DEMOCRACY remains the best form of government, however, its true and enduring dividends will continue to elude some parts of the world who claim to be practicing it, and this includes Nigeria for as long as a few strong men continue to Lord with impunity over the aggregate will of the people.
Whenever I listen to Nyeson Wike air his views on Nigeria and her evolving democracy, I hear less the voice of a Democrat, I don’t think he ever aspires or pretends to be one. I rather hear the bragging of an overreaching autocrat, an unforgiving and overbearing godfather and vailed despot. He again lived up to this billing in a live political/ current affairs program on Channels Television. Ever so brash ,ever so rash, he arrogantly bragged about how nobody in PDP can openly call him a mole working against the interest of the party.
He had earlier threatened to set fire on any State that supports Governor Fubara in the protracted battle of political supremacy and attrition in Rivers State. He talks in the mould of an emperor who personifies the State, his word is law and nobody dares hold or propagate any dissenting views.
The enduring democracies of modern societies could not have been built on the political antics and dispositions of people like Nyeson Wike with autocratic behavioural tendencies. Today, he is the undisputed god of Rivers State politics, the Lord of the Federal Capital Territory who has refused to forgive all those perceived to have played the ‘spoiler’ role in his 2023 attempt at being coronated President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It remains a matter of concern that undeveloped democracies like that of Nigeria, prepare for periodic elections same way developed nations build up for war.
He boasted that he is working against the PDP in the forthcoming Edo State governorship election stating that Governor Obaseki had appealed to him to change his position but that he will continue to drum support for the APC because his support for Obaseki to secure second tenure was rewarded with insults. He went ahead to admit that the State resident electoral commissioner is his cousin and that there’s nothing anybody can do about it. His words” Nobody can intimidate my cousin, not even the INEC Chairman. Nobody born of a woman can intimidate my cousin into doing what is not right.” A man who worked against the interest of his party in 2023 presidential election and is doing exactly the same thing in the Edo State governorship election is challenging anybody in PDP to come out in a public platform to call him a mole.
I feel for the people of Edo State who are going into elections against federal institutions, Agencies and political principalities of APC who though largely discredited are still bent on forcing their way into Dennis Osadebay government house, Benin City, Edo State. It is rather turning out to be intriguing how Edo 2024 is unfolding to be a proxy contest. On the ballot, Saturday’s governorship election features three main frontliners, Dr Asue Ighodalo of PDP, Senator Monday Okpebholo of the APC and Mr Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party.
However, it remains a keen, if not fierce contest among political gladiators whose names are not on the ballot. There are obviously outstanding scores to be settled by those whose names are not on the ballot yet they are hotly contending for political relevance. It remains interesting how Sen Oshiomhole has sustained the position of the chief spokesperson for the APC candidate. But alas, the electorate in Edo are too enlightened to be taken for granted. The heat from Edo is already smokingly palpable, no further stoking of the fire is needed from Wike and his likes.
We still can recall how Wike threatened any PDP governor, who interferes in the political affairs of Rivers State, warning that he would make their states ungovernable. Those were reckless statements devoid of every trace of Democratic refinement. I call on the good people of Edo State to be more resolute in defining and protecting their political paths away from the plundering tendencies of desperate political godfathers deploying the might of the Federal government to prosecute their self-perpetuating agenda
Politics in Rivers State has been too mucky since October 2023 for Wike to have any template to present on how any State can grow it’s democratic structures and institutions This surreal situation has spawned unfortunate and bloody occurrences, dangers to lives, and, in some instances, deaths that largely discredit the age long values of democracy.
The chaos that has become of Rivers State and the huge cost on governance is such that in saner climes, the Wikes of this world would have buried their heads in shame rather than periodic face saving television appearances.
The Rivers template indeed is what every well meaning Democrat should distance himself from for what it is, desecration of democratic norms and values.
Postscript
Scammers On The Prowl
THE persisting hardship in the country has led many into all manner of indecent and amoral behaviour and enterprise. No week passes by without encounters with people who in a desperate bid to survive resort to one form of scam or the other. Apart from those who ply their chosen enterprise on one online platform or the other, some have a barefaced encounter with their targeted victims with stories about how one relation or the other is very sick and urgent monetary and medical intervention will be needed. A whole lot of discernment is needed to sort out the genuine from the fake. Nigeria, sure, needs some functional social security schemes to assist people from degenerating from pitiable beggars to desperate scammers.
