Issues
2015 Elections And Our Global Image
The stage is now set for
the much awaited and much talked about 2015 general election. It is a crucial election. This election offers us the opportunity to prove our self before the international community, whose eyes are all over us.
“We are interested in Nigeria because it is the Big Brother of our region. What happens in Nigeria affects us all, not just in West Africa but Africa as a whole”, says Mr. Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Beyond Africa, Nigeria is a major contributor to the UN Peace Keeping Force and currently sits at the UN Security Council. Certainly all eyes worldwide are on us and we face a huge political test for our future rating in the international forum. We must pass this crucial test.
The presidential candidates, the gubernatorial candidates, the National and State Assembly candidates have talked to us. We have all listened to the issues they raised. Some draw us to the fact that most of our politicians are very desperate. Their utterances give the impression that Nigeria will become a super state where the system of delivery has fully developed overnight. For instance, a vice presidential candidate of one of the political parties told us that her party if elected, would create eight million jobs in one year. Most politicians believe they could use whatever means necessary to achieve their objective. It is a huge insult on the enlightened electorate for one to fool us by making us believe they are magicians who will turn the country into an utopia state overnight. This is the handiwork of weak politicians whose desire is to hoodwink the electorate.
We all know that the presidential garment will be won by one of the aspirants. No one can predict right now who will win. Obviously some have what others lack, and we all have our shaky favourites in the race.
The best leader is the one who has the support of majority of the people he aspires to lead. This is why the conventional method of choosing leaders all over the civilized world is to go to the polls to seek the choice of the people. Unlike the pre-war political parties, all the present crew have national outlook and the appearance of competence. Nevertheless, whoever wins will still require the team-work of the other crew.
In the words of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan “the present system of winner takes all is causing problems. We should come up with a system that will ensure that when a party wins the governorship or the presidential at the national level, in forming cabinet, the parties that did very well will also by right, by law and not by privilege or discretion of the governor or the president, be meant to have a share of appointments in that government. If this is done, they will be mindful of their conduct and utterances”
Twenty years ago, late Professor Claude Ake strongly warned against this when he said, “ln Nigeria the struggle for political power is so intense that political competition escalates to a form of warfare. What causes this is the simple fact of political power being so highly valued. The more political power is valued, the more intense the struggle for it. In Nigeria, where the capture of state means everything, it is naturally pursued with maniacal zeal. Those who win state power can have all the wealth they want even without working while those who lose the struggle for state power cannot have security in the wealth they have made ever by hard work. The capture of state power inevitably becomes a matter of life or death. This is one reason why our politics is so intense, anarchic and violent”.
A world renowned Professor of History, Prof. Philipp Gigantes in his book – Power & Greed, described some human beings thus: “There are people who insist on breakup or circumventing society’s rules. They always want more and more and hence they disturb the social order. They are Manichaeans, creators as well as destroyers. They can be compared to the dominant male in a pride of lions. The rest of the pride does all the work to get a kill, the dominant male gets the best share of the mean, all the sex and he does the serious roaring, the dominant lion has the power and he has the greed … Augustus, the first Roman Emperor acquired absolute power which led inevitably to absolute corruption”. It is obvious he was referring to Nigerian leaders.
The plain truth is that politicians who are seen not to give a damn about morality are increasingly finding themselves devoid of support. But mere lack of support could easily spread outward and onward to a wholesale distrust and lack of interest in politics in general. And if that were to happen we would have a situation in which the mass of the people would abrogate their political responsibility. For that to happen would be a calamity.
Let us avoid doing things that bring disgrace to Nigeria. At the 2015 General Elections Sensitisation Workshop on Non-violence held in Abuja recently where the former Secretary General of UN, Mr. Kofi Annan, was the guest speaker, one of the presidential candidates, Professor Comfort Oluremi Sonaiya (Kowa Party), said that it was disgraceful to invite the international community to discuss how we can organize our election. I totally agree with the ‘professor. This is because in 2005, a cabinet minister in President Museveni’s government of Uganda while addressing a political rally asked the people not to behave like Nigerians who do not know how to count themselves. What a huge insult. A swift, prompt and brilliant reaction from Nigeria High Commission in Kampala saved my face.
Let us aim at having a credible election this time around. Let us give Professor Jega and INEC a chance and for once have a credible election. Let us for once surprise the world by conducting a free, fair and credible poll that would satisfy the democratic tenets of one man one vote. Let us all work and move this great country forward.
What is necessary now is the re-establishment of solid moral standards of behaviour. We as a nation now stands at such an advanced stage of knowledge of all kinds- medical, technology, scientific, agricultural and educational. What a great opportunity. Never before in history has there been such a colossal potential for achievement or wastage. Let us use our perception, intelligence, sensitivities and nerve ending to avoid disaster and to save something true and fine.
We will have one president after the elections. The first assignment of our president should be to assume the role of a political agent of national unification. He must rule with a truly national face otherwise he is not fit to lead. He must dare to offer the country the truth in the hope that it will have the sense to embrace him.
The duty to cast coyness aside in the interest of national unity does not lie upon the President alone. But he as a leader cannot afford to be arrogantly reluctant to tell the nation of its sickness and to specify his remedies.
There will be people of proven political integrity who may not belong to the same political camp with the President. Mr. President should endeavour to bring such men and women to his fold to help build a healthier and happier nation. It requires great political will to take such a decision. But it is time to set aside old bitterness and rivalries. Let us agree with each other and live in peace.
Many will say that such a unification is impossible and that one excludes the other. But just as a week is long time so nothing is impossible in politics. The division and animosities of the past will remain, but politicians are used to pretending these do not exist. We are all Nigerians and it is time we forgot our personal antipathies.
One thinks the president and the rest of the national leaders must acknowledge this fact with appropriate humility and offer themselves as non-sectarian nationalists pledged to clear up the mess we are in. This can only be achieved by team work.
We all know all the people contesting election in the places we registered to vote. Let us examine each of them thoroughly and vote wisely, using our God given conscience. This is the most essential duty we all owe ourselves, our children and our great country, Nigeria.
Let us learn to tolerate one another and live peacefully together like brothers and sisters and avoid doing things that will make us perish together as fools.
Sir Ichoku (JP), was Director, Public Enlightenment, Ministry of Information and Communications, Rivers State.
Anthony Ichoku
APC Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (right), with his running mate, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo during a campaign rally in Port Harcourt.
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
