By Rev Fr Gerald Nwafor
When it comes to the revenue of Nigeria River State, it is not a state to sneeze at because 25% of the crude oil revenue comes from there. Niger Delta region brings in about 60% of the total revenue.
Why should anyone play with that region? I was in university in the 1900s and early 2000s when that region held the whole country by the jugular. It took the good heart of the then president Shehu Yaradua to rescue the country. They reduced the production of crude oil from 2.4 million barrels a day to 700,000. Niger Delta as a whole is a very delicate area and Rivers State in particular should be handled with a lot of care.
The people who think that they can overrun Rivers because they were once governors should look back to the history of the people and realize that one man cannot do it alone. Maybe they are taking literally the words of Flavor the musician, “The emperor, the conqueror, the Lion, the champion is here.”
One basic fact that politicians always forget is the principle of political Godfather and Godson. In the Nigerian political terrain, I have yet to see where the Godson continued to be a slave to the Godfather after receiving the kind of power, money, and influence our politicos receive. The only place I have witnessed the Godfather and the Godson coexisting cordially is in the Catholic Church and some other Christian denominations.
After baptism the Godfather will continue his life and the Godson will continue to grow with little or no help from the Godfather. It is only in this Christian background that I have not witnessed a war between the Godfather and the Godson but politically I have seen many. The first civilian governor of River State (Odili) fathered Rotimi who fathered Wike and Wike fathered Sim.
A look at the history of Godfatherism will tell you that it didn’t work out well when Godfather wanted to control Godson. I have concluded that politicians do not read, and they do not learn from history. Since 1999, Nigeria has had a lot of lessons to learn from Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, Kwara, and Rivers about the relationship between the Godson and the Godfather.
Our people say that one person does not answer we/us/they/them (Ofu onye ada aza ibe anyi/ora).The judiciary made the judgment that Rivers State should not receive its monthly federal allocation. Mr. Judiciary, let me remind you that if anything happens to River State today, even your own salary will be withheld; because if you kill or starve the bird that lays the golden egg because of the selfish reason of one man, your daily bread will dry up. In the ’80s, Sunny Okosun sang that a hungry man is an angry man. If the people of Rivers cannot pay salaries and hospital support because the government they are supporting has failed to support them, the whole of Nigeria will boil.
Illusion is a very dangerous perception in human society. Kings and Queens have been led astray because of illusion. People told them that they were invincible and that they could do anything. The danger is that most of them bought into it and destroyed themselves, and their advisers would run away or in some cases would take their position.
Our people say that when the flute misled the powerful it went back into the pocket (Oja dufue dike oba na akpa). The people advising the president to scrap the Niger Delta ministry should remember where we were in the 1990s. It is not a good thing to wake up a sleeping lion (Onye akpana agu aka na odu, ma odi ndu, ma onwuru anwu).
The judiciary who knows the principle of a federating unit in a democracy should know that giving a judgment to withhold the monthly allocation of a state is against public policy and should not be considered in any way at all. I do not want to address the opinions of the Judge because we were told that the other party was not even allowed to make their argument, which violates a golden rule in the practice of justice (the two parties must be heard).
The former governor of Rivers State who is fighting to keep Rivers State under his power should take a clue from the history book which always starts with a simple statement, “Empires rise and fall.” He was in power for 8 good years without any kind of interference from his predecessors.
Why not allow Mr. Sim to govern the people of Rivers State? If the Nigerian State continues to turn a blind eye or tolerate these excesses from the former governor of Rivers, what happened between Awolowo and Akintola will be child’s play.A simple prophetic story. In 2003 Anambra State went to the polls to change the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) governor who was doing very badly. Anambra state voted APGA (All Progressive Grand Alliance).
The candidate of APGA, Mr. Peter Obi, went to court because the result was declared in favor of PDP. The PDP machinery that rigged the election for the then governor (Mr. Ngige) kept the rigged copy and the true copy in their custody because they were in power in the center. When the governor, who refused to dance the music of the Godfathers, the Godfathers gave the opponent the true copy of the 2003 gubernatorial election and the court declared Mr. Peter Obi the winner after 3 years and counting in the court.
What will the former governor of Rivers State do if the government at the center decides to do away with him? From the look of things he is becoming a liability, not an asset. Will he spill the beans like the Godfather of Anambra State? Although the situation may not lead to a new President, we all know what happen in our political system in 2023.
If the federal government chooses to look away from Rivers State and allow one man to set the state on fire to kill the bird that lays the golden egg, which is the financial powerhouse of Nigeria, I do not see the future brightly, the future is bleak. Every era has its Achilles’ heel: in the ’60s it was Awo and Akintola (Wet e riots), in the ’80s it was Akin Omoboriowo, and in 2024 it was Niger Delta, Rivers State. I am not in support of anyone, but I do not want war or anarchy because I know the pain and misery that follows.
No one is a winner, and no one is a winner. The people of Rivers State should be allowed to breathe, and the Niger Delta region of the country should be treated respectfully. What will the former governor of Rivers do if the marriage with the center breaks down? Your guess is as good as mine.
