By Adamu Kuta.
The press release issued by the Rivers State Caucus in the House of Representatives, titled “Need to Call Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere to Order” is one that anyone who loves Nigeria and the future of Nigeria must pay attention to, study and condemn the warped thinking of those who issued it.
In this regard, while Rt. Hon. Dumnamene Dekor-Leader, Rivers Caucus in the House of Representatives and Hon. Cyril Hart-Secretary, Rivers Caucus in the House of Representatives, are the signatories to the document, the reality is that the statement and the false narrative it sought to push is a clear instance of the “voice of Jacob but the hand of Esau” as the Rivers Caucus is merely running errands for those who are exploiting Rivers State as a staging ground to hijack democracy in Nigeria.
Had the ideas propounded in the statement not been depraved and despicable it would have been comical because of its poor grasp of the fair intervention that Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere made on the theatre of the absurd playing out in Rivers State. The lawmaker representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency in Imo State had led a group, G-60, to demand the trial of 23 former local government chairmen in Rivers State for alleged treason after they refused to vacate office upon the expiration of their tenure. Their tenures derived from the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), and to attempt to elongate their tenures without recourse to elections as prescribed in the Constitution is treasonable – it is a violation of the core aspect of the grand norm.
The former local Government Chairmen and some former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who passed a sham resolution to extend council bosses’ tenures are of course openly loyal to the Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, who is the predeccessor to the incumbent governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
Whatever anyone has said or argued about the descent into anarchy playing out in Rivers State, the abridged version of the fact is that Fubara rebuffed Wike’s attempt to make himself a defacto life governor of the state, what some call the godfather, which is an euphemism for unrestricted access to keep stealing the state’s resources by dictating who occupies every single office in the state government.
That arrangement is criminal. The crisis it has precipitated in River State is even more criminal. Hence the need to commend the honourable feat of people like Ugochinyere who marshalled the bravery to make statesmanly interventions that call attention to the ongoing brigandage by Wike’s loyalists in Rivers State, including the recalcitrant former council chairmen who would not leave office even when their tenure is over.
The House of Representatives Rivers State Caucaus’ statement titled “Need to Call Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere to Order” is consequently a laughable piece of writing by a group of oppressors, tyrants and anarchists who want to go equity with dirty hands.
The caucus is a vocal minority in the House of Representatives whose members are desperate for their coup in Rivers State to succeed so that they can use it as a template to hijack the House leadership, hence their drive to factionalise the House as a precursor to a Wike take-over of the parliament.
So, while not holding brief for Ugochinyere and G-60, it is pertinent to point out the tenuous attempts by the Rivers State Caucus in the House of Representatives to stand facts on their head in their press release.
First, insinuating that the Honourable member is making interventions in the Rivers debacle to “feather his nest” is outlandish as the Caucus members have by this assertion confirmed that they are the ones protecting their feathered nests through their attacks on Ugochinyere. They possibly hope to scare him off from drawing global attention to their reign of infamy in Rivers State. Sadly for them, Ugochinyere was not known to chicken out, even before he became a lawmaker. If the caucus concluded that Ugochinyere was sponsored then it is logical that they too were sponsored.
Secondly, they alleged that his interventions “constitute a thoughtless assault on due process and ongoing judicial processes aimed at resolving the disagreement in Rivers.” On the contrary, the court cases in Rivers State are not aimed at “resolving disagreements”. Rather, the litigations were mostly instituted to stop state capture by Wike and his associates. To the extent that there have been attempts by associates of these caucus members to cow or intimidate the judiciary to hijack the judgment in these cases then the interventions of the likes of Ugochinyere are the vigilance needed to save democracy in Nigeria.
Furthermore, if Ugochinyere is an insignificant twerp in the social space as asserted by the caucus, then he is a useful one because he has compelled his supposed colleagues to reassess the damage they are causing to the grand scheme of Rivers politics and by implication the whole of Nigeria. It is comic that these caucus members believe that only someone from Rivers State has the right to comment or intervene in a crisis that risks being replicated or spreading to other states and ultimately set Nigeria ablaze.
Of course, the current situation in Rivers State concerns Hon. Ugochinyere, who has experienced a version of the evil franchise in his home state, Imo State; a state where he was repeatedly targeted for assassination by people who share the same ideology as the caucus members. His intervention in Rivers is thus to ensure that a new strain of the madness is not allowed to mature and spread to another state, which does not require that the matter be brought to the floor of the House before he acts proactively.
As a parting shot, members of the caucus must hide their faces in shame since it took their colleague from Imo State to draw national attention to something they should have flagged in plenary under a motion of urgent national importance. The Rivers Caucus can still save their faces by doing the needful and taking genuine steps to end their support for illegality in their home state.
In conclusion, the Rivers lawmakers must publicly call on the leadership of the House of Representatives to recognise Ugochinyere’s contributions in holding up the House as an institution of repute and using its platform to seek a solution to the Rivers State debacle.
Kuta wrote this piece from Bosso.
