Suddenly a ghost appears!
But it looks like it won’t go away that soon. Worse still, it could attempt to keep the corridors of
government busy in Rivers State.
There are plenty of questions begging for answers. The biggest of them all is ‘What did we as Rivers people do wrong?’
‘Who has annulled our right to be consulted and our consent sought, regarding the best way to use our resources?’
This ghost wants to play and is drawing the public into the playground. Let’s hope it will wake our people to get organized and become passionate about the future we want.
We have seen that since 1999, no politician wants to give us the fat meat and take anything less. Rather, they take it all and leave us to fight over bones.
The worry is why we keep trusting them and seem stuck in our assumption that our politicians will be nice to us at any time.
Politicians have spent the last 22 years of our Fourth Republic, from 1999 to 2022, taking care of their personal interest and those of their cronies.
They have become millionaires and billionaires at our expense. And more of us have grown poorer with each passing day.
Nothing will change for the better unless we decide now to fight for our future.That is one concrete lesson we can learn from this ghost in the public domain.
It is time to make our community platforms, social clubs, professional associations, business groups, religious organizations and student groups to demand that every government in power responds to our own blueprint to make Rivers economy productive at the local government and state levels.
Now, how many of us have had time to read the Supreme Court judgment on the subject of Chief Celestine Omehia’s matter, which is back in the public domain?If you have not, just ask for a glance but don’t feel guilty for coming to class late, as it were.
You are in good company. Because even the Rivers State House of Assembly issued a confession recently (about the first week of October 2022), without any shame.
And they did so at their convenience, as Honourable members. They said that members of the House did not read the judgment in the first incarnation of this Chief Celestine Omehia’s matter before them.
In any other age of Nigeria’s politics and politicians, it would have been a clear statement of dereliction of duty.
For example, in Nigeria’s Second Republic when the first Rivers State House of Assembly was born (1979-1983), it would have been totally unthinkable.
Our Rivers State stood with a preference for a political economy whose political system recognized the dignity of citizens and invested to some extent, in attempting to build an economic agenda to attract federal investments as well as positive use of state resources to expand local business opportunities.
It made our people feel the refreshing confidence of an environment that was generating meaningful work for people.It was not surprising that public institutions such as the first Rivers State House of Assembly (1979-1983), made it the first order of business to address the issues of importance to the people of the state more than a club of selected elite.
The House of Assembly wrote its name in gold in the hearts of our people when it empowered its members to show courage to uphold channels that brought the Voice of Rivers people to the policy arena at LG, State and even national levels.
Despite the grip of the majority party NPN, there was enough floor space for the minority party, NPP and the one-man UPN seat in the House of Assembly.
Their focus was to make the Rivers citizen to be seen and to be heard.
Seasoned Champions of Rivers development agenda such as Chief Rosebury Briggs (Speaker) Chief A. D. William Jumbo ( Majority Leader), His Highness J.D Osaronu ( Minority Leader), Chief T.K. Okorotie (Majority Chief Whip) and even a lone UPN warrior, Chief Ellis Dokubo, found room to stand as true representatives of their people.
Well, in the Fourth Republic which was born in 1999, our Legislators found a Feudal System that clothes only a few persons who hold political positions, with a monopoly of state revenue and all other resources.
And the constant decline of the Naira since 1999 shows that making Nigeria or their respective states better, does not seem to be the priority of current Legislators or other public institutions.
We can understand the slip of attention by the Rivers State House of Assembly in not reading the Supreme Court judgment, though it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The consequence of that slip of attention, appears to be getting more interesting, if not more expensive.
The same House of Assembly changed its mind with amazing haste as soon as the legislators found out that GovernorNyesom Wike had been provoked by the select crowd of his former supporters, including Chief Omehia!
Let’s start from the beginning.
We all recall what happened when Governor Wike moved into Government House, Port Harcourt after a well-deserved victory in 2015. A survey conducted in 2013-2014 by GRAIN Consulting ( the consultancy I work for), showed that most of Rivers State voters and those in other Niger Delta States (over 60 percent) stood behind PDP which produced Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike as its candidate.
He won positive attention for his dogged loyalty to PDP and for his remarkable sense of history in resisting an assault on a fellow Niger Deltan’s presidential ambition.
The last time a Niger Deltan was politically stranded in “no man’s land” was under the 1951 constitution as both NCNC and Action Group were he was fighting for self government for Nigeria by 1956.
It was late Prof Eyo Ita of present Cross River versus those who wanted him to surrender his position as Leader of Government business in Eastern Region, to the Great ZIK of Africa.
Zik had lost the prospect of becoming Leader of Government Business in the emerging national legislature in Lagos, because the NCNC didn’t win in Western Nigeria.
