Last Easter Sunday, I put a call through to my brother and friend, Professor Steve Azaiki, a two-time secretary to the Bayelsa State government, who was holidaying with his family in Port Harcourt. He was away in Canada when the much talked about re-run election or bloodletting in Rivers State took place on March 19. I had asked him: “How is Port Harcourt?” In a subdued voice, he responded thus: “Port Harcourt is there looking like maybe Afghanistan or Syria. Anywhere you want to go, people will caution you not to venture into that area. Well, I don’t know. I don’t know!”
For a person like Azaiki who likes to move around, visit people and places, it was a great lamentation. His obvious disgust on the security situation in Port Harcourt, the Garden City, now, turned into a place where life seems to be “short and brutish,” may have echoed the opinion of quite a lot of residents of the city.
Port Harcourt was virtually a no-go area during the hot days of the militants’ agitation in the Niger Delta region. That was a time people moved about in fear and trepidation. Today, that era seems to have crept back into the Garden City. This time, not because of any agitation for resource control, but because of the selfish interest of some greedy politicians who will stop at nothing to remain relevant in the politics of Rivers State.
The type of bitter politics that is being played in Rivers today is unparalleled in the history of the country. Perhaps, it can only be compared with the wetie period in the old Western Region, which earned the region the sobriquet “Wild-Wild-West”. That was the time unimaginable violence and arson took over the entire Western Region in the early-60s. The acronym wetie, meaning “pour petrol”, was notoriously acquired as people were doused with petrol in broad daylight, lit with matches and allowed to roast alive while people watched in horror. Houses were also wantonly burnt down. It is a similar scenario currently playing out in Rivers. Many lives have been lost to gun attacks or by the more cruel, callous and dastardly system of beheading by roving head hunters moving from one community to another, hacking down people and burning houses any time of the day.
In spite of the restriction of movement on March 19, the day of the election and the flooding of the state with security operatives, several deaths and destruction of property were recorded in the state. Why the heavy presence of security agents in the state could not deter the criminal gangs, is still a mystery. What it simply means is that the killer gangs have godfathers and sponsors who enjoy some form of official protection. Otherwise, the gangs would not have been so bold to defy the heavy presence of security agents to perpetrate their evil deeds.
At any rate, there are two major political parties locked in a fratricidal war for the control of the soul of Rivers’ politics. They are the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Congress, APC. Since the return to democracy in the country in 1999, the PDP had been at the helm of affairs in the state until some years ago when Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the then sitting governor, who was on the final lap of his second-term tenure as governor, fell out with his party, PDP. He then pitched his tent with the APC, an amalgamation of four or five political parties and a breakaway faction of the PDP. Since then, Rivers politics has never been the same.
Attempt by Amaechi, the then outgoing governor, now current Minister of Transportation, to garner support for his surrogate to succeed him failed. Instead, Nyesom Wike, then Minister of State for Education and one-time chief of staff to Amaechi, beat Amaechi to the game and emerged as governor. In the first instance, people say Wike had actually been Amaechi’s godfather until he, Wike, was cleverly eased out of government and consequently sent to “Siberia” in Abuja where he was made a junior minister. When invariably Amaechi fell out with former President Goodluck Jonathan, Wike gained prominence and became a rallying point for the PDP in Rivers State. He exploited his inner knowledge of Amaechi’s government including his (Amaechi’s) strength and weaknesses to undo his former boss.
As it is, going by the result of the re-run election with PDP winning three House of Representatives seats and nine House of Assembly seats, to APC’s two seats in the results so far declared by the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, no matter what, it goes to confirm Rivers State as being firmly in the hands of the PDP. This is, probably, a bitter pill Amaechi and his supporters find hard to swallow.
There is no doubt that Amaechi is a strong man politically. He is bold and serious minded too. But his rating at home in Rivers seems to be nose-diving for some reasons. Truly, people say he did not keep open doors when he was governor. He was said to have bolted the door against many people on the advise of Wike, his former chief of staff, who, incidentally, is now the governor of the state. Even within his kitchen cabinet, the Ikwerre-born politician had those that were close to his heart, while others complained bitterly. One thing to remember is that when Amaechi moved to APC, he urged his commissioners and others to embark on “Operation meet your people.” Whether the exercise produced the desired result or not, is left for Rivers people to determine.
Again, his disagreement with former President Goodluck Jonathan seems to have plummeted his popularity at home. Frankly speaking, many in the Niger Delta feel that he betrayed Jonathan. Another challenge Amaechi is faced with is that he had followers who he empowered. These followers like him, but they cannot embark on a deadly fight for him. Yes, Amaechi embarked on a deadly fight for President Muhammadu Buhari, but how many of his followers can embark on a deadly battle for the immediate past governor at the moment?
On the other hand, Wike has been trying to impress the Rivers people since he became governor about 10 months ago. He has recalled the judiciary and university workers and paid them their salaries. He has also embarked on the completion of road projects started under his predecessor and many other projects to the delight of the people. All these possibly account for the support he is now enjoying in the state.
With the perceived arm-twisting posture of the APC in Rivers, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Taraba and other states controlled by the opposition, some people, rightly or wrongly, believe there is no remarkable difference between the APC and the PDP. That is why the people’s sympathy for the APC appears to be waning. It now behoves on these two combatants – Wike and Amaechi – who obviously have said too many unprintable things to demonise and denigrate one another, to stop using gutter language on themselves while their people are suffering.
Rivers people want peace. Therefore, to find a lasting solution to the violence and bloodletting that has taken over Rivers State, two people, Wike and Amaechi, must sit together and iron out their differences. This is all an ego thing. That is why the talk of imposing a state of emergency in the state is an idle talk because it is a supremacy war between two political antagonists. Unfortunately, it is the innocent, ordinary man on the street that is bearing the brunt. As they say, when two elephants fight, it is the grass beneath their feet that suffers. Wike and Amaechi are not greater than Rivers State. Let them embrace peace and rein in their foot soldiers.
NATION
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