Editorial
Like Anambra, Rivers must rise or sink!
The ugly drama currently being displayed on the stage of the political theatre in Rivers State ought to be disconcerting to all Nigerians and all lovers of democracy across the world. It is a tragi-comedy that foretells of greater danger to the entire country given the implications that could be gleaned from the nuances surrounding the sad episode with regards to the nation’s political development and the wider firmament – democratic ethos.
We are troubled not just by the development alone, we are saddened greatly by the fact that today’s dramatis personae are unwilling either to look at history or are determined not to learn from it and therefore replicating the same acts, just the way they were played decades ago, which resulted in disastrous outcomes.
Yes, while much of the reasons for the failure of the various attempts to grow Nigerian democracy – believed to be the major trigger to waking up the sleeping giant many have described the country as, could be linked to the activities of individuals, especially the power mongers that came at various times – the greater culprits, had always been the institutions.
No other institution is as culpable in this outside the police – the most visible of the security agencies – and the judiciary. They rank the highest, and when added to the electoral umpires who conducted elections at various stages, no one needs look further. They are the vector carrying the dangerous disease that has afflicted Nigerian democracy or what looks like the caricature of it as we are witnessing presently.
Sadly, nothing seems to have changed from what happened in the past. Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, the French journalist, who wrote in 1849: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – the more things change, the more they remain the same – could not have had anything in mind than the Nigerian picture – past and present. The major factor at the root of this malaise had always been the independence of the institutions.
1n 1962, George Sodeinde Sowemimo, presiding over the trial of Obafemi Awolowo, failed to let the former Premier of the Western Region and opposition leader in the First Republic go home a free man, but sent him to jail, because he was constrained by weight of the interplay of extraneous factors between the federal authorities and the regional forces controlled by the late sage.
Here is what he said in the now famous – my hands are tied – speech before sentencing him: “Whatever others may say, this is my personal view. I am not speaking as a judge but as a Nigerian. Here we have one of the first Premiers of the autonomous region standing trial. If you were the only one before me, I would have felt that it was enough for you to have undergone the strain of the trial. I would have asked you to go. But I am sorry, I cannot do so now because my hands are tied.”
Nigerians now know the consequences of Awolowo’s incarceration. In fact, many people swear that it was the main reason for the January 15, 1966 bloody coup, which swept away Nigeria’s first attempt at self-governance. Obviously, the subsequent degeneration of the polity including Nigeria descending into an internecine civil war that clamed an estimated four million lives, did not teach any lesson.
For if it did, the politicians who came between 1978 and 1983, would not have upped the ante in bad democratic behaviour, which resulted in their being excused by the military once again. Again, unfortunately, both the police and the judiciary constituted the tag-team in that outcome. They completed what the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), which is today’s version of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) started.
With the judiciary’s infamous 12-two-thirds of 19 states verdict and Sunday Adewusi’s Mobile Police team, especially, providing cover to ensure that the oddity stood, the stage was set for the further degeneration in the system, so that by the time 1983 happened with its notorious landslide victories, nobody was left in doubt that Nigerian democracy, or what was left of it had gone kaput completely.
Who would have forgotten the role of the police and the judiciary in the political volcano that enveloped Anambra State a few years ago? Who could have forgotten how Raphael Ige, an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), led a team of his men to practically abduct Chris Ngige, a sitting governor from his desk.
But for fate which played a fast one in saving the situation, nobody knows till date how that heist would have ended, The ex-governor was already being spirited to the land of the unknown. It took that miraculous call he made to Atiku Abubakar, then Vice President, through the phone he borrowed from Igwe Peter Nwokike Anugwu of Mbaukwu, who chanced by to stall the horrible macabre dance.
Today, like the scenes from the same reel, Nigerians are being suffered with a similar movie. Few weeks ago it was Edo State. Today it is Rivers. The relay race between the judiciary and the police and vice versa, since the Rivers schism started unfolding between Siminalaiye Fubara, the Governor and Nyesom Wike, his predecessor and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), seems to be getting to a crescendo.
Like the Anambra episode, the battle is all about godfatherism – a phenomenon, which has assumed a completely different meaning in Nigerian than other lands where it is being practiced. Again, like in other states, it is also about the seizure and control of the so-called “political structure,” an euphemism for control of power and tools for sharing corrupt patronages, largesse and dividends.
