May 29 and June 12 , two historic dates in Nigeria’s political odyssey have come and gone, beating all bookmakers who had looked up to either of the two dates for a reprieve in the political logjam in Rivers State.
May 29 is remarkable because on that date, the military junta who had held the reins of political authority in Nigeria relinquished power to the civilians and retreated to the barracks with their jackboots of repression.
June 12 on the other hand is even more remarkable because it recalls the desecration of a pan-Nigeria mandate given to the late MKO Abiola in the presidential election of June 12, 1993. Till date, the election has been adjudged the freest and fairest election in Nigeria’s annals.
But the then military top brass led by the famed military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, wantonly annulled the election, while the winner, Abiola was thrown into detention and later died in incarceration.
These two significant dates in Nigeria’s political journey have thus earned a pride of place in Nigeria’s political calendar and used to celebrate or mark some unique political occasions or activities.
Thus following interventions by some well-meaning Nigerians who were reported to be urging President Bola Tinubu to lift the state of emergency imposed on Rivers State and restore democratic institutions, expectations were high that the president would likely rise to the occasion and either lift the state of emergency on May 29 or June 12.
This was more so, as the suspended Governor Fubara has been on a peace mission, meeting privately with the president first in London and again recently in Lagos and at Abuja. The governor has also been visiting his estranged godfather, Nyesom Wike with a view to mending fences with him.
Gov. Fubara has even resorted to eulogizing President Tinubu for his intervention in the political situation in the state which resulted to his suspension albeit unconstitutionally, all in a bid to win the heart of the president.
But as May 29 passed without any ‘action’ from Tinubu on the Rivers crisis, many observers concluded that the president might have considered June 12 a more opportune occasion to do the needful in Rivers.
Even when the scheduled presidential broadcast on June 12 was cancelled at the last minute, many people in Rivers did not lose hope, saying that the National Assembly was even the most suitable place to announce the lifting of the emergency rule in the state, since the National Assembly played a significant role in the proclamation of the state of emergency.
So that morning, many people were glued to their radio and television sets, waiting for Tinubu to break the cheering news of the recall of the governor and restoration of other democratic institutions in the state.
But there was no dice! The president waded through the speech loaded with flowery language, but which offered little or no reprieve to the pains most Nigerians have been through since May 29, 2023, when he offhandedly declared, “subsidy is gone,” apparently in the mood of a child enticed with a candy.
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Such a momentous political development that took place in the course of the year as the declaration of a state of emergency that ousted the elected governor of a strategic state like Rivers, was not deemed auspicious enough to receive even a passive mention by the president throughout the speech.
The question has remained: why would the president in his wisdom sacrifice the interest and well-being of the generality of Rivers people on the altar of political exigency because all that is playing out in Rivers State clothed as insecurity is a smokescreen to create a vantage position ahead of 2027 general elections for the president.
Already, the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) minister, and immediate past governor of the state, Nyesom Wike is well positioned for the yeo man’s job for the president. In one breath, the minister would say he can’t fight Fubara, because the governor is his boy. In another breath, he would come out excoriating the governor as though the former accountant general of the state is just a simpleton.
This has been the lot of a man who won election on a popular mandate like other governors and was riding the crest wave of popularity because of his sterling deeds before anti- democratic forces cut short his vision already well laid out for the people.
Today, Gov. Fubara has become the butt of caricature for all manner of political ‘jesters’ and ‘clowns ‘ in Rivers State, clearly disrobing him of the aura and honour which his office as governor should command. This is an anathema which has no precedent in the state’s political history.
The Supreme Court in its pronouncement on the Rivers political imbroglio said there was no government in the state because one arm of government, the legislature was not functioning. Now with the state of emergency and appointment of a sole administrator, has governance been restored to the state?
One only needs to walk round some streets in the metropolis to perceive the stench emanating from heaps of refuse showing clearly the absence of governance in the worst form in the state. The situation is even worse in the local government areas where the people have been abandoned to their fate.
Some analysts who claim clairvoyance say Gov. Fubara will not be reinstated until after the local government election in the state in August to afford the FCT minister the opportunity to position his loyalists in the local councils to effectively retake control of grassroots politics lost to Fubara in the October 5 2024 local government elections which Fubara’s loyalists won in landslide.
As Gov. Fubara is being tossed hither and thither between Tinubu and Wike in a quest to reclaim his mandate, and Rivers remains the only state of all the 36 states in a quasi ‘colonial regime’, some thinkers say it is an irredeemable shame on the entire Rivers people.
