Nigeria, Aug. 17 -- Tunisia has been popularly hailed as the only successful political transition to emerge from the wider Arab Spring movement. The culmination of this transition was the election of Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi in 2014.

Essebsi's victory would make history. He became the first president to be elected in a free and fair election in the nation's history.

After strongman Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali stepped down in 2011, Essebsi's tenure first as prime minister and later as president oversaw a strengthening of democratic institutions. This was hugely significant given that the region had a poor democratic record.

Following Essebsi's death in July this year, politics has played out as observers had expected. His constitutional su...