What is the issue in the instant case? Like other states across the federation currently in frantic run to beat the deadline for enthroning elected officers or lose revenues from the Federation Account, Rivers obviously did not want to be caught napping. So, Fubara had scheduled the Rivers’ edition for Saturday, October 5, 2024.
But Wike and his group, seem sworn to scuttle the move. What did they do? The courts, of course! There, they met Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, who acceded to their request. Specifically, in a case filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) he ordered INEC not to release the voters register to conduct the election.
What was the reason? He agreed with them that the voters register ought to have been displayed for claims and objections 90 days before the election. Now picture this. On July 19, the same Lifu, had ordered the same INEC not to release the same register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), for the same purpose.
So, if the said register was not released as Lifu directed through that ex-parte order in July, how would the RSIEC have attained the 90 days threshold? What then is the state supposed to do in the face of the obvious threat that its councils would be denied the revenue to conduct their affairs? What then is the fate of the millions of people that would be so affected?
Answers to those questions are still buried in the sands. What is left is that Fubara, obviously desperate to save the situation, seems to have found some loophole to navigate out of the troubling maze. Among some of his reasons for going ahead with the election, regardless, was that he already had the register even before his traducers went to court. So, the horse, for him had actually bolted out of the stable.
Now, if indeed peace was actually part of the bouquet the naysayers are bringing to the table, what is wrong with returning to the court to test Fubara’s claim after the election? Surely proving that the governor lied, would obviously be enough ground to declare the process inadequate and therefore nullify the election, would it not. So, why resort to this strong-arm tactics?
Yet, as observers are still chewing the implications of their streak of successes at the courts, including Monday’s direct orders that they must stay away from the polls, the police interpretation appears even more astounding. Yes, the court prohibited the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Department of State Services (DSS) from providing security for the election. But that is where it stopped.
So, on what ground did the police stand in their attempt to take over the RSIEC office and insist that the polls must not hold? Quo warranto? That was the question Fubara put to the police authorities on Friday, when he practically placed his life on the line and dared the police to kill him first before stopping the election. We join in asking this very important question.
Unfortunately, Kayode Egbetokun the police IG appears not in the mood to look in the direction in his determination to execute the matter his own way. Not even the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), a clearing house for lawyers in Nigeria is in agreement with the IG. It said so on Friday. Afam Osigwe, NBA President, particularly expressed the disgust of the body to the entire saga.
Hear him: “We agree with the statement issued by the Chairmen of NBA Branches as we find it deeply troubling that the Police would brazenly issue a statement that they would shirk their constitutional responsibility of providing security in Rivers State in purported compliance with an order of court. Even if a court has directed the Police not to work with the Electoral Commission on Rivers State, nothing says the Police should not provide security for peace and order of Rivers State.
“The refusal to provide security is not only unconstitutional but also illegal, immoral, and a dangerous signal that invites lawlessness and undermines democracy. It is, in every sense, a direct attack on the democratic rights of the people of Rivers State and, by extension, Nigeria as a whole. In fact, it threatens our democracy.
“The Nigerian Bar Association condemns, in the strongest possible terms, any attempt to undermine the scheduled elections in the 22 Local Government Areas of Rivers State by refusing to provide security. We will continue to closely monitor the situation as it unfolds. We call on all security agencies to rise to the challenge of protecting lives, property, and democracy during this critical time.
“Furthermore, we urge the Inspector General of Police to launch an immediate investigation into these troubling report that Policemen sought to cart away electoral materials and ensure that any errant officers involved are swiftly and appropriately disciplined, regardless of whose interests are affected. The NBA has also taken note of the conflicting judgments from the Rivers State High Court and the Federal High Court in Abuja concerning the scheduled Local Government elections. It is deeply disheartening and amounts to judicial rascality that courts of concurrent jurisdiction are issuing contradictory orders on the same matter.” We could not have agreed more.
The consoling part was that the players caught in the ugly incidents were punished. In the case of Anambra, Ige was booted out of the police immediately the heist against Ngige failed. Not only him, Wilson Egbo Egbo and Stanley Nnaji, two judges caught in the web of the Anambra crisis were equally excused from their judicial duties abruptly. Not even their powerful godfathers could save them.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in power appeared to spare some thought for their image. But this obviously is not so under the APC, a party of the so-called democrats, who had taken over to entrench democratic ethos in Nigeria. Nobody seems to hear anything about punishment for bad behaviour.
