Good morning, Mr President. I write in regards to the simmering disaster of governance in Rivers State. Within the din of the disaster, it’s usually seen as Siminalayi Fubara vs. Nyesom Wike in ways in which miss out on the issues. These days, it has taken on a harmful dimension that would undo your administration.
I might additionally discern an try and downplay the disaster as inconsequential to the peace of the nation by sycophants in authorities and to scale back the matter to one in every of “rule of regulation” even by your humble self within the wake of the Supreme Court docket punitive judgment that put a lien on the sources of Rivers State. Even elementary precept governance offers a window for continuity.
Nonetheless, my objective with this piece is twofold. One is to offer salience to the factors at situation within the disaster. Two is to warn you in regards to the hazard that that disaster portends to your administration and the nation.
We appear to have forgotten so quickly the origin of the disaster which lies within the phenomenon of Godfatherism, a patron-client relationship anchored on the primitive accumulation of the nation’s scarce sources by each the patron and shopper. The dynamic is that the patron at all times likes to remain on high of the sport.
This dynamic performed out in Anambra, Oyo, and Edo amongst others. In Anambra, underneath duress, Chris Ngige, the governor of the state was requested to signal proactively his resignation ought to he violate the phrases of the patron-client relationship, the premise of his enthronement. We noticed the identical dynamic blatantly performed out within the case of Governor Rasheed Ladoja and Lamidi Adedibu aka ‘Baba Molete’ in Oyo State. In Edo, we noticed Governor Obaseki tame Adams Oshiomhole who needed a 3rd time period by proxy. It was all about free-riding state sources to the good thing about the patron and the detriment of the general public.
Mr President, the set off for the present disaster is the alleged quest by Wike, your minister and the previous governor of Rivers State to have a humongous sum of the sources diverted to him as the value for his ‘enthronement’ of Fubara because the Governor of Rivers State.
The governor affirmed this allegation on the event of the 51st birthday anniversary of Chibuzor Chinyere, the Normal Overseer of Omega Energy Ministries Worldwide, on the church headquarters at Mbodo, Aluu in Ikwerre Native Authorities Space of the state on November 3, 2024.
In his phrases delivered ex-cathedra, the governor stated, “There’s a motive for this disaster, and that motive is the management of the sources of Rivers State. Rivers State’s sources belong to you (the individuals), and we are going to guarantee that the sources are utilized judiciously for the betterment of Rivers State”.
Austin Tam-George, a former Commissioner for Data underneath the Wike administration additional lent credence to expropriation of sources in plain political language. As he put it, “What is going on is a really clear ideological wrestle between the forces of privatisation of the state and state seize, represented by the FCT minister, and the governor, who has vowed to guarantee that the sovereign will of the individuals prevails. It’s so simple as that.
I don’t see how reconciliation is feasible on this matter. The individuals have a sovereign proper to regulate their sources to develop the state for the good thing about everybody.”
Mr President, the above is the koko of the matter. You’re fairly acquainted with this dynamic, and I flip to the second level. The Rivers disaster has implications for nationwide safety and the well being of your administration. Of the brand new militarist forces, that’s, armed non-state actors, the Niger Delta militants have been foremost earlier than the appearance of Boko-Haram in 2009 following the misguided extra-judicial execution of Mohammed Yusuf by the Nigerian state.
They’ve confirmed their capability to frustrate successive governments on the level of disagreement. President Umaru Musa Yar’adua administration dealt with them with diplomacy and achieved outcomes, and even the Buhari administration learnt quick and backtracked on the Amnesty Programme.
The fortune of Nigeria’s oil export, the one tangible good that hyperlinks it to the worldwide financial system, has trusted the fluctuating wave of militancy within the Niger-Delta. In accordance with america Vitality Data Administration, underneath the Buhari administration, Nigeria’s oil manufacturing fell to 1.4 million bpd, as of Might 2016 on account of Niger Delta Avengers’ (NDA) assaults on key oil platforms. The shortfall was put at about 1.1m bpd on the time.
Presently, OPEC sources reveal a shortfall in manufacturing from 1.54 million bpd to 1.47, and this impinges instantly on the budgetary projections based mostly on about 2.2 million bpd.
Mr President, your curiosity within the Rivers recreation is energy acquisition. You need to clinch the value of 2027, and Wike is your anchor, with one leg in Abuja and one other in Rivers. You aren’t perceived as impartial within the recreation. In what seems to be a zero-sum recreation, you would possibly threat shedding Rivers and the nation if the safety component of the disaster spirals uncontrolled. Play the position of an neutral arbiter, and rattling partisanship, there must be a rustic earlier than you’ll be able to govern.
Mr President, to paraphrase Patrick Wilmot, my comrade, otherwise, I’ve held up a mirror so to see the fact of the Rivers state of affairs and navigate the waters with dexterity. Should you ignore my recommendation, it won’t alter my prognosis.
Akhaine is a Professor of Political Science on the Lagos State College.
