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By Pius Mordi

He is uncouth, uncultured, but for a law degree he is said to have acquired, you would add uneducated. Education cannot be equated with getting a certificate. It is a badge that portrays one as someone that has been transformed in knowledge and attitude.

At the live media chat he had with some television networks, Nyesom Wike, the petrel of the new political philosophy encapsulated in the infamous term “grab it and run with it” approach to power grab was the archetype of the political leviathan – monstrous in crudity and primitiveness.

Against the cast of cerebral journalists he assembled at no cost to his personal fortune, to assault the airwaves as in his celebratory macabre dance, over the controversial Supreme Court judgment that denied a subregional government and part of the federating unit as well as its people access to their due from Nigeria’s common till, Wike was at a level no adjective can adequately capture.

He talked down and insulted the array of journalists. He did not let them raise critical questions and basically failed to answer the ones posed to him, preferring to rabble rouse responses incoherently. For a man whose palm kernel was cracked by his benefactors along his political trajectory, he now sees himself as ‘chi’ to others. Yes, he thinks he is god who must be obeyed, whose word is law.

While leaders across the political and ethnic divide have been chorusing the imperative for rapprochement among the gladiators in Rivers State for the good of the country, Wike insisted his puppets in the Wike 27 should dig further into the war trenches. And finally, his law makers have played the last card, issuing impeachment notice to Governor Sim Fubara and his deputy for refusing to be a Wike puppet.

As someone that has left office as governor, Wike’s status is not unusual. His peers who walked that path before him ended up ceding the playing field to their successors that ultimately became the new dons in their state. Even though President Bola Tinubu appointed him Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it still does not explain the enormous power and influence Wike continues to wield in Abuja.

Before him, Godswill Akpabio, Adams Oshiomhole, Chimaroke Nnamani among others had had their way installing their preferred successor. In each instance, the change in the person occupying the seat of power was quite telling. The new boys took the power unrestrained.
So what changed in Wike’s case. The FCT minister is not a special politician or unusual strategist. It is not a case of his being so loved by his people that they wanted him to continue by proxy.

What is happening in Rivers State is a classical case of the hand of Esau playing out. That Wike was made minister of FCT, generally seen as one of the key ministries, does not explain the state of affairs in the state. Make no mistake about it, if President Tinubu’s imprimatur was not on the intransigence of the Wike 27 and their principal, Fubara would have been at peace by now.

And with a Supreme Court willing to give controversial and dubious rulings to compliment the bizarre actions and prayers of Wike and his team, it seems everything may have been scripted ab initio. In its sweeping judgment ordering that the people and government of Rivers should no longer receive their share of federally collected revenue, the apex court went beyond the issues brought to it by venturing into local government elections. As legal experts have illustrated, council elections and litigations arising therefrom are the exclusive preserve of the state electoral tribunals, state high courts and Court of Appeal as the final arbiter.

Again, in a brazen venture that stopped short of rewriting the constitution on the status of elected law makers who defected to other parties than the one they were elected, the court gave fuel to the intransigence of the Wike 27. As has been noted here previously, what if the lower court which is yet to determine the issue of the status of Martin Amaewhule and his team eventually succeeds in impeaching Fubara and the court rules afterwards that they should vacate their seats having defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?

It may not be a straightforward exercise as the anti-Fubara forces may have envisioned. There have been impeachments of state governors before, some carried out mischievously with the courts intervening to restore order. Unlike previous exercises, however, what is brewing in Rivers State may not go according to Abuja’s script. It may take an unexpected life of its own and take unscripted turn.

Sometimes, I wonder if the Rivers saga is a scheme to divert attention from the economic nightmare Nigerians are going through. Coupled with the drama in the Senate Where Senate Godswill Akpabio weaponised Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s disagreement with him, the issues seem to be escalating to the point where they dominate public discourse.

However, Jacob’s voice may have overreached itself with the daring venture. With its integrity over the Rivers crisis coming under intense scrutiny, the Supreme Court may not longer be the final arbiter as it may have become too enmeshed in an otherwise political dispute.

It is up to Esau to rein in his Jacob for the federal government to avoid an untoward outcome. President Tinubu is an interested party. Wike has impressed with the way and manner he “delivered” Rivers State’s crucial votes to him in 2023. Pleading the independence of the judiciary is no longer plausible. Even that has become a compromised party. It’s all about 2027 and more.

Postscript

We are not normal

Against the backdrop of the embarrassment Senate President Godswill Akpabio and the Senate caused themselves by the jaundiced sanctions imposed on Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan over allegations of sexual harassment, the intervention of the DSS and other intelligence agencies on her appearance at the Inter Parliamentary Union meeting is benumbing.

First, the Senate declared the senator representing Kogi Central cannot call herself a senator at any forum locally or internationally within the six months duration of her suspension. The State Department of State Services (DSS), and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) are said to be jointly investigating how Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan attended the recent IPU meeting in New York without official nomination from Nigeria.

The probe may have been prompted by complaints from the senate where Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Leader, had asserted that Akpoti-Uduaghan was not part of Nigeria’s official delegation, a development he called a breach of IPU’s rules and protocols. How she got to New York and IPU to “embarrass” the country is the area of interest to DSS and NIA.

Having barred her from being within the vicinity of the National Assembly, the voice of her Kogi Central constituency shut, stripped of security details and her salary withheld while her six months suspension lasts, she ought not to be seen or heard. In effect, she had become what George Orwell called and “unperson” in his political satire, Ninety Eighty Four. So how she got to be in New York is what is of interest to the secret police. Amazing. That is not normal. We are not normal.