Interestingly and ironically, the eventual triumph of Ngige over his traducers, seemed to have signalled the new face of politics in Anambra. It marked the successful dislodging of the godfather syndrome in the state, which hitherto made the perfect example for showcasing governance failure in Nigeria. Today the opposite is the case. Who knows how the case of Rivers might turn out?
Fubara actually mentioning the state on Friday while speaking to reporters in Port Harcourt over the development appears an indication that he is attempting to recreating the Anambra magic. Quite heartening should that be the case. Anambra remains the test-kit for the good, the bad and the ugly of Nigerian politics and the triumph of one over the other.
For Egbetokun, history also beckons. He ought to have quietly left the police on September 4, when he attained the mandatory 60 years retirement. Had he resisted the lure of office, he might have saved himself from becoming another Sowemimo. Even after becoming the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Sowemimo practically etched his name across the pages of history.
Many remember his my hands are tied declaration today than his attaining the position of the CJN. Egbetokun still has a lee-way to navigate himself out of the airtight cage politicians seem to have forced him. He could insist on toeing the line of resistance by sticking to the best practices in patriotic move to save Nigeria, or throw in the towel, damn the consequences to save his name from further damage. Yet, still, he could go the whole hog and end it all in predictable tragedy! His call!
In the early hours of Monday, January 26, 2026, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, stormed Onitsha Main Market, reputed to be the biggest enclave for trading and other commercial activities in West Africa, on what he called on-the-spot assessment.
It was a military-style display, reminiscent of the Muhammadu Buhari-Tunde Idiagbon, best-forgotten taskforce days, when soldiers, without warning swooped on markets, broke into their owner’s shops and practically sold available goods to the public at giveaway prices – many their cronies, in the guise of forcing their Essential Commodities policy.
In like manner there and then, the governor ordered the immediate closure of the market after accusing the traders of harbouring criminal intents and engaging in economic sabotage that costs the state a whopping N8billion in lost revenues. To boot, he even warned not only to close the market on a permanent basis, but if need be, even bulldoze it to the ground, should the traders remained recalcitrant in their decision.
Hear him: “Each Monday, we’ll come and inspect. If people are not in their respective shops, it will be shut down again. If you like I don’t mind shutting down this Main Market for the remainder of this year. If you don’t like it, go elsewhere and trade, but if you’re here, we’re not going to allow this plain economic sabotage. Also, we suspect whoever closes their shops to have some criminal intents.”
From the outset, we must state that what the world saw in that spontaneous encounter and subsequent days as the issues therein remained on the front burner, has little place in democracy, neither does it reflect sound, people-oriented leadership under the ethos of what has now been accepted across the globe as the best form of government.
Now, the last time we checked, Soludo is neither a military General nor even a soldier, but a highly-decorated academic, whose influence in the knowledge industry spans beyond education institutions, government – he was formally Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) – to international reckoning – consulting for some of the highest global bodies, including the United Nations.
Now, how does this selfsame global icon, reduce himself to a local dictator, dishing out orders as in regimental commands rather than employing that power of persuasion, which distinguishes brainpower – the emblematic factor of his training from raw strength of dictators in the gun business?
How does it fit? Do concepts like immediate effect and automatic alacrity form part of the recommendations Soludo makes to those global institutions he consulted for? Certainly no! So, why introduce them as his own governance template? That is the confusing, if not the disturbing part.
Is it not becoming clearer now? Is this military-style tendency not finding expression in the audacity captured in that ghoulish spectacle last year, where one Jennifer Elohor Edema, the young lady serving Nigeria under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, was stripped down to her birthday suit by some youths, visibly inebriated on influences of some brain-damaging substances, who were working for Soludo’s government?
By the way, when last did anyone hear anything about those criminals, outside the initial apparent crocodile tears at government places in Awka? Has anyone heard of any form of punishment? Have they been arraigned in court? If yes, what is the state of the trial?
In the instant case, we particularly detest the governor’s attempt to feign ignorance of the issues behind the conduct of the traders or his efforts to bury them under the veneer of righteous anger. To so do is deceitful, arrogant, if not self-serving – elements that seem to have, so unfortunately, formed part of the governance structure in Anambra State, as in most other states across the country, including the central government.
