Irked by alleged dictatorial tendencies of President Goodluck Jonathan, Hundreds of diaspora Nigerians, resident in London, today, picketed 10 Downing Street, where they presented a copy of their petition to the British Prime Minister.
The Petition, titled UNSUSTAINABLE LEVEL OF ORCHESTRATED POLITICAL TENSIONS IN NIGERIA and signed by Daniel Timi Kurobo,reads,
“Nigeria burns and a conflagration will have severe consequences internationally if not immediately stopped. As a matter of fact, democracy in Nigeria is slowly but surely inching closer to an early grave. Nigeria is close to the precipice –suggesting the possibility of another military coup which we do not want. But it may shock you to know that Nigerians in their teeming numbers are already canvassing for this as the only antidote to a budding civilian dictatorship. This is more of a grave concern as you could imagine.
Distinguished Prime minister, Sir, we are by this significant protest today right at your official premises and in the act of the presentation of our petition seeking your immediate intervention in Nigeria before it is too late and intractable to do so. Your timely intervention through a fact-finding mission to Nigeria is of utmost concern considering the grave implication the crisis in Nigeria could have on the international community, particularly Britain. Our fears arise from the dangerous use of federal might by the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration to undermine democratic structures in Rivers State. Plans are also at advanced stage to expand this political subterfuge to other states in the federation as Nigeria approaches the 2015 general elections. The next is Niger State and followed by Lagos and Jigawa States. The existing state of emergency in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States is also part of the scheme.
To underscore this concern, Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka’s (All Newspapers in Nigeria, May 6, 2013) recent comment on the development was quite significant. Soyinka in reaction to the series of events in South-South Nigeria’s Rivers State had warned that the situation had reached an unsustainable level as tension reigned in Port Harcourt. In the statement, entitled: “Cool it, President Goodluck Jonathan,” the Nobel Laureate had urged the President to break the culture of federal executive impunity in Rivers State:
“The increasing flash points in the nation have reached an unsustainable level, and responsible governance must accept that it is an urgent duty to diminish, not increase them. Even the notoriously short Nigerian memory remains traumatised by recollection of the rape of Anambra [State] that was enabled by the connivance of federal might, and the abandonment of all moral scruples in executive disposition. The people of Ogun State were humiliated by the antics of a power besotted governor, with their elected legislators locked out of the National Assembly for upwards of a year. That hideous travesty was again made possible by the abusive use of the police. Even a child in this nation knows that the police derive its enabling and operational authority from the dictates of the centre, so there can be no disguising whose will is being executed wherever democratic norms are flouted and the people’s rights ground to mush under dictatorial heels. Before the irretrievable point of escalation is reached, we have a duty to sound a collective alarm, even without the lessons of past violations of constitutional rights and apportionments of elected representatives of the people, and their consequences.
“There is an opportunity in Rivers State to break this spiraling culture of [Federal]executive impunity – manifested in both subtle and crude ways – that is fast becoming the norm in a post-military dispensation that fitfully aspires to be called a democracy.
Soyinka also warned that mounting impunity is sliding the country in the direction of danger, calling for a halt before matters get out of hand. He also identified three institutions responsible for what he termed “this gathering dark cloud” as federal might, the Executive, and the police. This was the second time in three months that the Nobel laureate will be sounding warning of a progression to a state of impunity in the county. He concluded by saying that for democracy in Nigeria to survive, then, “the Jonathan administration should look in the direction of the current escalation in federally inspired attack in Rivers State to calm the nerves of the police.”
In spite of Soyinka’s warning the Federal Government of Nigeria to date still maintains this seeming abuse of office and continues to the democratic structures in Rivers State. The Commissioner of Police of Rivers State, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu is directly being instigated by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Inspector General of the Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar; and should be held accountable for any breakdown of law and order.
The above is premised on the following facts:-
1.On April 22, 2013 Rivers State House of Assembly suspended Obio/Akpor Local Government Council Chairman and other council members based on a petition bordering on allegations of financial impropriety and other fraud related allegations.
2.On April 23, 2013, a Caretaker Committee led by Mr. Chikodi Dike was constituted and sworn in.
3.On May 2, 2013, First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan stops over at Port Harcourt International Airport, enroute to Bayela State. At the airport, the First Lady encountered Mr. Dike and addressed him publicly as illegal Chairman of Obio/Akpor. Then she turned to the State Director of SSS and summoned him to a meeting in Yanagoa, Bayelsa State.
4.On May 3, 2013, the Commissioner of Police, Rivers state; MR MBU JOSEPH MBU ordered the invasion, sealing-off, and besieging of Obio/Akpor Local Government Council Secretariat, without any valid instrument of law or justification, preventing the carrying on of legitimate businesses of the council. The Commissioner of Police actually sealed Obio/Akpor Council Secretariat with Mobile Police Officers and Armored Personnel Carriers, (APCs) claiming bomb scam and said it was based on the orders of IGP.
