I had already finished my essay for this week, sat back to rest and reread it, when the ugly news came that President Bola Tinubu had declared a state of emergency over Rivers State. I looked at my television set which has become a great companion in these days of hardship, and right there our old man president was reading his speech on the declaration, suspending elected public officials including the state Governor Simi Fubara, his Deputy whose offense is that she is a Deputy Governor and the misguided State House of Assembly.
President Tinubu appointed a retired military man resting in God knows where as the Sole Administrator, reminiscent of a country at war. President Tinubu told us stories as reasons for the declaration, Fubara has refused to play ball, he defied all entreaties for peace, and now he’s got damning security reports that if the situation was left, what would happen could leave the country to write reel in pains and losses.
No need wasting time before addressing the drama and subsequent «dropping of bad cards» as late music icon, Bob Marley, would tell us in one of his hit songs. The first point we take from the development is no one is certain between Tinubu and Nyesom Wike who the actual President of Nigeria is. If Tinubu is incharge in the real sense of doing so, even though it is true we know the president subscribes to the ‘might is right’ kind of politics, his association with democratic forces in the past has tended to regulate his conduct and actions in that regard.
He is more subtle, cunning and would deploy the other weapons to realize his goals. We must concede that the method has so far gotten him very far not without some ruffles though. He has been made to pass through the blazing furnaces severally and he has always managed to escape. He virtually passed through the fire to become the president of the country in 2023.
It would seem the challenge of big office and the obvious complexities that must go with it, are beginning to impose limits on limited capacity. The things we see bedeviling our politics and democratic practices in these times are all fallouts of what has been said earlier. No man gives what he does not have. And when that is the situation, resorting to the untoward becomes an easy choice. Tinubu in his heart of heart talking about the subconscious desire to be seen as a democrat and not only that the best president our country has so far had but the forces hitting him appear very potent and formidable.
His party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is beginning to convolute. It is a matter of time before the people will begin to see the spillovers. It will happen. The North is now on their usual game of keeping any president of Southern extraction perpetually on the edge. Nasir el-Rufai former Kaduna State governor is the new face of this group who believe they are the “deciders”. We have been told if anyone would win and keep the presidential seat he must be in control of Lagos, Kano and Rivers State.
Lagos is ****. Keep away harassment, tribal calls and electoral malfeasance by electoral officials, Lagos isn’t “safe” for the president. In fact Lagos fell to Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party who ran a very credible race in 2023. The leading countries of the West appear to be gearing up for a fight with him, especially America under President Donald Trump. The heat is too much.
Now anyone can understand why the President is tensed up and has gone looking for where help could be procured before the dark coloured sheep is lost to dark night. This is where the relevance of Wike begins and ends. If Wike is charging all over the place like a bull in the Chinese shop, it is because as the very smart guy he is, he reads the time very well and knows the President is at his most vulnerable season in his political career. If not for this reason President Tinubu would pay Wike in his coins knowing he once called him godfather of Lagos whose kind can never be tolerated in Rivers State.
Tinubu knows that and much more but he needs to be bullish to have a breakthrough in the coming months. Wike needs Rivers for reasons that are obvious. That state has become the father Christmas of strong men playing at the topmost level of power in the country. Fubara is the stumbling block that must be cleared at all costs. So operation destabilize Rivers is part of a greater plan to stamp authority in areas considered natural home bases. Tinubu will never consider a state of emergency in Kano or any core northern state for that matter. He knows the consequences.
No Supreme Court will take adverse steps in the Kano emirship case, they know those people aren’t errand boys like they perceive those from the South East or South South. The Rivers case was carefully planned out. When the President invited the cream of the Niger Delta for a supposed peace meeting he didn’t mean it. It was deception, a masked prelude to the declaration of state of emergency. The language of his address was more like an insult, it was like a father talking down on his recalcitrant children.
That wasn›t democratic and it fell far beyond the protocols of power management. He told the governor elected by the people,”go and obey the Supreme Court verdict and you have a few days to or…” Wike was talking out of order and the House of Assembly under his influence behaving like a club in medieval times, the President kept quiet. Wike organized a thanksgiving in the traditional territory of his “enemy.” A leader that wants peace would have called him to order but not our President.
Not everyone in Fubara’s shoes would have allowed Wike to step into the state but here he was riding in the mood of one coming to take the surrender document. We are looking for security men to cover the country and fight against terrorists, recruited and sent across every corner of the country but here one individual packed them full in the manner of going to war. How much was spent to fuel those cars and pay daily allowances, the President of Nigeria didn’t care to ask or ascertain.
At the community level, security agents that should protect citizens began to teargas and shoot sporadically into the air. Where else can such happen except in a Banana Republic. Gradually the uncultured ones in our midst were beginning to take our very cherished country to the periphery if not directly into the circle of a banana Republic. Wike after his thanksgiving service told the country we have scored two against zero for Fubara, more are coming.
The witch cried last night and the baby died early the next day. Plain truth is that the Rivers crisis couldn’t have come up if ours were to be politics of principles and development, unfortunately it is not. It is a struggle for public property and money. Selfish ambition. Nothing more. We have heard Wike tell us once I conclude my tenure I will leave, I won’t stay to control the governor. Now we hear,”I put him and I will remove him.” Where is the place of the people, the real sovereignty?
This tells something about our electoral system. If we had credible electoral process many challenges we face won›t be. If we had great judges at points that matter, things won›t be going awry the way we see them happen so frequently in our country. Why courts haven›t placed a permanent stamp against decamping with offices won on another party›s platform still rankles.
The President hasn›t done well on this Rivers State matter. He allowed partisanship and political advantage to becloud his sense of judgement and obligation to the Nigerian State. Like Nero of the Roman Empire he has kindled a fire thinking it will burn others and keep him free. This thinking is far off and contrary to the lessons of history. It may turn round to also claim him. How I wish he knew. The plain truth is men who play God fall terribly.