The issue here, if Soludo needs be reminded, is about the fate of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), currently serving life sentence at a facility in Sokoto, to where he was sent by Justice James Omotoso of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Of course, the governor was right in claiming that the dangerous security situation in the state has changed for the better and that Anambra is no longer the killing field it was until recently. Obviously, the blood-thirsty terrorists responsible for the carnages witnessed in the state, including those ostensibly aimed at enforcement of the sit at home orders, seem to be on holiday and from the look of things are no longer returning.
So, if the governor says security or insecurity of the traders is no longer the big issue, he has a foundation to so state. At least for the first time in recent years, Christmas was celebrated in the entire Igboland with the usual fanfare under the robust atmosphere devoid of fear. That alone gives credence to the extent of these changes.
But that is not the end of the story. Kanu’s fresh ordeal seems to have introduced a new chapter to the entire saga. Now, the current sit-at-home option appears no longer out of fear of being attacked or killed, but the willingness of the traders to donate every Monday, in solidarity with the IPOB leader. This was evident in the Tuesday demonstration, where the message of the traders who thronged the streets of Onitsha, was clearly delivered with renditions like – Nnamdi Kanu is another saviour.
Therefore, Soludo, must be a complete novice or pathologically naïve to claim he is not aware of this new sentiment. But he is neither of the two. There is no way the governor would not have been seized of the compelling emotions around him.
So, for him to put up that show on Monday, is nothing but a gambit tailored towards gaslighting the public. His feigned anger against the traders for not opening their shops is as manipulative as it is deceitful, just as argument thereto regarding the economy implications is as puerile as it is spurious.
It is demonstrative of lack of emotional intelligence, as it showcases the absence of the required synergy between the government and the people, a phenomenon that has become characteristic in the South East in recent years, where a huge gulf and trust deficit exist between the people and those who lead them.
It is indeed laughable when South East governors, including Soludo, lay claims to the current calm in Igboland, when on the contrary, many of them are accused of being collaborators, either as active agents of being complicit through their conspiracy of silence.
Who does not know that the late President Muhammadu Buhari, was the vector that transported that killer disease to Igboland? Dan Nwanyanwu, National Chairman of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), has remained relentless in establishing this fact most pungently in the past and even quite recently.
Soludo, in his chest-beating mode, gives the impression that he somehow sprung a genie out of the magic lamp to create a sudden miracle that turned the parlous security situation around. No! It was the death of Buhari that ended the blitzkrieg in the South East. Simplicita!
Where was this genie when during the Buhari days, when the Aguata Local Government headquarters, where he comes from was razed to the ground or when a swathe of Ihiala and adjoining areas in the state became a hunting ground for the rampaging terrorists, codenamed Unknown Gunmen.
He was only content in the open and shut attitude of dismissing the carnage they wrought as the handiwork of Kanu’s Eastern Security Network (ESN), even when the group swore on their father’s grave that they were not involved.
Indeed, if there is ever going to be anything good in the government of President Bola Tinubu, it is the fact that he is not as hungry for the blood of the Igbo man as Buhari, who never hid the fact of his desire to continue the civil war against Ndigbo, more than 50 years after.
Had Tinubu, who upped the ante in the marginalisation of Ndigbo in many ways, escalated this penchant by toeing the line as part of his continuation of the Buhari legacy, which he promised Nigerians, he might have renewed the military contract Asari Dokubo claimed to have with Buhari.
Yes, though he never revealed details of the so-called contract, its nature could be gleaned from the manner the people were dying wotowotowoto, as the Niger Delta warlord, himself gloated about some years back.
He even backed his gloating up in that viral video, with a display of an AK-47, boasting how he would use the weapon to cure Ndigbo their “madness.” Is it not surprising that in all his public comments, neither Soludo nor his South East colleagues ever mentioned this obvious threat to his people.
So, nobody is deceived by the governor acting like Idi Amin of Uganda, who went berserk because he could not get more money printed from his central bank. Nobody is moved by his threat to even bulldoze that market. He is only being clever by half, if not acting a script.
It does not remove the fact that he and his colleagues suddenly went mute, then and now and remained tongue-tied at a historic moment when Ndigbo are battling to extricate themselves from the soggy, foggy, belly of the whale, like the biblical Jonah, as they are in Nigeria today. It does not belittle the fact that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a metaphor for that horrible situation.
