Rivpolitics (2024)

17/05/2022

Poly Ibadan Student Died After Performing Eleventh round of s€x on top Girlfriend

Two lovers and students of the Polytechnic Ibadan have reportedly caused an eyebrow in the school after they engaged in a marathon s€x which led to the death of a yet to be identified young guy.

According to a report gathered by Gistlover, the young guy and his girlfriend after taking hard drugs performed nine rounds of s€xual in*******se.

HotNewsInNaija gathered that the young guy, after the ninth round kick the bucket while his girlfriend is said to be in comma at the University Teaching Hospital (UCH) Ibadan.

16/05/2022

General Overseer of OPM Ministry, Apostle Chibuzor Chinyere offer to train Late Deborah siblings and relocate the entire Family to Port Harcourt, promises them free rent forever.

The Man of God also wants to grant Mr. Samuel a payable job and open a shop for Deborah's mum. He's asking for Nigerians to provide him with their relevant informations.

~~ Ogonitv

12/05/2022

RIVERS STATE IS LARGER THAN WIKE AND AMEACHI!!!

A state with a population of 5 million people cannot be left to the interests of these two individuals because it poses a significant threat to the general interest of Rivers people. According to Hon. Bernard

Hon. Bernard Mikko is a Former Member of the 4th National Assembly and has been in the Political scene since 1987.

The undemocratic form of democracy that Rivers State has been burdened with, in which only two persons dominate the state's political affairs, has done nothing but stifle the state's collective social, economic, and cultural growth.

The aforementioned two's hatred and venom have created legions of adolescents and followers who are so enraged at each other that they are willing to sabotage the state in order to discredit the opponent.

In pursuit of their selfish interests, they have taken turns exploiting the state's resources.
They have also reduced their brand of politics to the traditional level, recognizing and unseating Royal Highnesses as their political interests dictate.

Their systems have limited the state's political fresh air and discouraged ambitions (without their endorsements).

Hon. Bernard Mikko is a man who is only loyal to the people of Rivers State; the people are the most powerful political structure, and he is determined to create a Rivers State in which no one is left out.

A Rivers for All.

10/05/2022

(A MUST READ)

THISDAY BACKPAGE

2023 Political Realities That Annoy And Heal.

THE ALTERNATIVE

By Reno Omokri

As the party primaries draw near, it is sad to see many people still playing the same old sentimental politics which has left them perpetually on the back burner. Why do they do it? Is it that they are unteachable, or unreachable, or that they lack the ability to suppress their sentiments in favour of cold hard facts?

Political realities will always overcome political sentiments. That is a fact of life. So, in order to win, you do not cry over the realities, or argue about them. You simply understand these natural principles and then harness them.
One political reality is that the ONLY Southern candidates with name recognition in Northern Nigeria, and especially the Northwest and Northeast, are Bola Tinubu and Yemi Osinbajo. Even Rotimi Amaechi does not have it. I know some people will not like to hear this, but the truth is bitter and better!

And amongst these Southern candidates, only Bola Tinubu stands a chance in the Northwest and Northeast, for almost the same reasons that Abiola stood a chance. Even Buhari, with his real or imaginary Northern-cult following, can’t persuade the core North to vote for a Christian pastor.
Another bitter, but better truth. Although people will like to hear butter lies.

Asking core Northerners to vote for Pastor Yemi Osinbajo, who, rightly or wrongly, is seen in the core North as a Christian fanatic, who carefully put members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in key positions, is like asking Southerners to vote Isa Pantami, who was caught on tape expressing his delight at the death of non-Muslims!

Any sensible aspirant should cultivate the Northwest and Northeast. You can win the Presidency without the votes of one particular region I will not name because of their ability to insult more than their ability to vote. But you can’t win without the Northwest and the Northeast.

Alas, with the comments of many Southern aspirants, you would think that they can win the election based on bravado alone. Even the British tried to win the heart of the North, though they were colonial masters. It is a reality we must face as long as Nigeria remains one country.