5.On May 5, 2013, more than Three hundred (300) hoodlums and gun brandishing gangsters were allowed into the Rivers state House of Assembly (Legislature) premises chanting war songs. The Assembly complex which is directly adjacent to the Police Headquarters in Moscow Road was not provided with any form of protection. The Divisional Officer (D/O) of the Assembly Police Station had disclosed that he was ordered by the Police Commissioner, MBU JOSEPH MBU to allow the hoodlums and gangsters access into the complex. This is also in the face of an earlier ordered withdrawal of security operatives deployed to protect the Assembly Complex on “orders from above” by the said Commissioner of Police. The Assembly Complex is currently sealed-off and under siege. The scenario also played out at the Obio/Akpor Council secretariat, Rumuodumaya on same day. At the moment, 27 members of the House and their families are under constant intimidation, threats of arrest and assassination by persons believed to have the tacit support of the Commissioner of Police, Rivers state. This development has made it practically impossible to carry out constitutional responsibilities
6On May 4, 2013, Commissioner of Police and other Rivers State Security Chiefs in charge of Army, Navy, Airforce and the Director of the State Security Services (SSS) met with the First Lady in Yenagoa, Bayelsa. This remains a constitutional breach and a provocative act of tyranny which ordinarily ought to have caused an immediate investigation by the National Assembly (NASS).This constitutional breach should be a weighty concern to the international community given that the First Lady can unilaterally enflame war against another country while the President is asleep. This development has caused restiveness in the Nigerian military and the implication cannot be ascertained now.
The orchestrated political tension as inspired by the President, wife and his officials is an unfortunate development for Nigeria’s desperate search for a political order based on democracy. Almost simultaneously, an Abuja high court (that clearly has no jurisdiction to hear a matter of such nature) gave a politically toxic and legally dubious verdict, ceding control of the ruling PDP in Rivers State to an anti-Amaechi party executive. This was done to instigate violence in Rivers State, thus introducing a dangerous dimension to the crisis in Nigeria – the Jonathan-led administration intimidates and has successfully coaxed the judiciary to submission. Now, the administration now writes legal decisions for judges. In a choreographed series of consequent manoeuvres inspired by the President and his officials, the new PDP executive in the state has quickly issued a series of directives to both factional party faithful and even the elected government of the state. The undisguised aim is to antagonise the sitting governor of the state and create an atmosphere of confusion.
In tow, the Nigeria police command in the state has acted in an obvious partisan routine that leaves no other assumption than that it is out to protect the anti-Amaechi forces. It has taken over the premises of a duly constituted local government and overrun the premises of the State House of Assembly. As if that is not enough, the police have also withdrawn police security from a sitting local government chairman and other officials for daring to openly express support for the Governor – thus leaving them vulnerable to attacks.
This disturbing development has further strengthened the arguments of those who have canvassed for the establishment of State Police in each state of the federation. Now, with the development in Rivers state, evidence on the ground suggests that no fewer than 21 states have resolved to go ahead with the establishment of state Police irrespective of concerns on the modalities for recruitment.
These developments in Rivers state came in the immediate aftermath of a series of Abuja meetings between the president and a selection of governors in a bid to convince them to avoid re-electing Governor Amaechi who sought and convincingly won a second term as Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum. The failure of the President’s candidate for this same election has upped the ante, resulting to the President breaking the group into two factions.
All these have been intended to provoke Governor’s camp into violence in Rivers State even though the governor has decided to pursue his case through legal process. The Governor has notably advised all his supporters and aides not to engage in any form of violence, no matter the provocation. When some thugs imported from neighbouring states and ex-militants almost overran the Government House in Port Harcourt on May 16, 2013, the governor told security men not to fire a shot. To avoid mayhem, the governor left the Government House. Amaechi’s position is that democracy can only thrive where the rule of law is allowed to take its normal course. The introduction of the ex-militants into the crisis was to prevent the Governor from traveling Governors Forum election.
When a president of a federation recruits ex-militants and terrorists to fight his political battles, he is not only setting a dangerous precedent, he is also showing how he has unknowingly rubbished the significance of the most exalted office in the land. Mr. Prime Minister, you may wish to imagine what the perception of the good people of Britain would be if you employ the masterminds of that dastardly and condemnable Woolwich killings as your political thugs in the next elections. In Nigeria, it is regrettable that is the only practical credential needed by the federal authorities to employ them as thugs in the next elections. This explains why it is feared that the unnecessary prolongation of the Boko Haram crisis is deliberate design for the 2015 elections.