It is even worse that Soludo, arguably the most intellectually-gifted governor in Nigeria today, would be introducing some ethnic, sectional or indigene-based sentiments into the matter by trumpeting that those pursing the sit at home drive are not from Anambra. What a shame!
Who cares? Instead of such obtuse, infantile, if not asinine suggestion, would it not be more apposite for him to conduct a census in the entire Anambra, Aguata, his local government, Isuofia, his community and even the Soludo family to determine the number of Igbo people that are happy with the fate of not only Kanu, but Ndigbo in the hands of his friends in high authority today?
We hear that the traders have caved in. So, by Monday, expectedly, they would return to their shops – though definitely against their will. Soludo, would have scored another point and proven himself a strong man. But is it not a crab that makes itself king in shallow waters? Times shall tell!
The systematic bastardisation of Nigeria and its degraded worth in the eyes of the global community seem to have reached to its inglorious height in recent months. How damning!
Each day, the largest country of black people on earth seems to be gliding uncontrollably down the slippery slope of infamy where countries which hitherto stand in awe and trepidation, now practically spit at its global image.
Only recently, Burkina Faso, one of the smallest countries on the West African sub-region – a country with total worth far less than Lagos got Abuja crawling on its knees to Ouagadougou to plead for the release of a military aircraft flying the Nigerian flag.
Yes! It took a whole 10 days for the Nigerian Air Force C-130 and 11 soldiers on board to breathe the air of freedom once again, after they were detained in the hunger-ravaged African country for making an emergency landing – a routine aviation procedure that is ironed out in a matter of hours with nothing more than a mere explanation required.
But in this case, it took a special delegation of top Nigerian officials to move to the country with apology letter in hand to beg for the freedom of the detained men and plane from the Burkinabe authorities, whose personnel, openly walked on air to stamp their importance. Compatriots, this is your country – the giant of Africa.
Last year, it took a cough at the Oval Office Washington for Aso Rock Villa to catch cold and harass itself into a frenzy in search for way out of the decade-old issue of mass slaughtering of Nigerians by terrorists in addition to other forms of high crimes that have seized the country over the years.
Yet, even with all the frantic, frenetic and impulsive thrashing around, including a unilateral declaration of State of Emergency on security, what has come out of it?
It took the same United States, to make a decisive statement with the Christmas day bombing of a supposed hideout in Sokoto, said to have decimated scores of terrorist, who had assembled to plot how to wreak another havoc across the country as has become traditional during the yuletide season over the recent years.
But were these disgraceful outings limited to domestic affairs, it would have been more tolerable. But, unfortunately, it is not.
Internationally too, the tiger has also lost its tigritude. The same Nigeria that virtually stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing eyeball to eyeball as it confronted powerful western nations in a singular bid to end apartheid in South Africa – yes, the same Nigeria that took it upon itself to end the mass slaughtering in Liberia and Sierra Leone, is today cowering in its cocoon over issues it ought to have taken the lead in presenting the African perspective.
Last year, it was South Africa that roared like a lion by confronting Israel over the blitzkrieg in Gaza – going as far as taking the country to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, The Netherlands.
Today, it is Ghana that is taking charge at the world stage, with its voice echoing beyond the seas and wildernesses over the US action in Venezuela where its special forces arrested Nicolas Maduro – that country’s President on Saturday.
“Ghana expresses strong reservations against unilateral use of force and strongly deplores such acts that violate the Charter of the United Nations and international law, as well as the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of States.
“The Ghanaian Government is keenly following the situation in Venezuela with great concern, and notes that such assaults on international law, attempts at the occupation of foreign territories and apparent external control of oil resources have extremely adverse implications on international stability and the global order.
“Ghana also notes with deep concern statements by US President, Donald Trump, that the US will “run” Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” and that US large oil companies will be asked to “go in.”
“These declarations are reminiscent of the colonial and imperialist era. They set a dangerous precedent for the global order. Such colonial ambitions should have no place in the post-Second World War era.
“To allow this is to put the international community at great risk and undermine the sovereignty of every country. Ghana, therefore, re-affirms its commitment to the principle of self-determination and holds the firm view that only the Venezuelan people should freely determine their political and democratic future.
