
Marwa, who was recently reappointed as the NDLEA boss governed Lagos between 1996 and 1999 under the military, said the resistance was triggered by Tinubu’s pro-democracy role in the National Democratic Coalition, which championed civil rule after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election.
He spoke on Saturday in Abuja at an event unveiling Buni Boy, the political memoir written by late journalist Niyi Ayoola-Daniels.
Marwa said although Lagosians opposed military rule, they backed his government because of the rapport he built locally, and that trust shaped his stance on democratic transition.
“Even though the head of state then, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, did not interfere in my conduct of the governorship election, the military hierarchy did,” Marwa said.
He added that attempts to subvert Tinubu’s surge were direct and deliberate.
“After seeing the then-Senator Bola Tinubu’s strong campaign and popularity, the military hierarchy instructed me to prevent him from becoming governor because of his pro-democracy activism in NADECO against the military government then,” he explained.
“But I chose to conduct a free and fair election that produced the most popular candidate as governor of Lagos State. The rest today is history.”
Marwa also tied his democratic conviction to his military background, saying the armed forces—built on diverse social bonds—instilled in him a durable belief in national cohesion.
“In the army, intermarriage and close fellowship pushed us to look past ethnic lines and stand together as one,” he said.
“Wherever I stand… whether among the Ogoni, the Bachama, the Igbo or the Idoma… I am at home.”
Tinubu’s path to Lagos leadership, Marwa said, was forged long before the 1999 election. He joined the Social Democratic Party in 1991, mobilised support for MKO Abiola, and in 1992 became a senator for Lagos West, chairing committees covering banking, finance, and appropriations.
After the election annulment of 1993, Tinubu emerged as a founding voice in the NADECO coalition, operating in exile from 1994 during the peak of the democratic restoration campaign under the late Head of State Sani Abacha.
Following Abacha’s death in 1998, Tinubu returned to Nigeria and re-entered partisan politics in the new democratic dispensation, eventually winning Lagos under the Alliance for Democracy platform.
Marwa said his choice to resist internal pressure, uphold popular mandate, and prioritise democratic legitimacy now stands as one of the defining decisions in Lagos’ political history.
