By Ifeanyi Maduako.
Bayelsa State was created from the old Rivers State in 1996. Bayelsa has only eight local government areas while Rivers has 23. However, whereas Bayelsa made noble history as the first state to produce an elected president of Nigeria from the old Eastern region, Rivers has made an ignoble history as the first state and only state where a state of emergency was declared in the entire old Eastern region.
An Igbo adage says that when brothers of the same family fight themselves to death, strangers will inherit their Commonwealth. That’s exactly what is happening in Rivers State at the moment. The recent state of emergency declared by president Tinubu which suspended both the governor and the state legislature wouldn’t have happened if both parties in the crises, particularly the lawmakers, didn’t invite it.
The 27 lawmakers may be jubilant and exultant about the current situation in the state as they seemed to have won the battle of ego, but are they truly happy that their state is the first state in 19 years where a state of emergency was declared after that of Ekiti State in 2006?
How did this whole quagmire start? The current minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, ostensibly sponsored the elections of all elective positions in the state in the last general election. He deserved gratitude for that. However, did he do that with his personal funds?
Wike started politics as a local government chairman in 1999. History has it that he was nominated and sponsored by some people, particularly Senator John Azuta Mbata. Even Wike has publicly confirmed that assertion. Since then, he has had a meteoric rise in politics up till his present position. Someone nominated him as a chief of staff, and later upgraded him as a minister in his first ministerial stint. Without the federal might of the then President Goodluck Jonathan, especially his wife, Patience Jonathan, no Jupiter or any level of political sagacity attributed to Wike would have made him a governor in 2015.
The foreground becomes imperative to let the world know that Wike didn’t make himself politically. God used people to make him what he is today. Therefore, if he has made some people as well, that shouldn’t be the reason why he should appropriate the state to himself as a personal property.
Wike, as a governor of Rivers State for eight solid years, had a free and unencumbered reign. He had no godfather of any kind or any individual or group that dictated to him.
In all this, I blame the 27 lawmakers who are beholden to him. I do not understand why adults should be tied to the apron string of a single individual to the detriment of the entire state. Wike is even a very lucky politician as he is one of the few former governors of his set who are still in active service to their father land as ministers. In fact, since 1999, Wike has never been out of political reckoning, it has been a string of political successes, from one office to another. What else does he want?
The presidency is complicit to what is happening in Rivers today. Wike is not the only former governor in the current federal executive council. The ministers of Works and Defence, David Umahi and Abubakar Badaru are Wike’s colleagues as governors. Even the minister of Budget and Economic Planning is also a former governor. In fact, the two ministers in the ministry of Defence are former governors.
On the issue of sponsorship, David Umahi brought the current governor of Ebonyi State to power just like Wike did. The same thing is applicable to the ministers of Defence are Budgets who also were instrumental in foisting their successors. Why then are their own states not boiling politically? Why are these former governors not fighting their successors?
The major blame should be heaped on the Rivers State House of Assembly lawmakers particularly the 27 lawmakers. If they had worked in harmony with the executive, the federal government wouldn’t have had the excuse to declare a state of emergency in their state. Since this fourth Republic, there is hardly any incumbent Governor who didn’t have political disagreement with his successor. However, the incumbents always triumphed because they had the state legislatures on their sides. Why the Rivers State case is peculiar baffles even Satan himself.
When the state of emergency is lifted, it’s incumbent on the lawmakers to turn a new leaf. On the part of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, one hopes that he has learned his lesson albeit a bitter one. What is the difficulty in wooing the lawmakers to your side? Even new governors that inherited already sitting legislatures prior to their elections have been able to corner these legislatures. Why are Rivers lawmakers recalcitrant? They should have posterity in mind in whatever they do. Will history or posterity be kind to them?
Maduako writes via ifeanyimaduako2017@gmail.com