“Ghana calls for immediate de-escalation and the release of President Maduro and his wife. The Government of Ghana shall maintain and defend its long-held principled position against invasion, occupation, colonialism, apartheid, disregard for sovereignty and all forms of violation of international law.”
That was Accra’s bold and fearless response to the Venezuelan saga. Now where is Nigeria? Where is President Bola Tinubu? Mum is the word. The last we heard from our President was via an image of him having lunch with Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda in Paris. No single word uttered – just a picture!
Even that has also run into its own controversy as the image is now being disputed, because experts are convinced that it is AI-generated. How bad could it get! How deep could a country sink into the morass of infamy! How terrible!
But need anyone look far to ascertain the reason for this parlous situation and progressive dip into the bottomless pit of hopelessness. Of course, not! The answer is very apparent.
It is all about legitimacy and integrity of the leadership of the individual countries. John Dramani Mahama, could stand anywhere on the world stage today to declare that the mandate he holds as President derives from the people of Ghana. Cyril Ramaphosa could also swear in like manner that he enjoys the mandate of South Africans.
Could Tinubu honestly make the same claims today? That is the difference. When Sam Amadi, Harvard-trained lawyer, captured the Nigerian variant of strategy for election victory as the ability to bribe the institutions – INEC, judiciary and security authorities, rather than constituency mapping and messaging to convince the people – this is the result.
When Chidi Odinkalu, a professor of law, states categorically that Tinubu did not need the votes of Nigerians but corrupt INEC and the judiciary, to be President, the consequence is illegitimacy, lack of credibility and a country limbo.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC), was even more emphatic when it linked Tinubu’s silence to the fear of being served the Maduro treatment based on the evidently fraudulent 2023 presidential election that brought him to power, the consequences he has been battling with till date.
Bolaji Abdullahi, its spokesman, recalled how the government of the ousted President was widely condemned as illegitimate and deeply flawed by nine governments across Latin America, the European Union, and international democratic institutions.
Stressing how political opponents were barred from contesting, peaceful protests met with violence, and state institutions weaponised against the very citizens, he pointed to the celebration that followed Maduro’s fate to underscore his argument, stating: “When citizens pour into the streets in celebration, it reveals more than approval of an intervention; it exposes the bankruptcy of the regime that has been upended.”
Back home, he was no less so: “Let’s be clear: the Nigerian government’s choice of silence at this moment has nothing to do with neutrality. Instead, it reveals a government that lacks confidence simply because it lacks integrity. In Nigeria, in Venezuela, and across the world, democracy must mean more than ballots and electoralism. It must translate to freedom, fairness, and a happier life for the citizens.
“In this context, the ADC believes that the situation in Venezuela is a cautionary tale to all dictators, including the supposedly elected ones, and election riggers everywhere. The world is watching, and contrived mandates will no longer find a place to hide.”
How would anyone dispute this position? The naysayer must give a credible reason for the rapid Nigeria’s current drift to a one-party state, despite the evidential failures of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on all fronts of developments since coming to power in 2015.
Why, for instance are all the 36 governors of Nigeria struggling for space in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and declaring open support for Tinubu, even when the President has posted the most disastrous if not the worst outing in Nigerian history, if they were not being corralled to do so.
Why would a Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) arrogate to himself the power of life and death and insist that Siminalayi Fubara, his successor as Rivers State Governor must be divested of his free choice to contest for re-election as part of a strange “agreement?”
The real story is that Nigeria is no different from Venezuela under Maduro. That a repeat of the 2023 fraudulent presidential election will not only continue to produce a lame-duck President that will either be a puppet a weakling, or a disgrace rolled into one. That will be the real TRAGEDY!
Nigerians, nay, the world woke up on Monday morning to the shocking news of yet again, the abduction of students in the country – this time at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi State.
The incident has now added to the long list of a phenomenon, which started on the night of April 14, 2014 with the kidnap of the students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, an episode now popularly known as the Chibok Girls saga.
When an uproar reverberated across the globe following the Chibok incident, with world leaders weighing in on the matter, including Michelle Obama, former US first lady, who took it personally by joining the campaign to free the young girls, it was an instant response to the gory picture that hovered in the firmament over the fate of of such young lasses, many still in their puberty stage in the hands of such dangerous criminals.