I have a lot of personal disdain for Bola Tinubu, who I believe lacks personal hygiene and morals. I also have reasons to believe that he is corrupt and grossly so. But despite my misgivings, he is acting more sensibly than other Southern aspirants in courting the North.

Osinbajo is just delusional. He thinks he can win the APC primaries by speaking English. Even Buhari does not command the delegate votes to make him win. Yes, he has name recognition. But his name recognition in the North is like beer. Northerners know it, but reject it!

From what I have seen so far, 2023 will be a race between Bola Tinubu and the best Northern candidate the Peoples Democratic Party can come up with. Other than Bola Tinubu, the top three Northern PDP candidates have no match in the South. For now.
You doubt me? Okay, let me ask you this question. Who are Osinbajo’s coordinators in each of the nineteen Northern states? He either does not have such machinery in place, or where he has them, the coordinators are inconsequential people who are political lightweights that add no value to him.

Which Northern Governor is for him? With perhaps the exception of Nasir El-Rufai, the answer is zero. And if El-Rufai is for you, then you should consider that as a very big minus.

Contrast that with Tinubu. Whereas Osinbajo has no foot soldiers in the North, Tinubu has foot soldiers in every Northern state. Every time he is moving in the North, you can see top-level Northern power brokers with him, from Ganduje, to Ribadu, to Shettima.

I will not even bother about candidates from the Southeast. If you critique them because you want them to be better, their followers (who are invariably mostly from the Southeast as well), will troop to your public profiles to insult you, as if they alone can make their chosen candidate the President. I wish them luck in their chosen path to ‘victory’.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Bola Tinubu will win the presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress. If his challenger in the Peoples Democratic Party comes from any zone other than the Northwest or Northeast, then Tinubu will be the President of Nigeria in 2023.

This much is obvious to people who have political vision. I do not know how anybody will actually allow their ethnicity to blind them to the point where they can believe that any Southern candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party can win an election in 2023. That will just be like gifting the election to Tinubu.

I have the voter turnout numbers of every Local Government in Nigeria from 2019. So, I look at elections from a statistical and scientific point of view. The Southeast of Nigeria has the highest Twitter and online turnout in the nation, but the lowest voter turnout during voter registration and election.

There are those who are being moved by ethnic sentiments and their disillusionment will come very soon. I do not need to belabour the point. But I will say this: Even in the Southeast, Bola Tinubu is very strong. Look at the former Eagles that went to endorse him. Where are they from?

Let us learn from the Northwest and Northeast. This is Ramadan. How many of them have you seen travelling? Even during Sallah, they don’t travel. But let it be voter registration or election, they will travel. You travel for Christmas, but not for election, and you want to win election?

Refusing to work with political realities, and instead, promulgating political delusions and building castles in the air, will not get any region, or any part, or anyone, anywhere at any time. 2023 must be faced using cold hard facts. If Tinubu emerges in the All Progressives Congress, NOBODY among those who have declared so far in the South can defeat him for the Peoples Democratic Party.

In Luke 14:31 Christ asked if a king with 10,000 soldiers can defeat another with 20,000.

If the All Progressives Congress gives Bola Tinubu their ticket, the Peoples Democratic Party should be mindful of the fact that Kano alone delivered 2 million votes during the 2019 election, while the entire Southeast delivered 2.09 million. Do the maths and stop sniffing m**h!

In every election since 2003, Buhari has always had a captive audience of 12 million Northerners, plus or minus, one million. Buhari’s political foot soldiers in the core North are united behind him. What the opposition must do is to find a way to divide them. If the Peoples Democratic Party fields a Southerner in 2023, they will unite and obey Buhari’s command to vote for Tinubu. And he will win. The only way that those foot soldiers can be divided enough not to obey Buhari’s command is if the Peoples Democratic Party fields a Northerner!

Any scenario other than the Peoples Democratic Party fielding someone from the Northwest or Northeast is an own goal. I know this will infuriate a lot of people, especially from a particular geopolitical zone, but that is what truth does. It makes you mad as hell. But it makes you heal as well.

