Atedo Peterside, smart banker and illustrious son of Rivers, is angry. Why?
“So, a man leaves Cross River State, comes to Rivers in an inflamed situation to help achieve stability and healing,” he said of the Rivers Sole Administrator, Admiral Ibok Ete Ibas (rtd) on Arise TV, “but he might be inadvertently adding fuel to the fire.”
How? Again, hear from the horse’s mouth: “We know ourselves in Rivers State. You make appointments from the people you’ve chosen. I can tell you, with due respect to the people he appointed, in my personal opinion, they are riff-raffs.”
But can appointees be “riff-raffs” just because Peterside disagreed with the way the Sole Administrator — don’t forget: from Cross River! — appointed them? Or because they have specific flaws, which make them “riff-raffs”?
It would appear they are “riff-raffs” because Peterside did not like the way they were picked. An opinion, in a democracy, is no crime. Hardball just wished Peterside would be humble enough that his opinion can’t hold true for others.
Though he didn’t dismiss Ibas as a “riff-raff” as his Rivers appointees, it was clear Peterside thinks so little of Ibas’s appointment as Sole Administrator.
To him, Ibas “emerged in an irregular manner”. Then, the “executive” — read the Presidency– “were misguided”. Then, the legislature — including members from Rivers — used the “rascality” of “voice vote to confirm his appointment.” The case is now sub-judice. But who knows what Peterside’s judgment would be, when it’s decided?
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Still, wait a minute! Hardball, thought Peterside was a banker of the purest crust! When did he morph into a jurist, making sweeping pronouncements in such legal matters?
It’s all blather and bluster, of course, from an angry and irate son of Rivers! Fair enough. Even then, isn’t Peterside’s anger coming a tad too late?
When Siminilayi Fubara, the suspended governor, was pulling down the Rivers House of Assembly, did Peterside raise his voice? When he was spending unappropriated money for two years running? When he seized legislators’ salaries — were the victims too from Cross River? And when the so-called Rivers elders were talking from both sides of the mouth? Of course, Peterside’s own contribution was a loud quiet!
This latter-day Rivers nationalism, hinged on hollow, clannish condescension, is all so unnecessary. Ibas is not the enemy here. It’s Rivers people themselves — or more appropriately, the elite — that hee-hawed, instead reining in the wild breed in their public space.
The enemy is right inside, not some stranger from Cross River. Let Rivers subdue own demons, instead of blaming others. Atedo, grumble to the right quarters.