Taken together, these events and actions indicate clearly that the democracy travails in Rivers State are coming directly from the presidency in Abuja. The footprints are all too familiar: presidential political displeasure with a governor followed by the unleashing of the instruments of the federal state to intimidate and harass the offending governor; EFCC, spurious allegations of wrongdoing, the use of the security apparatus to partisan ends, the recruitment of political jobbers and miscreants to create confusion and compromising the judiciary to obtain court judgments that will justify a forcible takeover of the administration of the state through the declaration of a state of emergency. This seems to be the path that the Jonathan forces are striding on the matter of Rivers State.
Beyond this repugnant show of Abuja might, however, the Rivers State situation has implications that go far beyond the immediate egos and personalities in the conflict. Unless it is checked now and effectively too, a number of tragic consequences await Nigeria and the international community. Party elders in the state have expressed their displeasure at the turn of events. Labour has sounded a note of warning. Students and youth of the state and the nation have indicated that they will defend Amaechi. The ordinary people of Rivers State are unhappy that their recent developmental gains may be lost if anything untoward happens to Amaechi. A critical majority of governors of both the PDP and the opposition parties have weighed in on Amaechi’s side. An otherwise localised development looks set to aggravate tensions in a nation already beset by numerous national security threats.
In a multi-pronged tactical battle against the Rivers governor, the Presidency began releasing a torrent of accusations against Amaechi:
of using the NGF to challenge Jonathan’s authority.
On realising that the above accusation may be too tenuous to justify, since he was only a spokesman of the NGF, then the next accusation became that Amaechi was having the ambition to contest the presidential election as a running mate to either Jigawa Governor Sule Lamido or Niger Governor Babangida Aliyu. None of the presidential handlers had mentioned when mere ambition has become a sin in a democracy.
Amaechi has been brazenly tagged a traitor to Jonathan’s second term undeclared ambition, and therefore a traitor to Niger Delta interests. This was reinforced so profoundly by Nigeria’s ex Niger Delta militant leader, Asari Dokubo. These attacks are ultimately aimed at achieving one objective – prevent him from having a hand in who become the governor of Rivers state and the president of the federation in 2015. Mr. Prime Minister, it may interest you to note that other militants in the league of Asari Dokubo have also threatened to go to war if the president loses the 2015 elections. To this, the northern youth have also dared them to commence the war now because they would not vote for the president. Thus, you could imagine that war already looms in Nigeria long before the 2015 elections.
These assaults are likely to mortally injure Nigeria’s quest for a viable democratic culture. If the crime of the governor is that he is opposed to the president on a number of national issues, then there is the need to review our understanding of democracy. The freedom to canvass opposing views is integral to any healthy democratic culture. Even the fact of belonging to the same party does not deprive individual partisan leaders of the right to disagree on policies and issues. In the best of democratic traditions, most large political parties contain various strands and tendencies. We see the emergence of radicals like Rotimi Amaechi in the PDP as a healthy development if the party were to reform itself and align with the currents in the larger polity. The rise of a progressive arm of the PDP would be the best guarantee that the party will not be swept out of power by the oncoming gale of progressivism that is the driving force of the new opposition merger.
Even if the governor were to challenge President Jonathan in an open convention for the next presidential ticket of the PDP, it would enhance the democratic credentials of a party that makes such a contest possible. For instance, the current vice-president of South Africa is on record as having contested against President Jacob Zuma in the last presidential elections. In spite of that, they have worked together and the ANC is the stronger for it. Similarly, Hillary Clinton waged a vicious contest for the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket against Barack Obama but ended up being one of America’s best Secretaries of State in US history and easily Obama’s greatest political asset and ally.
Beside the above, there is the determined attempt by the federal administration in re-igniting the violent arm of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) in order to replicate what Boko Haram has done in parts of North in South-West Nigeria. This is in the guise of employing the OPC militants to protect petroleum pipelines in the region and through the formation of the Unity Party of Nigeria. This is aimed at reducing the influence of the dominant political gladiators – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the region. Your Excellency, if these undemocratic practices under the Jonathan-led administration persists and spreads and in addition to the Boko Haram insurgencies in Northern Nigeria, there is every possibility that more than Thirty Million Nigerians would be seeking asylum in Western nations, particularly in Britain.
Your Excellency is hereby invited to note that your prompt intervention hinged mainly on your democratic values and concerns for international conflicts, would be in the interest of all friends of Nigeria and chiefly for a nation perennially beset with problems of grave strategic implications. What we ask for is so minimal -:
the enthronement of genuine democracy in Nigeria;
dictatorship in Nigeria must be condemned by the international community
holding the despot in Abuja accountable for any breakdown of law and order in Nigeria;
the president must stop the provocative act of monopolising political ambitions;
The Jonathan-led administration must stop fraternising with militants and terrorists;
President Goodluck Jonathan should be encouraged to be a moderate, outward-looking, pluralistic and democratic; and
The president must prove he can lead and govern.
Accept the assurances of our high esteem.”