Who would have thought that the development would soon become a constant feature that would continue to smear the nation’s landscape, especially with the exit of then President Goodluck Jonathan, who had suffered the butt of national and international ridicule, as the incident was attributed to him with the derisive term – cluelessness – was eventually tossed out of office as a result?
On the contrary, it turned out that Muhammadu Buhari, his successor, posted a worse outing, despite his record as a General of the Nigerian Army and former Military Head of State, who during his times as the latter, was known as a no-nonsense leader.
Indeed, while Jonathan was clueless, Buhari practically dozed, slept or actually slumbered on the same issue. Under him, the situation assumed an almost epidemic proportion – from Dapchi Girls, which saw the abduction of 110 students from the Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi in Bulabulin, Bursari Local Government area of Yobe State, on February 19, 2018, to the 279 female students of Government Girls Science Secondary School, a boarding school in Jangebe, Zamfara State on February 26, 2021, which came few months after about 300 students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, on December 11, 2020.
During this period, Kaduna suffered some of the worst hits. First, 150 students of the Bethel Baptist High School, in 2021 and then the 2024 edition, when about 285 students were taken from their school in Kuriga, in Chikun Local Government Area.
These are just some of the incidents that quickly come to mind. There are many other cases of similar nature before this latest addition in Maga, where 25 girls were picked up and herded into the bush like cattle.
Now this was the situation under which President Bola Tinubu, had actually packed his bag preparatory to boarding his much-fancied executive jet en-route South Africa and Angola for the 20th G20 Summit of leaders in South Africa and thereafter proceed to Luanda to attend the Seventh African Union-European Union (AU-EU) Summit.
Indications coming from the Villa, in Abuja, appear confusing, as it suggests “postponement” rather than outright “cancellation,” going by the statement of Bayo Onanuga, the President’s main spokesman, on Thursday.
Onanuga, wrote: “Disturbed by the security breaches in Kebbi State and Monday’s attack by bandits against worshippers at Christ Apostolic Church, Eruku, President Tinubu decided to suspend his departure.
“He now awaits reports from Vice President Kashim Shettima, who paid a sympathy visit to Kebbi on his behalf, as well as reports from the police and the Department of State Services regarding the attack in Kwara.”
Anyone could bet and be sure that the trip was paused substantially due to the general outcry in the country over the move and that even now, the pull similar to the bee to the nectar remains too strong that he might actually step on the plane before the events end.
Pray! What is his role and of what benefit would he willingly stain the floor of these events with the blood of his countrymen with which his feet are currently smeared?
Pray! With which face would the President be sitting among these leaders, considering the situation in his country, which is practically on intense inferno currently? How would he handle the stolen glances? Knowing the world of diplomacy where much are ensconced in those deep stares and benign but deceptive smiles, those sympathies he would receive could obviously be more pretended than genuine and he would become the butt of private jokes and conversations thereafter.
Remember the heat that attended the discovery of a headless body floating on the Thames River in the UK in 2001 and how life nearly came to a halt in the country as a result.
Now imagine Kier Starmer the current Prime Minister stepping into British Airways en-route the same South Africa or even United Nations summit without resolving the issue of a stolen pet-dog or assuaging the feeling of that little blue-eyed girl ruing over her loss, let alone one young British school girl being kidnapped and in the hands of mindless criminals. Just imagine it!
Did the US not deploy all its intelligence and military might in a multi-million-dollar operation just to rescue one of its citizens the terrorists currently tormenting Nigeria were too inebriated in their madness to abduct.
Now, consider a Donald Trump, even in his extreme eccentric nature, mounting Air Force One and jetting out to France, China or Saudi Arabia to sign some trillion-dollar military hardware contracts capable of jolting the US economy to a 50-year-record high, while one American Marine is in captivity, let alone some 20 students of a college in Alabama. Would the heat generated therefrom not be enough to power a spacecraft?
Why must Nigeria be different? Is the life of a Nigerian worth less than that of a dog in Britain? Does Tinubu consider the life of the school girl in Dapchi, Kaduna or Maga less valuable than that of her counterpart in Chicago? If no, why not stay back and prove it?
We must say so, unequivocally! Nothing – economically, socially, politically, globally – is more important than the rescue of these 25 young girls. Whether postponed or paused Tinubu must not be found anywhere near that aircraft. In fact, he must not leave Nigeria until those girls are rescued! Nothing could be more serious, nothing more valuable!
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