Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, former Adviser on National Assembly Matters to ex-President Shehu Shagari, has urged the Federal Government to intervene in the political crisis rocking Rivers state, stating that if urgent steps are not taken, it may snowball into the kind of political crisis that greeted the Western Region in 1965.
Yakasai who spoke in Kano Friday also warned that the spate of killings, accusations and counter-accusations that characterized the Rivers state election rerun does not speak well of the nation’s democracy.
According to him, imposition of emergency rule in Rivers state for whatsoever reason will not augur well in the present situation, adding that there was need for the presidency to discourage individuals from using security operatives to intimidate the masses or impose their will on the electorate.
According to him, way back in 1965, “it was a similar trend in the West that people in power at the centre at that time tried to use the power of incumbency to deny the Action Group victory in the West that gradually transcended into killing and mayhem by political opponents. They resorted to killing one another by pouring acid on their political opponents in order to kill or disfigure them.”
He also traced the 1966 coup to the political crises in the West at that time and warned against a replay of such occurrence, pointing out that, “1966 coup was a single act that destroyed political stability of Nigeria and sow the seed of successive political crises which denied the nation the ability to match forward.”
He recalled that after the 2015 general election in which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost power at the centre and gained control of some states in the South-South and South-East, some PDP leaders alleged plot by the All Progressive Congress (APC)-controlled Federal Government to seize control of the areas where PDP managed to win.
“After the last election and the PDP gained control of the states in that region, allegations were made that APC leaders were scheming to use election petition tribunal to deny them their victory. And true to the PDP accusation, most of the election results in those states won by the party were nullified by the election tribunals. It was only the action of the Supreme Court that reversed the situation and save the peace in that area in particular and the nation at large,” he added.
According to him, “it was alleged that a scheme was hatched to use election tribunal by the APC to take control of the state’s PDP managed to control power. True to that allegation, the election tribunal cancelled gubernatorial elections in more than half of the state’s PDP managed to gain control.”
“After last year’s general elections where PDP lost power, the party managed to win control of some strategic states. A lot of them are in the South-South, this area is where we have the largest deposit of crude oil in our country and it is where large chunk of foreign investment is concentrated,” he added.
He said there was need for the Independent Electoral Commission to ensure that when next it will conduct the rerun election in the remaining area in Rivers state, electoral official that should be sent to conduct the rerun election must be people with no partisan inclination. If that is done, there will not be any need of sending thousands of security forces to maintain peace during the election.
“A true democracy is when the minority will have their say and the majority will have their way. So, what I want to say is that a democracy without a strong opposition does not work out. I will like to appeal to those in control of the federal authority not to allow over ambitious politicians to manipulate them to achieve their political objectives,” he added.
He also reminded the Federal Government of the impending consequences should states such as Rivers and Bayelsa would be allowed to delve into political crisis, noting that, “with the huge presence of foreign investors in that state, particularly in the oil and gas industry, it will be of huge consequence for Nigeria if crisis erupts from those areas because the foreign investors will not be happy. Their property and installations will not be safe and it will not be a good omen for our economy, which is already in trouble.”
Yakasai also stated that with the battle against Boko Haram yet to be won, given another opportunity for groups like the Niger-Delta militants whose operation almost crippled the economy during the regime of late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua will spell doom for the country.
He added that, “although considerable success has been recorded in the military campaign against Book Haram tactless killings; to provoke a new insurgency in the Niger-Delta area in the name of imposing unpopular leadership in Rivers state or any place in that area will be unrewarding.”
