By the time the on-going spectacles of solidarity marches and high street choreographies in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital finally dies down –which seems unlikely anytime soon – one hopes that the good people of the Treasure Base of the Nation, as indeed the rest of Nigerians – will still retain the presence of mind to reflect on the humongous of the cost of the crisis that they have been sucked into by actors whose understanding of political brinksmanship borders on insanity.
By this I do not refer to the cost merely in naira and kobo terms but also breaches in communal relations, resurgence of ethnic animosities and, as you might imagine, the brazen disregard, if not outright contempt for of the constitution and the constitutional order by those ever so eager to mouth the need for its protection.
To declare the play by the political actors as anything short of an all-out war is to understate the enormity of the looming tragedy. While the guns may not have begun booming as yet – at least at this point – the way the two sides of the divide are massed in their dug out trenches can only be a foretaste of the looming battle – the equivalent of political war of Armageddon.
Clearly, if the attempted arson on the very symbol of representative democracy – the parliament – was meant to be a teaser, the blatantly crude and monstrously riotous play by the various shades of actors in the divide are certainly pointers to the dangers lurking on the horizon. Last week’s despoliation of the parliament by the raging bulldozers of an endangered and apparently frightened governor can only but signpost that the grave matter has finally reached a point of no return. Never mind that it was orchestrated by a fazed executive, the act reaches beyond mere symbolism; it is bad for the law and process, the orderly society and of course democracy. It smacks of desperation.
Yes, the joke is on the Rivers State governor – Amaopusenibo Siminalayi “Sim” Joseph Fubara. His metamorphosis is all by now, complete. The one-time meek, genuflecting executive has – as it is – fully come to his own. He is not only now described by his hordes of fawning supporters as the lordly Mayor of the Garden City state, he now adorns the full armour of the Creek Lord primed to vanquish every foe. Talk of one moment providing invaluable lesson in human transformation; the world now sees the man in his true essence. And what an unsightly image to behold!
Last week, the governor became at once the structural engineer, the site demolitionist and the governor all rolled into one – not so much in defence of democracy or its institutions, but in the morbid game of survival and regime preservation.
Surely, Nigerians are entitled to believe what version that suits them on the on-going ruckus between political godson and godfather in Rivers State. The one says the governor has no right to destroy the structure that brought him into office; the other insists he did no wrong and so could not be seen to live under the shadow of anyone –in carrying out the business of the good people of Rivers State.
Thanks to conflict entrepreneurs, the conflict has also been framed as a war of liberation, in which the governor’s crime is asserting his ‘independence’ from the godfather, who, permanently condemned to crossing the line of political decency by his high-handedness and overbearing nature, needed to be tamed for the good people of Rivers to breathe!
Again, thanks to those adept at weaving the single-story narrative, Fubara, has been riding the crest, egged on, by those who insist he could do no wrong since Wike is involved!
My worry is not the game at play – and there are many strands to it: his so-called war with Wike, his now estranged godfather, the unending drama on the streets and Government House precincts by political jobbers and countless others with axes to grind; the self-serving rallies supposedly staged to strengthen the hands of the governor; the now legendary opportunism that would see the governor present his first budget to a motley assembly of four persons in a 32-member parliament, and the chief of them all – the unequal contest between, for now, an all-conquering governor and an effectively decimated parliament.
Hopefully, all of them would be straightened out one way or the other – either by the judicial process or the political process in the fullness of time. For far beyond the aberration is the extent to which some Nigerians would be willing to tolerate, if not encourage a bigger evil, in the bid to extirpate a lesser one – just because it is expedient to do so.
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As I see it, it would seem that the man, Fubara, will not hesitate to pull down the roofs, if it came to that!
By this I mean his ongoing cynical assault on the constitution and process. As has become obvious now: those who trained him certainly trained him well in that old school of political subterfuge of which Godwin Obaseki, the Edo State governor is now its acclaimed poster-boy!
Remember, in Godwin Obaseki’s Edo, 14 elected lawmakers in a parliament of 24 members were shut out by their colleagues – never to return – all because the governor wanted the leadership of his own choosing as against that of his one-time godfather. That was in June 2019.
Of course, we had, before then, other aberrations such as governors banishing their lawmakers to Abuja because they couldn’t bear the thought of anyone but them calling the shots in the arena they are expected to dominate! Even the all-knowing Olusegun Obasanjo, who has, at various times, morphed from being president, statesman, letter writer to being lately, a ‘governance expert’ couldn’t resist, during his time, suborning state minority lawmakers to do his bidding from the cosy comfort of his Abuja Villa!
Today, courtesy of an all-powerful governor, a four-member parliament now sits and passes bills – including the all-important Appropriation Act and this in less than 96 hours, and that would seem just fine! And if that seems a mockery of the process; how about the equally mocking ex parte order gleefully handed the minority lawmakers by the court to take over a parliament at the expense of their majority members? And what do we say of the governor seizing upon the crime scene – the partially burnt parliamentary edifice – to order its summary demolition in what smacks of a final act of self-preservation?
Strange isn’t it that those who are now condemning the godfather are yet to see the damage being done to their state by their governor?
Yes – Nyesom Wike may in fact be guilty as hell of the charges against him. His methods may have been weird, eccentric and sometimes crude; what no one has yet suggested is a embrace of raw outlawry. Sadly, one wishes that this could be said of Governor Sim Fubara after barely seven months of being in the saddle.