Southerners who think Buhari is no longer popular in the North are under the mistaken belief that Northerners care about the things they care about. When terrorist kill Northerners, Northern masses do not see it as Buhari’s fault. They see such deaths as the will of God that could not be altered.

The number one factor militating against the political progress of a certain geopolitical zone is their inability to work with people they do not like. Tell them an inconvenient truth and to a large extent, they will gather to insult, abuse and attack you. Then after they have finished alienating everybody, they will believe that everybody hates them.

Northerners understand Southerners more than Southerners understand Northerners. Northerners like themselves more than Southerners like themselves. And more importantly, Northerners vote for region and religion. Southerners vote for region and competence.

Both politics and war are a game of life and death. Once you understand that, everyone in your bloc will be motivated to win. Northerners understand this. Southerners do not. We see politics as an idealistic endeavour. Northerners see politics as a realistic venture and act accordingly.

Individually, each state in the Northwest is politically powerful, especially the K*K axis. Kano, Katsina and Kaduna. But their individual strength is not why they influence elections. The power of the Northwest is their ability to vote as a bloc. Only the Southwest is that politically disciplined in the Nigerian Project.

In politics, it is better to use your intellect and foresight than rely on stubbornness in the face of facts. Political momentum is built in the grassroots, not on social media, and that momentum is growing quietly in the North.

The great Chinese military strategist said, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” The Peoples Democratic Party should imbibe this wisdom. Look at the voting pattern from 2019 and be guided by that, not by sentiments.

No party zones from a position of weakness. You only zone from a position of strength. As an opposition party, the preoccupation of the Peoples Democratic Party should be how to win. When they win, they can zone. But if they zone before they win, they will never win!

The Peoples Democratic Party must understand the military strategy that “the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.” The All Progressives Congress is likely to present a very flawed but politically astute candidate in Tinubu. Thus, the PDP must respond by presenting a candidate who has numbers, not one who has sentiments.

It takes energy to bend the bow, but it takes strategy to know how and when to release the arrow. The Peoples Democratic Party has energy on its side. Now, all they need is strategy. Because, in Bola Tinubu, they are facing an opponent who relies on strategy, not sentiments.

09/05/2022

BREAKING NEWS:

Former President Goodluck Jonathan pays for APC Presidential nomination form.

09/05/2022

2023:

Dutch Nigerian Declares Interest to Run for Plateau State Governorship.

His real name is Wiebe Boer, he's a Dutchman. Yohanna Maigona is his Hausa name. He was born in Jos and finished his secondary school in the city.

He reportedly began speaking Hausa Language even before English.

06/05/2022

This is happened in Abakpa Junction.
A young girl who identified herself as miss Chioma and hails from Awkuzu in Anambra State has been reportedly dropped by the roadside by an unknown guy at the said junction.

According to report, she doesn't know the guy and has a low memory to remember some things.

Any person who knows the parents and guidance should please proceed to the above-mentioned junction. - IGT

06/05/2022

JUST IN:

Airlines To Shut Down Operations From Monday As Aviation Fuel Hits N700

The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has disclosed plans to shut down operations nationwide.

AON explained that the shutdown would take effect from Monday, due to the increase in the price of aviation fuel which cost N700 per litre.

Prime Business Africa obtained this from a letter by AON President, Abdulmunaf Yunusa Sarina, and sent to the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.

Sarina, in the letter, regretted that Jet A1 has shot up the cost of operations to over 95 percent, thereby, causing hardship on passengers.

According to it, “It is with a great sense of responsibility and patriotism that the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) have carried on deploying and subsidizing their services to our highly esteemed Nigerian flying public in the last four months despite the steady and astronomical hike in the price of JetA1 and other operating costs.

“Overtime, aviation fuel price (JetA1) has risen from N190 per litre to N700 currently. No airline in the world can absorb this kind of sudden shock from such an astronomical rise over a short period.

“While aviation fuel worldwide is said to cost about 40% of an airline’s operating cost globally, the present hike has shut up Nigeria’s operating cost to about 95%.

