By Sunny Awhefeada
When the ongoing imbroglio in Rivers State began not even a prophet saw the imposition of a state of emergency as an option. The reasons are that apart from being opprobrious as depicted by valid court judgments when emergency rule reared its ugly head at the behest of imperial President Olusegun Obasanjo in two states namely Plateau and Ekiti, its antecedent also did not bode well for Nigeria in the First Republic. The idea of emergency rule that can torpedo democratic structures was thus considered as an anathema and unthinkable. President Goodluck Jonathan had these constraints in mind when he declared emergency in the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe when insurgents overran them and hoisted their flag. Some unthinking insensitive ruler would have sacked the governors and for good reasons and appoint army commanders as viceroys. But Jonathan, the democrat in words and in deeds, didn’t do that. Yes, he declared an emergency in those states, but he didn’t tamper with the democratic structure. The governors retained their offices and the legislature was intact.
By the time the 2015 general elections took place the three states were safe enough to participate in the elections and normalcy returned. That was ten years ago. If Jonathan cherished democratic culture then why has that tendency not appreciated with ample dividends and evidence? Shouldn’t our country be forward looking in terms of her development aspirations? Is the emergency rule in Rivers State not a reversal of the gains recorded until 2015? Are we being told that democracy snowballed into recession after 2015?
The foregoing creates a dilemma for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and for all Nigerians. This dilemma can only be resolved if the state of emergency in Rivers State is lifted right away. The suspension of democratic governance for six months and the appointment of a military man go against the grain of democratic and civilized conduct. This is not only a tragedy, but it should be seen as antithetical to the ideals President Tinubu held dearly when he took to the trenches in the struggle against military dictatorship. President Tinubu was at the barricades in the struggle to rout the military and it is really ironic that twenty-six years into civil rule he could turn around and appoint a military man to superintend over a state with an elected executive and legislative functionaries. This reality, beside the act being unconstitutional and historically reprehensible, poses for President Tinubu a moral dilemma. The nation’s attorney-general and justice minister sweated and sounded most unconvincing while justifying the imposition of emergency rule in Rivers State more than a quarter of a century after military interregnum. Presidential handlers have also struggled to establish a casus belli without luck. The idea and the reality of emergency rule that dismantled democratic structures were pooh-poohed. The loud if not deafening consensus negate the phenomenon. It was absolutely uncalled for. What happened in Rivers State before the emergency rule was a rupture in political engineering which would have been fixed politically without recourse to the valorization of “military rule” if altruism and the interest of Rivers people were privileged. The appointment of a soldier in the place of an elected governor diminished the essence of our democracy.
What the reality of emergency rule in Rivers State has elicited is an endless stream of condemnation as opposed to the approbation in federal government quarters. If the forces that presently run Nigeria subscribe to the creed of vox populi vox Dei an immediate dismantling of emergency rule and the restoration of democracy would be on the table right away. Like him or not, President Tinubu fought against similar anti-democratic tendencies as governor of Lagos State. So, what happened or what changed? It is not too late for the President and his handlers to have a rethink and embrace altruistic heroism by restoring democracy in Rivers State. The full manifestation of this would be the return of Governor Siminalayi Fubara to government house in Port Harcourt as well as the reinstitution of the State House of Assembly. Such an act will not only speak to courage on the part of President Tinubu, but would up his rating many notches higher. President Tinubu does need this and seriously so. He should not only be defined by the unprecedented removal of subsidy, he should be hailed for having the courage to rectify an error and an unpopular one for that matter. This is what President Tinubu should do. Nigerians are waiting.
The people of Rivers State at the moment are disenfranchised and cast off as democratic orphans who for six months would be deprived of what it is like to experience governance. They are now bound to walk on eggshells fearing the crushing imminence of military jackboots. This is an affront of the psycho-political wellbeing of the people. Things are bad enough without the soldier’s bayonet. Things are therefore too bad for the people knowing the uncivil and unkind presence of a soldier would be their lot in the next six months. President Tinubu should be made to see the moral imperative of restoring democracy for the good of Rivers people and in the overall interest of Nigeria. What the present scenario makes of Nigeria is poor and unacceptable. Despite the multiple socio-economic upheavlas and the menace of insecurity, Nigeria has experienced political stability in the last twenty-six years. This stability must be sustained and holistic. What presently obtains in Rivers vitiates that stability.
The leading actors in the melodrama must do a rethink and resolve the crisis in the best interest of Rivers State. What is apparent to all and sundry is that the conflict is between two actors namely Nyesom Wike and Siminalayi Fubara, a former governor and his successor. The broad thinking and consensus is that Fubara is the governor and whatever he does should be subjected to approval or disapproval by the people of Rivers State whose votes will affirm or reject him in 2031. No strongman in Abuja should force the hand of time. The public might not know what information President Tinubu was fed with. However, the decibel of condemnation tracing the suspension of democratic order in Rivers State attests to the fact that it was unnecessary. Nigeria is already troubled on many fronts. Galloping inflation and insecurity are making life hellish for citizens. The President should not allow the Rivers crisis distract him as he works to strengthen the nation’s economy and eradicate insecurity. Since the imposition of emergency rule in Rivers State, the terrorist and bandits have been on rampage in Benue and Plateau states and parts of the North-East. There is horrendous bloodbath in Benue and Plateau states yet there is no emergency rule in those places. No death took place in Rivers State. Just political brouhaha and the sledge hammer of emergency rule descended on the State.
Despite our many inadequacies, as a nation we should be seen to have advanced beyond unconstitutional foibles. Let us not be afflicted with phenomena associated with failed states where jungle tendencies are the order of the day. What emergency rule is doing to Rivers State is tantamount to going for our moral jugular. This should not be. Let us appeal to President Tinubu to restore democracy in Rivers State. This is the way to go and with it shall come heroism. Nobody else will wear or share the garlands with the President. He will bask in it. He should do so now and let us chronicle our own experience of “the restoration”.
