Rivers Rerun And Do-Or-Die Politics

By Carl Umegboro
The treasure base of the nation, Rivers will on December 10 host the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in respect of rerun elections into the State and National Assemblies  which were earlier quashed by the court. Major contenders are the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).   As the election day approaches, tension, threats of brimstone; of bury alive, of slay and dry, of cultists’ annihilations and others have continued to gather momentum.

Rotimi Amaechi and Nyesom Wike 

Luckily, Ondo State governorship election held on Saturday,  November 26 has set a positive precedent that elections can actually be conducted in a civilized manner instead of opting up for the bizarre. The electorate, candidates and the electoral officials proved to the world that Nigeria is no longer a nascent democracy. The upcoming election in Rivers must not witness further bloodshed or grotesquely odd remarks. Violence, forcefulness or belligerence is never a characteristic of democracy as peddled by some folks in some quarters. Succinctly, it is intellectual pursuit of power, and definably, the act of selecting the representatives of the people in a free and fair manner purposely for good governance.

Today, the two arrowheads: Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi and the State Governor, Nyesom Wike are believably akin to then Iraq and Iran, and the grassroots parochially fight for them crossing boundaries and cutting down barriers, but unknown to them, by the indisputable feature of our politics, may be disappointed to witness the two leaders of their respective political parties eventually in one party dining together in the nearest future. All it may take is just a closed-door meeting in a five star hotel in the United Kingdom or United States of America with a few other bigwigs. At that point, those that grossly bullied opponents, beheaded fellow indigenes, killed political opponents, kidnapped or committed other atrocities of intimidation will be left alone. The deeds by then had been done and cannot be reversed. Or, do you assume Amaechi and Wike will remain in opposing political parties for life? Absolutely not. Rivers people should emulate the people of Ondo State and maintain amity and decorum. Whoever wins is a victory for democracy and for the state. Enough of political extremism, mediocrity, terrorization, hedonism and debauchery!

At the moment, the state is administratively under Gov. Wike’s control, and therefore, should as the political leader proactively douse all the political tensions in the state. Politics is not a do-or-die affair and political statements must reflect maturity, decency and administrative know-hows. What is vital is to conduct a free and fair election. No political party ever emerged both a winner and loser at the same time and any democracy must be characterized by victory and defeat.

The finest priority any selfless leader could set in motion is to ensure that the will of the people takes superiority in sync with Section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Nigeria’s Constitution which provides that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. Hence, any government that creates unwarranted scenes that are inconsistent is anti-people, anti-democracy and an agent of destruction.

Lessons From The Rivers State Rerun Election

By Moses E. Ochonu

INEC has declared the recent Rivers State rerun election inconclusive. How many inconclusive elections have we had under the new INEC chairman? How about all of them? I am not sure you can do your job so shoddily as many times as this rookie has and still get to keep said job, but he is new so I guess he deserves to make his mistakes and learn from them.

*President Buhari and Rotimi Amaechi

The conduct of the election aside, how did we get to a point where elections become wars of egos?

By the way, why did Rotimi Amaechi, a federal minister who was not running in the Rivers re-run election, relocate the perks, might, and intimidating aura of his office to his home state for an entire week for the election? Why the inflammatory, reckless statements designed to provoke, undermine, and challenge the authority of his successor? 

Why the personal abuse of Wike (“Wike can’t speak English”)? Why the thuggish behavior on the part of a federal minister (“I will flood Port Harcourt with soldiers”)? And why the bizarre boast about controlling the army, a boast so embarrassing the army had to issue a statement to refute it? What about the puerile demand for Wike’s resignation, among other comments unbecoming of a minister of the federal republic?

Quite frankly, Amaechi reflects terribly on President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB).

As for Nyesome Wike, well, Wike is Wike, a street politician given to gutter-sniping and uncouth outbursts. But he is governor and Amaechi should respect and accept that. Amaechi is already well compensated for helping to finance Buhari's campaign. Two of his political children have been appointed MDs of NIMASA and NDDC respectively, in addition to his own appointment as minister of transportation. In politics as in life, you cannot have it all.

It is political greed to insist on upending Wike by installing your stooges in the state assembly and as Rivers State's legislative contingent in the national assembly. It's a petty, narcissistic pursuit that is about personal ego and nothing more.

No wonder, even his former chief of staff, Tony Okocha, an APC candidate who lost to his PDP opponent, has railed against Amaechi's negative, counterproductive role in the election. He is right.

All politics is local, and if voters feel that someone is leveraging the power derived from an external source to force a particular political outcome locally, they often resist by voting in the other direction. 

Rivers’ Crisis As Rite Of Passage

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

What probably was the vestigial remnant of the hope that politicians in these climes would change for the better has been rudely ruptured by their quest for power in Rivers State. They have once again demonstrated their readiness for the ruthless elimination of any obstacle in their way. 

What ought to be a peaceful election to fill some vacant positions in the National and state Assembly has been besmeared with blood and tears. Scores have been killed and maimed. Hundreds have been rendered homeless.  And like the sword of Damocles, a pall of worse violence hangs over the heads of the citizens. But it is not only the residents of the state who have been traumatised by the grisly events.  For in contemplating them, hope has given way to despondency over the possibility of stabilising the nation’s democracy and making it benefit the citizenry.

But for the crisis in Rivers, we would still have held on tenaciously to the hope that we were transiting to a better political era, despite the plethora of the shenanigans of our politicians.  We would have hoped that our politicians would realise soon that the citizens gave them the opportunity to serve them. We would have hoped that our contemporary  politicians, through good governance, would make amends for their godfathers who have been rightly excoriated for frittering away the  opportunities to deliver transformational leadership . We would have thought that they would realise that if they were really keen on serving the citizens, they would not kill them first before bringing them succour.

Now that we have been jarred into reality by the bloodbath, we come to terms with the stark fact that we cannot have the power to solve our problems when we cannot resolve how to choose those who would provide the answers we need. No wonder that over the years, the warped  political system has not been able to throw up those men and women who would fix our decrepit national infrastructure and disentangle electricity, for instance, from its comatose course, and make it fast-track national  development  and improve the citizens’ lot.