The current face-off between the Presidency and Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, is unpatriotic, and most embarrassing to Nigerians, more so, as it is widely believed that Amaechi is being persecuted for nursing ambitions to contest the 2015 presidential election; against the consuming desires of an imperial president Goodluck Jonathan, who is now standing trial in the court of public opinion for lacking in vital attributes of political tolerance and democratic engagement. Nigerians are apprehensive of the Gestapo tactics being employed against real or perceived enemies of the administration; fearing that the country is gradually receding to the transmutation trajectory of military dictatorship which stifled Nigeria, claimed the lives of many patriots and brought shame upon the country. This macabre dance must therefore stop in the interest of peace and stability. It must stop.
The on-going re-enactment of the antics of military dictatorship has contributed in no small way to heat up the polity; which has thus been dangerously divided into two camps – those who support the yet-to-be-declared ambition of the incumbent President and those who are perceived to oppose it. The latter group are now persona non grata; endangered species against whom the might and resources of the state are being deployed. The public face of this misguided political vendetta is Amaechi, but there are many other silent victims of such invidious persecution going on underneath because of their refusal to buy into the “no vacancy agenda.”
The Jonathan-Amaechi saga reached a climax recently with the assault on the Rivers State government during which the State Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu disgracefully acted out a script against Amaechi which seems to have been orchestrated and masterminded by unseen powers in Abuja. The incontrovertible complicity of the presidency was illustrated by the unprofessional meddling of federal security agents, particularly the Nigeria Police, in the saga. The insubordination of Commissioner Mbu was such that he had to openly challenge Amaechi and, therefore, confirmed the suspicion that he is carrying out a hidden agenda against the Rivers chief executive. This insolence is unacceptable. Amaechi plans to lead street protests against the continuing presidential meddlesomeness and has dared Mbu, to shoot him if he wished. This should worry the president!
The jury is out and the sympathies of ordinary Nigerians and the international community lie with Amaechi. It is an open secret that the President is using proxies, including his wife, Patience Jonathan; the Minister of State for Education, Nysome Wike, Police Commissioner Mbu and Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio to destabilize Amaechi. But the Presidency does not know how to give its own compelling account, to effectively puncture the pro-Amaechi narrative. Jonathan’s handlers have failed woefully in their efforts to extricate the president from the crisis. When Reuben Abati says; “We are constrained to state once again that there is absolutely no factual basis for suggestions that some of the politicians involved in the current dispute are acting at the behest of the President,” he is just making a fool of himself and ridiculing the president. The more Jonathan tries to remove himself, the more he gets entangled. If he says he has no hands in the things happening in Rivers, people instantly shout liar! Yet, his silence speaks even louder. Anything Jonathan does and says or does not do and say, counts against him.
The acts that built up the drama to this crescendo are public knowledge. One is that the President; against good advice, made a profound political miscalculation and error of judgment in overreacting to Amaechi’s purported ambition of running as a Vice Presidential candidate to a yet to be announced presidential aspirant in 2015. There is also the allegation that Jonathan caused some 300 oil wells to be moved from Rivers to his home Bayelsa State to reward Governor Seriake Dickson for his loyalty and punish Amaechi for his recalcitrance. But the breath-taking build-up to the election of a new chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the outcome of the election, more than anything else, lifted the drama to the combustible point that was witnessed at the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The situation in Rivers is nothing but a manifestation of the deepening crisis of the political culture of impunity devoid of maturity and tolerance that has held the country hostage for years. The situation is bewildering because it is happening under a supposedly democratic system of government. Also, it is ironic because democracy is generally reputed to have inbuilt institutional mechanisms, both formal and informal, for addressing political differences and conflict of interests. Interestingly, the accommodation of dissent has been recognized as a fundamental element in any democracy. Unfortunately, the present dispensation even under a self-styled transformational president remains addicted to garrison or “do-or-die” politics.
Little surprise the presidency has opted to suffocate the political space through executive lawlessness and the excessive deployment of incumbency power. Recourse to the abuse of presidential power to deal with Amaechi is not a sign of political strength. Rather, it is a manifestation of an embarrassingly low level of political maturity, as much as a sign of indecorum, especially by the president and his handlers. Else, how can anyone explain the spectacle of a state Commissioner of Police threatening and harassing a state governor, the statutory chief security officer of the state? Expectedly, the action provoked an outcry from many quarters in Nigeria over the Gestapo methods now being employed by the administration. Everyone in the corridors of power has denied ordering the police assault on the Rivers State assembly. So who did?
By threatening to withdraw the security aides of the governor, for whatever reason, the police demonstrated their undue politicization and high unprofessionalism. Their action approximates the ugly treatment experienced by then Anambra Governor, Chris Ngige during which his security aides were suddenly withdrawn, paving the way for his unconstitutional removal from office in what many had labeled a civilian coup masterminded by dark politician forces opposed to him. After over a decade of democratic experiment, there should be no more room for such conducts. Trying to emasculate Amaechi is a meaningless show of power. It is totally against all known norms of political decency.
Regrettably, the conflict has been needlessly fierce, untidy, unsparing and generally divisive. The inability of the President, so far, to handle the situation in a civilized manner is a pointer to the abysmal rating of the political leadership in the country and its immaturity. The growing trend of security agents being used to harass real or perceived opponents of the president is frightening. Put in context, the conflict should not be seen as one between President Jonathan and Governor Amaechi, but one between the Nigerian people and a rapacious, vampire, political elite. Whenever democracy is under assault, all well-meaning Nigerians of conscience must stand up and defend it. The time to rise in defence of democracy is now!
