Issues
Much Ado About A Ministerial List
The much-talked about and long awaited list of ministerial hopefuls from President Muhammadu Buhari finally arrived the offie of the President of the Senate on Wednesday, 30 September, 2015, in the evening hours. Bearing the envelop that contained the very important document were the Presidnet’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang.
On hand to receive the special package from the top ranking presidential aides was the chairman of the National Assembly and chief presiding officer of the upper legislative chamber, Dr. Bukola Saraki himself. The envelop was confirmed unbroken, its content secure.
Snapshots were taken to sign off the brief event. Soon after, words got out to the media announcing the accomplishment to the waiting world.
Soon after assuming office on May 29, 2015, Nigerians expected the president to name his team of cabinet members to kickstart the full operations of the his administration. But as days turned into weeks and weeks into months, quiet expectation gave way to a flurry of analysis and counter analysis, arguments and counter arguments about why and why not the president was delaying fully setting up his government. While some were quick to say that the president was simply being sluggish in his approach to the matter and many other matters, others argued that the president was only being meticulous and was taking time to weigh his options before making his decisions in order to avoid mistakes.
In fact, some others accused the number one citizen of intentions of running the government as a sole administrator and a maximum ruler. But many rose to his defence, insisting that the president needed not be stampeded into making hasty appointments that could jeopardize his government from the word go. This group argued that the president’s lofty intentions and dogged determination to stamp out corruption and enthrone honesty, transparency and integrity in the public service in our country would be compromised if he didn’t take time to comb all the nooks and crannies of the country to search out compatriots with the right qualification and attitude for the assignment.
As the arguments raged, the president and his aides appealed for patience and understanding for him to give to Nigeria and Nigerians the best the land can offer for the huge task of not only cleaning up Nigeria but also to rewire and regenerate the system morally, economically, socially and politically. To achieve this, they said he needed to spot those Nigerians with the requisite unimpeachable moral, professional and service records.
So, for four months, Nigerians waited as the president went about this onerous task in his own personal way, even as his own party confessed that they did not know what the president was doing as touching this subject matter. It was on his trip to the United States of America, on the invitation of President Barrack Obama that he put the time line of September, 2015 for the unveiling of his choice candidates for the job of ministers of the Federal Republic in this dispensation. He however reiterated that to effect the type of change that was necessary to move the nation out of the woods, only men and women of proven moral probity and professional competence and impeccable service records would be engaged.
However, in what some said was a betrayal of the true intents of the president, he told a television interview that though he intended to keep his earlier promised date of September to make known his ministerial appointments, he really wished that the end of the month would come much later than its time. In the said interview, the president disclosed his preference to work with career civil servants and technocrats instead of ministers who in his estimation make more noise than effective performance. Of course, as can be expected, the opposition and those who do not like the style of the president quickly turned on the heat on the president, accusing him of not only appreciating the job of the ministers but despising the office. According to them, the president could not be trusted to respect and accord due regard to his ministers since he could not stop appointing them because of the constitutional obligation upon him to do so.
Of course, the presidential spokesmen have not relented in explaining, arranging and re-arranging the words and the spirit behind the words of their principal.
Ordinarily, one would have expected that having kept faith with the promise within the said time frame with the delivery of the list on the last day of the month, the dust raised by the deliberate delay in ministerial appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari would have started settling. But this is far from the case.
The envelope that contains the list of the proposed appointees was said to be sealed. Those who delivered the envelope did not disclose the material content of the package. The president of the senate who took delivery of the package promised not to tamper with the seal until Tuesday, October 6, 2015 when he will open it before the house in plenary. No one has reported being consulted by the president in the making up of the list. What is contained in that envelop is said to have jumped out of the heart of the president and straight into the folded hard paper and sealed. How much of what is to be believed of what is on the pages of newspapers remain to be seen therefore. The social media is awash with various and varying versions and compositions of the names of individuals that are written in the paper of the chronicles of the ministerial nominees.
Indeed, what has generated so much interest in the composition of the president’s ministerial list is not anxiousness by Nigerians to know who and who to begin to align and re-align with for ministerial favours and patronage. This time around the interest is powered by curiosity to find out the identity of those Nigerians who are adjudged to have the character, credibility and competence to deliver on the change the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party, and the President, Muhammadu Buhari, preach – the change that Nigeria and Nigerians so desperately need to usher in national rebirth and true transformation.
Nigerians, no doubt need apostles of change, but those apostles can not inspire the confidence and zeal needed for the desired change if they are drawn from the old discredited stock and are dogged by corruption or have shadows of corruption still trailing them. A clean pair of hands is the requirement, they say, for those who must go to equity. However, for those who must be ministers of the Federal Republic in this era, a pair of washed hands would not suffice.
Nigerians would prefer that the hands of those who must be appointed ministers in this era must be fresh. And so must their hearts as well.
This nation cannot afford to engage people who would not give a hundred percent in their commitment and focus in service delivery to the generality of Nigerians. They must be people without any political scores to settle and no corruption ghosts to exorcise or dirty linens to launder. There is so much to be redeemed already. Any further distraction in whatever name and whatever guise will cause the nation more harm than good. Let the change truly begin and be seen to have begun by the crop of ministers that emerge from the president’s long and hard search for the true and faithful agents of change for Nigeria.
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
