By: Sam Nda-Isaiah
They said we are nobody. Then they have seen. When you are dealing with
nobody, be careful. The nobody will show you that he is somebody. We will make
sure they will not sleep again. As they are sleeping, they will not sleep with
their two eyes closed. One eye will be open, because they know there is
danger.”
You won’t believe it but this statement was made by a minister of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. The minister of state for education, Mr Nyesom
Wike, who is at the centre of the crisis in Rivers State with the clear support
of the president, Goodluck Jonathan, and the co-president, Patience Jonathan,
now operates above the law in the state. To worsen the joke, he has even
declared for the governorship of the state. It is very hard to believe that a serving
minister would make that kind of statement and still be kept in the cabinet by
the president. But that has been our lot since Jonathan became president.
For those who may not know, the minister of state has virtually
relocated to Port Harcourt to organise his thugs, and he is the force behind
getting five state legislators to impeach the speaker in the House of Assembly
made up of 32 members. His plan, of course, was to organise these five people
to impeach the governor. And if that had happened, police commissioner Joseph
Mbu would have been on hand to enforce it. That was Mbu’s mission to the state
in any case. Both Wike and Mbu have been indicted by the National Assembly in
the Rivers disgraceful crisis, yet the president has refused to remove them. In
fact, the IGP has just announced that police commissioner Mbu is one of the
best “professional” policemen that the Nigerian police can boast of. I want to
assume that the IGP was misquoted. Because if it is true that Mbu is one of the
best that we have, then, the entire police force should be disbanded
immediately. No decent nation should keep that kind of police force.
It was also Wike’s thugs that stoned the five governors that went on a
solidarity visit to Governor Amaechi, when the plot to impeach him with five
legislators out of 32 collapsed. It was also reported that the minister had to
rush to Port Harcourt on that same day to ensure that the stoning of the
governors was carried out “professionally”. A serving minister? Only in
Jonathan’s government of course.
It is probably in appreciation of all these professional services that
Dame Patience recently publicly endorsed the minister. Speaking at the wedding
reception of a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Evans Bapakaye
Bipi (one of the five anti-Amaechi members and the one who specifically ordered
the police to shoot the governor when the governor arrived in the House on the
day of the crisis), the first lady declared: “Wike has been a major unifier for
the state; it is him that has made it possible for me to be here today. We need
peace in the state; if not for Wike, I wouldn’t be opportune to be here today.
It is good to be good. Wike, I doff my hat for you.” Imagine the kind of
company our first lady enjoys. Nigerians have never seen anything like this
before.
The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has to raise his
standards. He cannot continue to keep a minister like Wike in his cabinet. And
Nigerians are embarrassed at the kind of company their president keeps. If it
is not Wike, it is Tompolo, Dokubo-Asari and their ilk.
The Niger Delta has some of the most enlightened, educated and serious
people in the country. Many of them are very well-known in the public and
private sectors of this country. If our president wants to choose company from
these, he has many, many of such people to choose from. Not Wike, not Tompolo,
not Dokubo-Asari, for God’s sake.
EARSHOT
Must They Deny Everything?
Last week, the African Development Bank released a report which showed
that poverty increased in Nigeria in the 14 years that the PDP has been in
power. This report of course tallies with similar reports from several
respected global institutions. Besides, Nigerians do not need any report to
know that the only real achievement of the successive PDP governments at the
federal level in the last 14 years has been the deepening of poverty in spite
of the very good prices crude oil has attracted since 1999. Before the PDP came
to power on May 29, 1999, crude oil prices under General Abacha and Abdulsalami
hovered around $20 per barrel, sometimes even much less. But it was under
Obasanjo that the price got as high as $140 per barrel. It currently sells for
$106 per barrel. Yet, poverty and unemployment since 1999 have continued to
rise. The recent World Bank report actually said unemployment rate in Nigeria
increased from 12 per cent of the working age population in 2006 to 24 per cent
in 2011 under President Jonathan and went further to declare that the official
definition of employment in Nigeria is unusual and therefore not comparable to
what obtains in most countries. What that means in plain English is that
Nigeria’s current unemployment rate in real terms could be more than 50 per
cent. Recently, there was a vacancy for 10 people in a well-known
establishment, and 10,000 qualified people applied. Many PhDs have applied to
be truck drivers with the Dangote Group. The chairman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote,
himself said so not long ago.
As usual, the presidency has denied the AfDB poverty report on Nigeria.
But must they deny everything no matter how silly such denials may sound?
Friends of the presidency should advise them to stop making a fool of
themselves. Maybe the PDP mandarins need to know that Nigerians have renamed
the PDP “Poverty Development Party”. I hope this helps the PDP to refocus and
restrategise, especially now that there is a real alternative platform, instead
of lying to themselves.
Leadership
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