Much as the action of the Federal Government to withdraw the security agencies from the local government was a welcome development, a lot of people have equally accused the Nigerian Police of being complacent. So, the question I ask here is to what advantage or favour of the two waring parties, if the Federal Government declares a State of Emergency in Rivers State, should the tensed atmosphere persists?
By Adekunle Alaye
The ongoing political crisis in Rivers State, is indisputably tending towards a episodic or cyclical political limbo as such that if a very drastic action is not taking to curtain the brouhaha it may degenerate to a state of limbo.
Prior to the just concluded Local Government Elections held on Saturday, 5th of October in the South-South State, there have been series of court judgements and counter judgements as to who owned what, did what, where, when and how?
The back and forth political conundrum is apparently becoming laborious and tensed. With supporters of the two political gladiators in the state, incumbent minister of Federal Capital Territory and immediate past governor of Rivers State, Mr Nyesom Wike and his successor and incumbent governor of Rivers State, Mr Siminalaye Fubara.
The two waring factions in the last three days have thrown Rivers State into flames. While, the faction of the governor Fubara insisted that the state of affairs belong to the incumbent governor. The supporters of his (Fubara) principal are of a sharp contrast.
Harold Laswell, contextualized politics as who gets what when and how. This aphorism is indeed obviously uncontestable and sacrosanct with the situation of things currently in Rivers State at the moment.
There have been several questions on the lips of so many Nigerians as to what has informed such an episodic political drama with tensed atmosphere in the state?
If the entire registered voters of Rivers State is 3.5 million, according to the data of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and less than 10 thousand voters participated in the just concluded elections, it therefore implies that the entire process was a junk and political shenanigan.
Without any sense of prejudice, to any of the feuding parties, it is undeniably fundamental that the just concluded Local Government elections in Rivers State, was not just a charade but a complete “subversion of rule of law.”
Again, the shenanigans in the elections on Saturday, have incontrovertibly explained the need for Federal government to as a matter of urgency, further strengthen the prerogative of the Supreme Court verdict on the Local Government Autonomy.
It is imperative to further withdraw the control of state electoral commission expediently and discourage state security agencies, including the proposed state policing.
If state governors are not stripped of this promptly, like it played out in Rivers, during the Local Government Elections on Saturday, 5th October, governors shall incessantly abuse the immunity and take advantage of such paraphernalia and therefore, remain unarguably “power drunk” at their respective states.
Conjectural and stochastic conflicting court judgements, most often in Nigeria, have become so worrisome and appalling. If judiciary indeed remains the last hope for a common man in Nigeria, exiguous court verdict to a large extent must be reviewed and discouraged henceforth.
It is also very imperative to understand the ideal process of “participatory democracy” as one of the imperatives of a contemporary democratic practice anywhere in the world.
If the entire registered voters of Rivers State is 3.5 million, according to the data of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and less than 10 thousand voters participated in the just concluded elections, it therefore implies that the entire process was a junk and political shenanigan.
The most catchy scene of the whole scenario in the aftermath of Rivers Local Government Elections is that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Ruling All Progressive Congress APC at the Federal level did not take part in the election.
Ironically, the APP cleared the 22 out of 23 local governments areas of the Rivers State therefore, sealed the two major parties away from victory as they ignored the election and refused to participate.
Sadly, more than three local governments Secretariat have been set ablaze in the last two days and the situation is yet to be curtained entirely.
Much as the action of the Federal Government to withdraw the security agencies from the local government was a welcome development, a lot of people have equally accused the Nigerian Police of being complacent.
So the question I ask here is to what advantage or favour of the two waring parties, if the Federal Government declares a State of Emergency in River State, should the tensed atmosphere persists?.
•Adekunle Alaye, PhD.
Department of Political Science Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State Nigeria.
•Opinions, positions or thoughts expressed here are personal and strictly of the writer/author and not The Daily Crucible.