“In the face of this, airlines have engaged the Federal Government, the National Assembly, NNPC and Oil Marketers with the view to bringing the cost of JetA1 down which has currently made the unit cost per seat for a one hour flight in Nigeria today to an average of N120,000.

“The latter cannot be fully passed to passengers who are already experiencing a lot of difficulties.

“To this end therefore, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) hereby wishes to regrettably inform the general public that member airlines will discontinue operations nationwide with effect from Monday, May 9, 2022 until further notice.”

06/05/2022

SEPARATION IS NOT ABOUT WAR, IT HAS PEACEFUL ASPECT.

In 1776, the USA split from the UK
In 1830 Belgium separated from
the Netherlands
In 1965, Singapore split off from Malaysia.
in 2002, East Timor got split off from Indonesia.
In 1921, Ireland split off from the United Kingdom, and (possibly in the future) there will be secession of Scotland.
In 1944, Iceland split from Denmark with remarkable ease.
In 1905 Norway split from Denmark.
In 1905, Norway and Sweden also peacefully split ways. One got the car. the other got the kids.

In 1947, the British India Dominion was partitioned into India n Pakistan.
In 1971, Bangladesh secceeded from Pakistan.
In 1992-93, the two parts of Czechoslovakia agreed to each go their own way. Thus were born the Czech Republic and Slovakia after what's been named the “Velvet Divorce”. About the same time, another kind of separation occurred, of course, in Yugoslavia. This one led to a bloodshed.

in 1965, Singapore split from Malaysia for a variety of reasons, including religious (Malaysia is majority Muslim, Singapore isn't), ethnic/racial (Singapore has a very large majority Chinese population) and concerns over the Malaysian Bumiputra policy, which was (and is) basically a form of "Affirmative Action" for Muslim Malaysians - who make up the majority population in Peninsular Malaysia.
Ethiopia and Eritrea
Sudan and South Sudan are now separate countries
USSR is now broken down into several countries.

I see separation as an avenue for a healthy competition for development as the case of Singapore and Malaysia, India and Pakistan, Norway/Denmark/Switzerland.
In the case of Nigeria, I am sensing a healthy competitive development among the original component part, the North/West/East each making useful progress while competing with the others.
It is not about war after all there is nothing wrong for one to decide he is no longer comfortable with the union and therefore want to opt out.

LETS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE AND SEPARATE HONORABLY.
This is worth sharing over and over again...
British named them Burma. They rejected it, restructured & renamed themselves Myanmar.
-British named them Upper Volta, but they rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Burkina Faso - Land of Incorruptible People.
-British named them Gold Coast, they rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Ghana.

-British named them Southern Rhodesia. They rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Zimbabwe.
-British named them Northern Rhodesia. They rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Zambia.
-British named them Tanganyika. They rejected it, restructured & renamed themselves Tanzania.

-Germans named them colony of South West Africa. They rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Namibia.
-France named them Dahomey. They rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Benin.
-Belgium named them Zaire. However, they rejected it, restructured & renamed themselves Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
-Britain named a bunch of people - Nigeria. They rather kill to preserve
it than restructure and give themselves a befitting new name.

"It is only an animal that bears the name that is given to it by his enemy" (Proverb).

THE FUTILITY OF PRESERVING NIGERIA
My angry reaction earlier today on APC UK platform:

Most of the Diasporans here living in Europe. Can you show me one multi-ethnic state in Europe where one group is positioned to dominate the rest that hasn't broken up?
For those who do not know, what you call ethnic groups in Nigeria are called nations in Europe.

There's nowhere in the world where the white man accepts domination from another white man in perpetuity.
It used to be so under the Roman empire and the like. Not anymore. The Communists tried it, dividing society into capitalists and proletariats, deluding themselves that ethnicity is effectively swept under the carpet, but what followed? The Communist edifices in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and
the big brother, USSR, all collapsed, while the two Germans that are ethnically the same but split by communism vs capitalism were reunited. Such is the power of
ethnic nationalism.

