Rivers State: Emergency rule was well-orchestrated ahead of time?

It is very annoying or rather vexing to the spirit that there is an overwhelming dearth of deep thinking in our clime probably because of “wetin belle go chop” or maybe due to blanket naivety or inbred shallowness.

When the former governor of Rivers state and the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike came openly on a live television interview to abuse and rubbish or rather ridicule the Ijaw nation, the Spirit of God immediately bore witness with my spirit that this is a well- orchestrated plot to draw out the Ijaws to do imprudent things so the government at the centre can leverage on that to remove the embattled governor of Rivers state, Sim Fubara under a feign state of emergency.

The attention of a senior friend and a retired senior military officer was quickly drawn to this thing that looks like a well-thought out plan to clamp down on Fubara but tragically, my Oga did not see what I was seeing.

Now, let’s look at it: As still available on the internet, Nyesom Wike was so brash and abusive to the Ijaws: The Ijaws are the minority of the minorities in the entire Niger Delta. They can’t even win any governorship election anywhere in the Niger Delta- Rivers, Delta states, except in Bayelsa because the the state has a homogenous Ijaw population. Edwin Clark of blessed memory, was he able to see an Ijawman win the governorship election in Delta? He couldn’t do it because they don’t have the numbers. So the talk about Ijaws being the largest ethnic group in the region is “just rubbish, pure rubbish”!

In Rivers state, they are the smallest of the smalls in terms of numbers. Just because we have been dangling this upland/riverine balancing it has gotten into their heads to start thinking they are now a force in terms of numbers to win governorship or even senatorial elections on their own. They cannot do it without the Igbos.

The Ijaws are not the only ones in Rivers state that can blow up pipelines. When they were born, did they came as militants or they became one after arriving and even maturing to certain age. Other ethnic groups also have people who are militants and can also blow up pipelines.

This was the Scene One, Act One which was purely to provoke the Ijaws and their militant groups to start blowing up pipelines. Unfortunately, it failed to achieve its goals as the Ijaws smartly managed the provocation by refusing to be dragged into silliness. It ended up only with verbal abuses as the Ijaws preferred to take their case to their deity: The Supreme Egbesu.

Now to Scene Two Act Two: As the first provocation seemed not to have succeeded in drawing the Ijaws out for a naked dance, few days after, we were told that the FCT Minister was going to Abalama at the heart of the Rivers Ijaw community for a thanksgiving. This was another well-orchestrated provocation to draw the Ijaws out since they have been threatening fire and brimstones in defence of Governor Sim Fubara.

How do you explain that just few days after rubbishing the entire Ijaw nation including those of Rivers state, this same man will have the temerity to come to the same Ijawland to hold a thanksgiving to celebrate the Supreme Court judgement that technically clamped the Ijaw governor of Rivers state, Sim Fubara?

Over 600 military men of different services were on ground for the anticipated clash with Ijaw youths in Abalama. The Chief of Defence Staff and other top military brass were also in the entourage of the FCT Minister. The question is: why this calibre of military officers converging at a point that from all indication is not friendly with the celebrant (the Minister)?

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The answer is simple: the celebrant needed high calibre witnesses to testify in his favour that it was the Ijaw militant youths that attacked the occasion first warranting the already planned retaliation by the Nigerian military which will enable the declaration of a state of emergency.

This deliberate provocation also failed to ensue crisis as the Ijaw militants did not make trouble nor attempt to disrupt the ceremony. It was only women who came out in the morning of the event to block the road to the venue carrying placards and asking the television crew and other advance parties to go back. They were promptly dispersed by tear gas fired by the personnel of the Nigerian Mobile Force.

Now the ultimate and the last arsenal which constitute the Scene Three Plot Three was to leave all the Ijaw areas of Rivers state and go to Ogoniland to blow up the Trans-Niger Crude Trunk-line supplying produced crude oil from several oilfields in the eastern Niger Delta to the export facility, the Bonny Terminal, in Bonny Island. It’s easier to do that there and get the desired result which is to declare the entire Rivers state as being engulf in crisis thus necessitating the declaration of a state of emergency and enthronement of Emergency Rule.

And curiously, it was reported that some of those that were involved in blowing up the Trans-Niger Trunk-line have been arrested. And interestingly, they were arrested in less than 24 hours of the incident which is unprecedented and uncharacteristic of the Joint Military Task Force operating in the region. Since the advent of resource agitation in the Niger Delta, this feat has never been recorded that those who breached an oil pipeline were identified and arrest the same day.

The essence of the leaked arrest is to prepare our mind that they have witnesses to testify against cooked-up sponsor (s) of the economic sabotage. And your guess is as good as mine on who this person is!

Now we need to ask: Was the state of emergency imposed on Rivers State planned ahead of time?

Was it part of the plan when the attempt to get rid of the Rivers State Chief Justice failed?

Was it a way of getting out of the messy situation of not accepting to receive the budget when the embattled governor brought it to the State Assembly?

Was it a response to the threats by various Niger Delta groups and the Rivers State Civil Servants?

To confirm, listen again to Nyesom Wike at Abalama, when he said “it is 2-0 and more is to come this week.” Every time he says “more is to come”, something happens. Go and check!

Without mincing words, a state of emergency is not a strategy -it is an admission of failure. There are far more effective, far less destructive ways to handle this situation. And no one in his or her right mind could have expected that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu we knew could fall for this.

A state of emergency, in the first place, is supposed to be called for by a state governor when law and order have broken down beyond his control, failing, the president will act. It is to introduce martial laws to restore peace and not to substitute civilian governance. Or, will the governor call for his own removal? Obasanjo flouted this and there were outcries by legal pundits which informed Jonathan of doing the right thing.

What we had in Rivers state before the emergency declaration was a political longjam and not a security logjam. If the president had been impartial from the beginning, he would have sorted this out but God dey!

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(IFEANYI IZEZE wrote from Port Harcourt and can be reached on: iizeze@yahoo.com)