TINUBU’S THEATER OF THE ABSURD IN RIVERS STATE.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 18th day proclamation and illegal removal of the governor of Rivers State is nothing more than arbitrary and gross misuse of presidential powers. It is a stinging blow on our fragile democracy and a dangerous signal to the increasing wave of unconstitutionality amid unrelenting trepidation and high handedness targeted against the people more especially citizens of Rivers state who elected Simi Fubara as their governor.
It is one decision that has spiked unease, mass discontent and dissent of unimaginable proportion with the tendency to abound uncontrollable social conflagration and chaos. But why did the President choose the chequerred part to social anomie instead of the easy part to peace and stability in Rivers State to resolve the logjam?
President Bola Tinubu’s tribulation against governor Simi Fubara while protecting Nyesom Wike, the unrepentant parishioner in the crisis is an open display of bias, gross insensitivity, unfairness and evidently unjust. His unconscionable one sidedness from the very beginning of the crisis is unpresidential and also grieviously unprecedented. Punishing Fubara and leaving Wike amounts to irresponsible misuse of presidential power or more adriotly abuse of power.
Now that the president by his own volition has brought the ant infested firewood into the living room, he must be ready to feast with the lizards. Pipelines have started blowing up with consequential drop in oil and gas revenues, restiveness has returned to the volatile Niger Delta region, the three dangerous witches of the Shakespearean Macbeth era are reconvenning in the creeks of the Niger Delta with war drums amid threats of carnage, bloodletting and war.
All right thinking individuals will attest to the fact that the presidency under Ahmed Tinubu has thrown caution to the wind. The big question remains, why the orchestration of flash points and wave of agent provocatuers all around the country? Is causing trouble everywhere a deliberate 2027 political stratagem?
Every Tom, Dick and Harry in this country knew ab initio the whiff of intentionality on the part of Nyesom Wike to cause trouble and break the backbone of governance in Rivers State. It is a well known orchestration on the part of Wike that if he can’t have it, then it should be shredded.
Wike playing political games as the FCT Minister within the precinct and protection of the presidential Villa openly took charge of all the episodes leading to the breakdown of law and order in his state. He openly bragged about it and few days ago even decreed impeachment proceedings against a sitting governor with immunity while the President just watched and waited to play his own part in a script already written to take a state and its resources by force. This is an open call for anarchy in Rivers State and those who enabled and orchestrated it should have themselves to blame.
We are witnessing brazen acts of impunity by rulers who have turned themselves to tin gods and demi gods and who’s winner-takes-all attitudes has become a sore thumb to our hard fought democracy. Nyesom Wike boasting and pulling down democratic institutions in his state unconstitutionally while probably nominating a sole administrator of his choice to be taking instructions from him is an insult to this nation and also an assault to decency. This man has murdered sleep in Rivers State and he will sleep no more.
It is important to remind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that a declaration of state of emergency is not a constitutional provision for removal of a governor of a state. Rather, emergency declarations implies that more security be beefed up in the state while the governor is given time to restore normalcy in his state. The people of Rivers state will surely resist this illegal and illegitimate contraption and arrest of democracy in their state.
The president should be wary of the advice of the unscrupulous elements, unpatriotic and the wicked counselors parading themselves as his aides and friends but who are known troublemakers who do not mean well for his administration. We are therefore calling on Mr President to restore democratic governance back in Rivers State to fend off a constitutional crises and immediately sack his Minister of the FCT, Barrister Nyesom Wike and commence his immediate prosecution for treason or be ready for the anarchy that will descend on that state.
Dr. Engr Odo Ijere
