Since Nyesom Wike handed over the Rivers State governorship mantle to Siminalaiye Fubara about two years ago, the state has continued to occupy the airwaves and the front pages of newspapers, albeit for the wrong reasons. Two actors in the melodrama that has resulted in the loss of lives and property, remotely and directly, are Gov. Fubara and former governor Wike.
Worst of all, the cause of the political strife between the duo has remained a riddle to watchers. What is clear, however, is that there is a struggle for power between Gov. Fubara and his predecessor, Wike, who is based in Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and there seems no end to that fight.
Comments such as “Fubara must obey Wike,” and “agreement is agreement” give a flicker of the truth of the matter and whoever hears such comments, naturally comes to a conclusion that there must have been a pact between the duo before the controversial 2023 general elections that brought Fubara to power. Apparently, that agreement is yet to be fulfilled and Wike, who claimed to have helped Fubara into that chair is bitter.
The fact that the contents of this pact can’t be made open to the public signifies that it is sinister in intents and purposes. Had the unfulfilled agreement been in the interest of the masses, Wike would not be so disturbed as to disrupt the governance of a state he had left behind for Abuja. Fubara is now in charge and the buck stops on his table. If he does well among his people, it would be to his credit and not to Wike.
There is, however, a triangulation in the entire affair which entangles President Bola Tinubu who failed in his attempt to resolve the political impasse, although in a manner that appeared undemocratic. In his interventions, the president has never hidden his bias as the conditions he presents for the resolution of the matter had always been against the interest of Gov. Fubara, perhaps the one that holds the people’s heart in this matter. The President, a specialist in the power game, appears to regard the governor as a recalcitrant school prefect that has refused to do what the school authorities want him to do. That is why it became easy for him to wake up one morning and decide to remove the peevish school boy standing on the way for him and his cabal, by declaring a state of emergency on Rivers.
What the president did was not actually a declaration of a state of emergency but a creation of one. Ordinarily, a justified state of emergency would bring relative peace in the system once it is established. The Olusegun Obasanjo and the Goodluck Jonathan states-of-emergency in some northern and middle belt states during their administrations had far reaching effects. In this case, since President Tinubu’s pronouncement more than one month ago, there have been escalating strife and demonstrations among the people of Rivers, giving an impression that it was rather more fuel than water to the burning fire. Several rural women have thronged the streets to demand the return of suspended Gov. Fubara and the removal of the appointed Sole Administrator Ibok Ekwe Ibas, a retired naval officer who is seen as an interloper in the course of democracy. There have been litigations which have reportedly ended in favour of the Fubara group in its first round.
Two protest groups have been on the streets of Port Harcourt since the state of emergency was created, one for and another against the president’s declaration. An undiscerning mind would conclude that it was balanced since there were people defending the president’s move. Such considerations are irrelevant and do not fly in the face of the constitution. However, should the feelings of the masses count, the state-of-emergency declaration ought to be subjected to a referendum which is the only democratic mode of resolving knotty political issues. This would give a clear view of the popular opinion.
The demonstrations arose because of the obduracy of the president and his team in understanding the common tenets of democracy that abhors any form of impunity, as well as the constitutional provisions of a state of emergency which they gave skewed interpretations to be able to achieve an aim. Indeed, it is incongruous to righteousness and good conscience that an elected president can stretch its hands to a state and remove a democratically elected governor by fiat.
Curiously, the opposing demonstrators have distinct characters. While the women group affirmative to the state of emergency appeared well-fed and radiant in their immaculate white attires, the opposition demonstrators were rustic rural women, deliberately topless in their dressing, angry and poverty-stricken. The state of emergency women had unfettered access to the major Aba Road in Port Harcourt, spoke like well-tutored actors in a classic Nollywood movie and seemed to be enjoying the glare of television cameras. But the differing group appeared real, their actions and demand for restoration of democratic structures spontaneous and genuine.
Now, the sole administrator who was appointed to reestablish peace in the state appears to be stoking the raging fire further by his pronouncements tending towards overstepping his bounds. He pounced on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), demanding back money paid to them by the Fubara administration because they changed their meeting venue from Port Harcourt to Enugu. Was it not the federal government, in whose hands the security of the entire nation is concentrated, that gave the impression that Rivers State was unsafe? How could the administrator be angry that the learned gentlemen avoided a state under a state-of-emergency? Or, was he telling the nation that the declaration was a ruse, a state-capture in disguise? Ibas should be the one telling the lawyers not to come to Rivers State yet.
Lawyers would say that nothing legal comes out of illegality. In the eyes of the law, Ibas occupies an illegitimate position and so has no locus standi to demand money back from the NBA. The only person qualified to reclaim the money is Fubara, or perhaps the House of Assembly members.
Ibas sacked appointees of a democratically elected governor and made his own appointments, some of which have been traced to be allies of one of the actors in the macabre power game. What signals did that send? Remember, he was there to keep peace for six months.
Two years into his administration, shall we conveniently see the president as worthy of a Nobel peace prize in view of his actions and inactions? Shall we attempt to hail him for his economic policies that saw many conglomerates winding up their businesses in the country; or his education policies that have unsettled upcoming youths? Even his financial policies created a state of emergency for our dear naira. His appointment patterns can hardly place him among the nationalists and the federalists, showing disequilibrium (state of emergency) in the federal character policy. I think the president’s strongest award so far is in the art of creating states of emergency.
Dr. Odu can be reached through [email protected] or SMS 07016722929
