Spiritualists are likely to view the show of shame in Rivers State differently. Let’s follow that line of thought to ask one pertinent question: Who, truly, won the Rivers State governorship seat at the polls in 2023? If we are able to convincingly answer this question, perhaps, we might come to terms with the tragedy of that state.
We were witnesses to the sham that went on in Rivers State during the 2023 general elections, when youth corps members conducting the elections were tortured, hounded and bloodied by security men for refusing to alter figures obtained from the polls in favour of the powerful but infamous persons. We saw clerics lament the hijack of ballot boxes which ought to have been opened and counted on the spot and results taken in the full glare of voters.
It’s no longer a hidden fact that heavy wads of dollars changed hands and made many electoral officers rewrite figures during the elections. Those who had remnants of personal conscience could not but compromise for fear of getting harmed should they refuse to cooperate. Figures changed on their way to the collation centres. The Yakubu Mahmood team had one purpose; deliver the anointed candidates by all means.
If the 1993 elections conducted by the late Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, are today being viewed as the fairest and freest, the 2023 elections supervised by Prof Mahmood Yakubu is extremely on the converse.
The games they played were so glaring, so painful, so irritating that the BBC took the trouble to investigate the elections in Rivers. They came up with shocking reports which can be accessed on https://www.bbc.com/news/65163713. The report disclosed a series of discrepancies, even in Obio/Akpor where they reported that “the official result for Tinubu was 80,239 votes, but we counted just 17,293 votes from polling station tallies, and that “The count for Mr Obi was announced officially as just 3,829 votes, but the BBC counted 74,033 votes for him on the tally sheets.”
All that add up, with the boastful claim by former governor Nyesom Wike that he brought the incumbent Siminalayi Fubara to power, to confirm to right thinking members of the society that a gang had conspired to usurp the Rivers State governorship seat, as well as a majority of the seats in the state Assembly. Therefore, Fubara might after all not have been the true winner at the polls.
But the hapless Rivers people had since let go, accepting Fubara who had gone through the whole legal process up to the Supreme Court to retain the seat, although aided by Wike. They had settled down to love him until the bubble burst. The pawns on the political chessboard, the 27 legislators, were about to carry out an instruction to remove Fubara from office by impeachment and the embattled governor had to fight for his political life.
Now that the lid is off the bucket of rubbish, with the Wike group making statements such as “Fubara must obey Wike” and “agreement is agreement” one wonders what agreement the politicians would enter into with the people’s wealth and resources. And the people prayed fervently that they were not witnessing in real life, a replay of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
Since the imbroglio began, Nigerians, nay the world, have stood perplexed, watching the unending show of shame which is clearly a struggle between a godfather and his political son. For some reasons, the problem has stopped short of going the way of Anambra State under Dr. Chris Ngige, where a frustrated godfather leaked the secrets of their rigging act, just to remove the son, Ngige.
However, in the case in point, things may have gone beyond that scenario, but, certainly have not gone beyond the reach of the gods who dish out punishment for misdeeds in mysterious ways. Some call it nemesis, others say it is retributive justice.
Appearing to be the lesser evil as well as the weaker of the two, Fubara has to himself the sympathy of a generality of the people who might desire to have the strong man demystified.
The Supreme Court judgement that brought back the double-speaking legislators who had been out of the chambers over their pronouncement of defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a later denial, added fuel to the inferno. The judgement, by some standards, portrayed the bias of the apex court.
Right after the judgement, a judicial panel had asked a question as to why the supreme court was in a hurry to comment or judge the case, knowing that a case of whether they were still members or not was still subsisting in another court. From indications, the 27 legislators were back to finish the impeachment of the governor before the gavel could fall on the other case that is pending.
Of course, Shylock must take the pound of flesh from a Fubara that has no Portia to defend him and insist that there should be no drop of blood.
As it stands, any of the parties could manipulate the courts and get favourable judgements, but neither Wike nor Fubara is free from the celestial verdict, as the saying goes, he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.
Again, we could travel back in time, between January 4 and 5, 1967, nearly 60 years ago, to Ghana, straight to the town called Aburi, where General Yakubu Gowon and General Emeka Ojukwu, two protagonists of the Nigeria-Biafra theatre, sat in front of General J.A. Ankrah to resolve the Nigerian issue. Out of that meeting came the famous Aburi Accord, signed, sealed, but basically not delivered to the Nigerian people. The proceedings are well documented on en.m.wikipedia.org.
Had the principles of that accord been implemented to the letter, Nigeria would have been truly different, devoid of controversial states of emergency, contentious court judgements and perhaps, would have been better than we find it today. Sad enough, Gowon reneged on those principles, after listening to crafty colonial Britain that spared no thoughts of progress for Nigeria. And even more sadly, the people of Rivers fell for his trojan horse of statism, of purported freedom from an imaginary oppressor, and backed his genocidal war against an emergent Biafra born out of angst over unjustifiable killings of Igbos, a major ethic group in the country. Does it not look like the Niger Deltans, while running away from an imaginary slave master, strayed into the hands of the real one?
Not Gowon, not Britain, not even a so-called Federal Government was interested in the welfare of the Niger Delta inhabitants. They were focussed on the region’s oil wealth. Ever since, the actions of the central government had been governed by the motive of oil and whatever or whoever stands between them and the sweet crude must be crushed.
Indeed, time and unfolding events have revealed the real oppressors of the Niger Delta, if only some would admit the truth. They have also revealed the sad reality of the saying that he who rides on the back of a tiger usually ends up in the tiger’s mouth.
Dr. Odu can be reached through dirimrich2018@gmail.com or SMS 07016722929.