…the Federal authorities must understand that they owe the people of Rivers State the constitutional responsibility to protect lives and property as they exercise their franchise March 19. Anything less will be unacceptable and will miss the mark at home and abroad. As a result, I counsel that the full weight of law enforcement must be brought to bear to ward off any threat to law and order.
If everything is everything, Rivers State is set for yet another round of elections March 19. However, all is not well in this oil-rich Nigerian state. As the embattled citizens head to the polls for a rerun to determine who will represent them at the state House of Assembly, Federal House of Representatives and the Senate, an alarming level of disquietude seems to have engulfed the region.
Leading up to virtually all of the last elections in the state, international and local observers had reported documented and verifiable cases of wanton violence and proven cases of large-scale rigging and accusations of bribery that marked the last exercise in the state. That is why not too few of us were underwhelmed by the bizarre verdict returned recently by the Supreme Court in favour of Governor Nyesom Wike. The Supreme Court’s reason for the decision which has since been made public was that the sacking of Wike by the lower court “was a nullity because the governor did not get a fair hearing as facts presented were not considered by the tribunal”. Oooops!
Be that as it may, the rhetoric in the state has since then assumed a frightening dimension. Firing the first salvo was Governor Wike who has literally been on a verbal rampage, daring federal authorities, including the electoral body, INEC, to a showdown “if they attempt to rig the elections.” In his garrulous style, Wike made one incendiary remark after another to a church congregation in Port Harcourt during a thanksgiving service to mark his Supreme Court victory recently – remarks that are capable of stoking the fire of violence resulting from the frustration and angst among some of the citizens of the state who are still miffed by what they perceive as a veritable miscarriage of justice by the nation’s apex court.
The Governor literally told his captive audience that the opponents of his party should prepare for a blood bath – “write their wills”, if they (Wike’s partymen) suspect any foul play with the voting and overall conduct of the elections. He was that brazen. He did not spare the presidency’s anti-corruption campaign. Hear him: “We will not support the fight against corruption,” he said. “People took our money from the state, and we wrote to the police asking them to go and make a statement. Nothing came out of it.
I am therefore of the considered opinion that federal authorities cannot tackle the security issue in Rivers State and any threat to peace with any sense of levity. Or, we will all wake up to regret it. It is that serious.
“We will not take anybody to EFCC because I know nothing will happen. We know how to fight our own way. We won’t support that war on corruption that they are doing. When the fight against corruption is one-sided, I will not support that one. If they want to fight corruption, we shall support. But if corruption is that there are those you perceive to be enemies, I will not support.”
Since those fighting words by Governor Wike, Rivers State has recorded a spate of gruesome murders beginning with the cold blooded slaying of a former state legislator, Monday Eleanya on February 11, and followed the next day by the killing of 15 people in the Omoku community of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government of the state. The latter we are told, is the product of cult and gang warfare. However, I submit that there is a nexus here.
Truth is that the bloody dynamic of Rivers State politics over time has since assumed a troubling proportion given that Rivers State still remains one of the epicenters of Niger Delta militancy, with its various communities that are dangerously littered with small and medium sized firearms ranging from AK-47 to other deadly assault weapons. Add to it the vested interest of powerful forces in the state who fund and encourage the pervading hooliganism.
I am therefore of the considered opinion that federal authorities cannot tackle the security issue in Rivers State and any threat to peace with any sense of levity. Or, we will all wake up to regret it. It is that serious.
Come March 19 and beyond, I expect to see all of Nigeria’s law enforcement bare their fangs, if Rivers State must be saved from the hands of demagogues and soldiers of fortune masquerading as leaders.
And it therefore bears saying here that there is absolutely a cautionary need for all the players in this saga to lower the ante. I am aware that Rivers State represents a high stake to the two leading parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), but more so for the country. However, my submission is that any politician in today’s Nigeria who is still willing to throw the collective interest of the country under the bus just to obtain power does not deserve the mantle of leadership.
Having said that, and as we edge closer to March 19, the Federal authorities must understand that they owe the people of Rivers State the constitutional responsibility to protect lives and property as they exercise their franchise March 19. Anything less will be unacceptable and will miss the mark at home and abroad. As a result, I counsel that the full weight of law enforcement must be brought to bear to ward off any threat to law and order.
My heart goes out to the people of Rivers State who have been forced to endure all sorts of officially-sanctioned violence in the past, leaving them with little or no recourse. The embattled people of Rivers State can ill-afford the same macabre of extra-judicial killings which was visited on them during the last general elections when citizens of the state were needlessly slaughtered while law enforcement either abetted or looked the other way. If by now, the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase has not read the ominous handwriting on the wall in Rivers State come March 19, he might as well. Nigeria as a nation can also not afford to tolerate the making of warlords in Rivers State or any part of Nigeria for that matter.
…we all must find a way to save Rivers State and her people from another round of fratricidal blood letting. And from self-destruction.
Come March 19 and beyond, I expect to see all of Nigeria’s law enforcement bare their fangs, if Rivers State must be saved from the hands of demagogues and soldiers of fortune masquerading as leaders.
Meanwhile, as the first in many of the incremental steps to ensuring peace during the elections are taken, it will advisable for law enforcement and INEC to plan a pre-election parley of all the parties where issues of concern and conflict can be mutually addressed by all those with a dog in this fight.
The bottom line is that we all must find a way to save Rivers State and her people from another round of fratricidal blood letting. And from self-destruction.