The situation in Rivers State in the last few years doesn’t lend itself to rationality or even commonsense. The bitter rivalry between leading personalities in the state has blossomed into political, ethnic and even communal feuds the wounds of which would take some time to heal.
It may be inelegant to state that Rivers over these years, is akin to a gang land enclave but the state is like no other in the land and it has been so for quite some time. It is as volatile as a tinder go. Elections are zero-sum, winner-takes all game. It has been so for some time.
It is perhaps the most buoyant corner of Nigeria with over five decades of rich crude oil mining. It boasts of a mixed race of Igbo, Kalabari and Ogoni stocks with historical enclaves known as War Houses. But the stupendous wealth occasioned by vast crude oil dollars has seen warlords replace the hitherto well-structured community War Houses.
In the last two decades, armed gangs, abductors and militants spawned in the paved streets of Port Harcourt have coalesced in the creeks and waters of the oil-rich Niger-Delta from whence they create republics of their own – abducting expatriates, disrupting flow-stations and bursting oil and gas pipes.
Mercantilist international oil companies in cahoots with weak and narrow-minded leaders have ensured that Rivers State (as epicentre) and the entire delta zone of Nigeria remains a living Golgotha. It is in the light of this grim background that one attempts a review of the state of Rivers State today.
Exactly six months ago, one had been part of the Nigerian Guild of Editors conference held in Port Harcourt. No few than 200 editors gathered in the heart of the city for about a week brainstorming over the affairs of the nation and the Guild and eventually doing a guided tour of key projects of Governor Nyesom Wike’s administration.
We were shown huge impressive projects at various levels of formation. Personally, leading editors to some of these sites across the state, the governor was quite boisterous and elated showcasing his busy sites.
And they were indeed busy and more remarkably, large work sites. He came across to me then as a man who likes his things large and even gross. Bridges cutting through creeks (I still retain images of piles and piles of pipes and iron rods littering various such site); dual-carriage roads cutting through virgin hinterland areas; an expanded and modernised multipurpose sports centre and a vast recreation park.
These are a few of the images one still remembers after a long day of touring projects. Gov. Wike and his cabinet members were happy with themselves of course; members of the Guild were impressed by what may be descried as an impressive array of work-in-progress. But I was not impressed. I had been inured by numerous such great sights and sites that ended up a farce. Of course I couldn’t bring myself to write on such exploits then. Let’s wait and see, was the self-counsel.
There was also a much strenuous effort to show that Port Harcourt was secured and safe in negation of rampant reports of violent crimes and kidnapping. We were literaly made to walk about the city-centre unchaperoned- some of us with our hearts in our mouth. But nary one of us hit his foot against a rock.
It was a tale of glory and triumph as we departed to our various destinations. Governor Rauf Aregbesola was there also and he sang the same pleasant tune about peacefulness in a land marked to be far-removed from paradise. Aregbe’s trepidations must have found succor in the silky embrace of Port Harcourt welcome and hospitality. By his admission he didn’t feel less at home and he was indeed, minded to stay overnight.
All these happened about six months ago. Who can fathom how much difference a few months can make in the life of an enclave? A most turbulent one at that. Apart from the 2015 general election which can be denoted as a blistering battle of giants, the National Assembly rerun elections last December is no doubt something of a final epiphany which nonetheless is still simmering. Accusations have welled up to counter even more accusations. There was fire and firings; there was blood and blood letting in an epic turf battle that defied method or logic. Rivers is a seething conundrum or cauldron if you like.
But sandwiched between the gladiators are Rivers people – beleaguered and hapless. Now cannon fodder, now fodder cannon. Strangers in paradise; parched in a land suffused with milk and honey. Who is minding the gap? How adequately?
The last time one checked with folks in Port Harcourt, the people seem to be happy with their ebullient, rambunctious governor. This is of course a tough call, but residents and those who know Port Harcourt attest to a visible transformation happening at a speed some of them did not expect or imagine – not from a man under a whirl storm.
It sure would be difficult for people outside Rivers State to accept that anything good would come out of Rivers State now, but the reality, one can confirm, is a pleasant surprise. Zamfara State Governor, Abdullaziz Yari, who is of a different party was awe-stricken upon a recent visit to Port Harcourt the point that he became effusive in his laudation of Wike.
There is a litany of completed projects – roads especially. Innovations have been imbued the revenue collection system and IGR has reported doubled to about N10 billion, added to Federal allocation, this is enormous cash by any measure – far more than many State earn per annum.
It is said that adversity brings out the best in us. But whether Wike is driven to work like ‘crazy’ by a chequered environment or he is in his true element, time shall tell. However, of importance is that Rivers people get their ‘deliverables’ delivered.
More important however, the man in the arena, Governor Wike, has ample opportunity to repair the State and heal her wounds. What’s to be done? Since poverty and privation remain at the root of so much strive and internecine feuds. The governor must do more by being more accountable and transparent. He must adopt an inclusive and integrated approach to the development of the State. What this means is that he must put the local councils at work and make them work furiously and accountably as possibly. The result of this will not only be most salutary to the State but to his career and legacy. Quality governance is the antidote to most of Nigeria’s problems.
Rivers State needs not be a conundrum; a perpetually boiling cauldron. Can Wike break the duck?
Fashola: The trial of ‘Power Mike’
This tag is my wife’s special badge for Babatunde Raji Fashola since he was handed three large epaulets in this administration. The immediate past (exemplary) Governor of Lagos State now heads three merged Ministries of Power, Works and Housing.
Each time power snaps when you are needing it the most, she would exclaim: Power Mike, how far?
Power supply has been at its nadir in the new year and one has never seen BRF so harried. The more he explains, the more people yell and whimper at the same time. Listening carefully to him though, it is apparent that he is on top of the situation. From BRF’s antecedent, he is not one to sleep and snore when there is a pressing issue at hand. He says many transmission projects are completed or nearing completion; he says government is working on the debt overhang bedevilling the power sector especially in the gas end of the value chain. Suffice to say that if anyone can fix Nigeria’s power sector, it’s BRF.
Those who are observant can see work going on frantically in the Works sector: not in a long time have we witnessed many highways under construction in Nigeria.