It was reported that many Igbo members of NCNC didn’t like that the great Zik would be left stranded without a position of authority in the unfolding political arena.
Apparently led by notables such as Dr K.O Mbadiwe, the man who used bombastic English to make fame and confuse even his supporters, and some other members in NCNC, the uproar to give Zik the mantle shook the roof of the legislature of Eastern Region.
Prof Eyo Ita was voted out.
In 2015 it was Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the issue was different. But some people’s memory didn’t let go of that moment in the Eastern Region when the legislature forced out Prof Eyo Ita, an eminent NCNC politician of minority ethnic root.
2015 had a distant but familiar ring to it. Back in the 1950s Prof Eyo Ita was up against a more favoured and clearly a more popular NCNC national leader in the person of Zik.
APC’s 2015 Buhari train was a block built on the trim physique of General Buhari and his then fame for anti-corruption, by what now appears to be fraudulent political merchants.
They proclaimed the interest of majority ethnic groups as a cover for their selfish and narrow-minded assault on our national treasury.
Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike chose to stand with then President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, against a daylight attempt to snatch the keys to the Villa, from the soft- spoken leader of PDP from Bayelsa State.
Of course, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who became Vice President of Nigeria in 1999-2007 on PDP ticket, had abandoned the party in its hour of need.
He crossed carpet to a new bride in town, called APC!
As a new governor, Wike stood firm with PDP and watched with excitement as the brand new PDP House of Assembly members in Rivers were sworn in.
Governor Wike started rebuilding the party, even before the smoke had cleared from the arena where PDP faithful in the state had gathered to celebrate his victory.
In the tense environment that marked the birth of Governor Wike’s administration, an unspoken mandate appeared to be well understood by those around His Excellency.
It would seem that any big politician who supported PDP, also had to measure up to become the governor’s friend.
Chief Celestine Omehia found himself under evaluation.
The House of Assembly grabbed the gauntlet to prove themselves as hardworking representatives. Our Rivers State legislators went all out to sort through a daunting range of big names, to find out true friends of our governor.
That apparently was a more pressing priority, than challenging issues of how best to improve the economy and social well-being of Rivers people.
It would seem that in the Legislators desperate search for legislative “quick wins”, probably for them to load Jumia’s delivery Keke-napep with fresh bills to Government House, the Legislators were frantic.
At this point the Devil himself must have stepped in with a smile. It took note of the Legislators’ party umbrella and then dumped a wet copy of Chief Omehia’s tenure on them.
Chief Omehia’s matter whether or not he could be rated as a Governor under the laws of Nigeria, was looked at through such PDP-tinted glasses.We do not know how many of those early big name supporters who have now deserted Governor Wike, also enjoyed state benevolence like Chief Omehia.
And we do not know what quantum of Naira and other currencies each of them cost our Rivers State with a huge and growing army of the unemployed.
The governor’s determination not to let the PDP umbrella become a junk item, was welcome. But nobody has shown Rivers people how many new factories were built in this state by an appreciative national PDP Exco.
Yes Governor Wike dug in and held the front every time Alhaji Atiku Abubakar fled far from the turbulence of party administration or competition with other parties. It is clear now that Rivers Legislators had their own share of the assignment of keeping PDP in good shape, in the governor’s home state.
Their first big win was the resurrection of Chief Omehia’s buried tenancy in Government House.
Boom! As the Speaker’s gavel sounded in the hall of the Assembly, Chief Celestine Omehia was made a former Governor with all the benefits thereto!!!
The man himself must have been surprised, no end.
The total cost of the entire midnight grave- digging escapade, that brought Chief Omehia’s tenancy at Government House back to life is not finalised. But from what we hear, over N690m of Rivers State money was spent, without the addition of other supporting cost items like furniture, fittings, medicals, travels and other “freebies” as the Americans call it.
So what did other friends of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in PDP get from Governor Wike in those days when His Excellency struggled to keep the party together?
We don’t know as yet.
Most people who watch television in Rivers State saw the video when
the Supreme Court dazed the nation by playing the role of “King- makers”: even without being armed with ceremonial horsetail and head-gear to match, the court performed an instant installation ceremony to make Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi Governor of Rivers State.
Like an overcharged flash of lightning, the Supreme Court’s pronouncement on the 2007 governorship election in Rivers State had turned Chief Omehia’s tenure into a victim of “sudden death”, like a Football “Cup Final” incident.
Now in September -October 2022, the Hon members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have reacted with appropriate haste again.
They have inflicted another “sudden death” on Chief Omehia’s Government House record.
Our Legislators acted like someone who just realized he had been playing with a ghost!
They said they want nothing to do with it.
But will the ghost be left to rest quietly?
Thank you.
Amaopusenibo Bobo Sofiri Brown.
