What will be your answer to a question to a post-graduate Political Science (POS 501) class in a Nigerian university thus: “As an observer, student or practitioner of the type of politics practiced in Nigeria, what, in your sincere opinion, is the root cause as well as the immediate cause of the current political development in Rivers State? We are referring here to the long drawn political quarrels between the former governor and current FCT minister Nyesom Wike and his political godson Siminalayi Fubara which eventually lead to the sacking of Governor Fubara and all the elected political officers in Rivers State with the declaration of a state of emergency by President Ahmed Bola Tinubu in that unfortunate state? Without veering to a discussion focused on tribalism, political partisanship or giving an escapist answer, give a precise answer that will help a consultant to recommend a measure to act as an antidote to this plague in Nigerian politics.”
My answer to this academic question will run as follows: “As a humble and sincere observer of Nigerian politics, I think that the root cause and the immediate cause of the unfortunate situation in Rivers State is traceable to one and only one thing: the corrupt politics of Nigeria known and practiced all over the country whereby a governor of a state who is about to exit his mandatory two-term tries to become a political godfather to a godson. The outgoing governor knows that he ought to act according to the constitution of the party that brought him to power. But he does not.
He takes it upon himself to produce the ‘’right person’’ who will succeed him. And this right person is someone he himself knows is unintelligent, corrupt, greedy and above all, a man of dubious and pliable character, whom he foolishly thinks will not betray him but will do everything possible including against his will and interest to cover his tracks once he lives office.
Such a person, he also thinks, will be someone he is sure of who will give him vital monetary infusion once he is out of office and begins to lack money to live the type of lavish lifestyle he got used to when he was transformed as a poor man into a rich man by his election into an executive office.
The thinking of this governor gentleman is that since political fortune has smiled on him a little, it is his time and duty to himself to create a political dynasty, with him as the founder of the dynasty to whom successors must owe allegiance forever and ever.
When he begins this move to anoint a godson or ‘’Baba Kekere’’ and implant him, everybody in the state will know what he is trying to do but no one will have the guts to raise an eyebrow. We all know that in Nigeria, immediately a round of election contested by all the registered political parties is over and winners are produced, all the parties collapse into the winning party at the state level. What every ‘’political factor’’ will be doing when election is near is to talk admirably of the ‘’Governor’s candidate’’ and how it is clear that he will surely win whether anybody likes it or not.
No one in the original party that brought the governor to office or in the enlarged one that has gobbled political fair-weather entities that have migrated from all the parities to this mega ‘olympotic one, can challenge him because in Nigerian politics, if you do everything to win and become the governor, you the governor will become the party. There can no longer be a distinction between you and ‘’your party.’’ You become the Atlas of that Mount Olympus.
The scenario we have painted here is exactly what happened in the case of Wike and Fubara in the 2023 governorship election in Rivers State. It bears repetition that similar or exact cases too numerous to recount here have taken place in nearly all the states of the federation since the return of democracy in our country in 1999.
We have been warned not to comment on this question with any mention of tribalism but the presence of this malignant tumour in our country’s politics is too real to be ignored. But in order for me not to lose unnecessary marks for venturing into an area we have been forbidden not to go into, I want to just ask Nigerians, especially the Ijaws, a few questions with specific reference to the Rivers State imbroglio: in the 2023 election the thinking about which of the ethnic groups in Rivers should produce the man who will succeed Wike was between the Ogonis and the Ijaws. Was the choice of Fubara, an Ijaw who eventually succeeded Wike democratically arrived at? If not, why has Fubara’s travail become a personal ethnic slap on the Ijaws?
Another question: it is clear that after the decision to zero in on the choice of Fubara, an agreement was reached between him and his godfather. Did Fubara’s ethnic brethren read that agreement and was the agreement in the interest of Rivers State or of Nigeria?
And yet another question: There is a saying that there must be honesty among thieves. Are both parties honest to each other in the agreement that has brought so much pains to the ordinary people of Rivers State and Nigeria?
From my analysis and the small queries I have raised for all concerned to provide answers to here, it can be seen that the root of the tree that has grown to become a giant that so threatens Nigeria today is corruption that has become a part and parcel of Nigerian politics today. If it is uprooted by not just the politicians but patriotic citizens of the country, the unfortunate thing that happened in Rivers State a few day ago and in other states since 1999 will not happen again’’
Wike cannot be said to be a saint and Fubara an ungrateful sinner, or one man cannot be said to be the one that held Rivers to ransom while the other one is presented as a cool-headed gentleman who is harassed by a loquacious trouble maker.