Czechoslovakia was made up of two ethnic groups, the Czech and the Slovakians. Both separated peacefully on 1st January 1993. The former is today 10.6 million people and the latter 5.4 million. Added together, they're not up to Lagos. Yet, they split for peace. Two masters can't be in the same house.
Yugoslavia in 1991 was 23.2 million, barely more than Lagos population. It broke into six countries same year - all along ethnic lines, namely: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.
Then the big brother, USSR. It had, at least, the following ethnic groups identified by their languages:

Regional languages:
Ukrainian
Belarusian
Uzbek
Kazakh
Georgian
Azerbaijani
Lithuanian
Moldavian
Latvian
Kyrgyz
Tajik
Armenian
Turkmen
Estonian
Minority languages:
Abkhaz
Bashkir
Buryat
Chechen
Finnish
Volga German
Korean
Ossetian
Tatar
& various others.

Today, your fingers will not be enough to count the number of countries that have emerged from the USSR.
Sit down there and be preaching unity in Nigeria as if you're the kindest gentleman on earth while you have no solution to the genocide in Southern Kaduna, the illegal but officially condoned arms in the hands of killer herdsmen roaming the country, and be condemning those better informed about the fact that the country is undergoing the strains of a forced union and should be peacefully restructured or let people go their separate ways.

In Europe, the two best examples of fairly stable multi-ethnic states are the UK and Switzerland. The former is led by reasonable men who permitted regional autonomy to the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh, while the English dominate Westminster. That's som**hing some of us are asking for, but you're fighting against it in your own country wracked by ethnic crisis. Your own people are better off under oppression of fellow black men because your people have bad leaders who can't do better than their new internal colonisers.

The latter country, Switzerland, has four ethnic groups. Each of them rotates the presidency annually through seven cantons that constitute the federation units. All the four languages of the four ethnic groups are recognized as official languages and school languages to boot, namely: German, French, Italian, and Romansch that has just a few thousand speakers!

There's nowhere in the world where the Caucasians allow the domination of their group by another.
In Canada, Quebec is the only full French-speaking province, aside a little section of New Brunswick. The other seven provinces are English-speaking. Yet, Canada is bilingual for the sake of Quebec!
And each of the provinces is largely self-governing.

Here we are in Nigeria, you have people arguing vehemently that a decrepit, structurally-flawed, and crisis-prone artificial contraption badly configured by the British only needs good people to survive. Why not centralise the powers of the British regions to London and see what happens?

MY CONCLUSION :

When many commentators read and repost or share your articles with many of their friends and contacts, they do so because they want others to learn.

NIGERIA'S 36 STATES & FCT RANKED IN ORDER OF LAND SURFACE AREA (KM²)*

1. Niger State 76,363KM²
2. Borno State 70,898KM²
3. Taraba State 54,473KM²
4. Kaduna State 46,053KM²
5. Bauchi State 45,837KM²
6. Yobe State 45,502KM²
7. Zamfara State 39,762KM²
8. Adamawa State 36,917KM²
9. Kwara State 36,825KM²
10. Kebbi State 36,800KM²
11. Benue State 34,059KM²
12. Plateau State 30,913KM²
13. Kogi State 29,833KM²
14. Oyo State 28,454KM²
15. Nasarawa State 27,117KM²
16. Sokoto State 25,973KM²
17. Katsina State 24,192KM²
18. Jigawa State 23,154KM²
19. Cross River State 20,156KM²
20. Kano State 20,131KM²
21. Gombe State 18,768KM²
22. Edo State 17,802KM²
23. Delta State 17,698KM²
24. Ogun State 16,762KM²
25. Ondo State 15,500KM²
26. Rivers State 11,077KM²
27. Bayelsa State 10,773KM²
28. Osun State 9,251KM²
29. Federal Capital Territory
7,315KM²
30. Enugu State 7,161KM²
31. Akwa Ibom State 7,081KM²
32. Ekiti State 6,353KM²
33. Abia State 6,320KM²
34. Ebonyi State 5,670KM²
35. Imo State 5,530KM²
36. Anambra State 4,844KM²
37. Lagos State 3,345KM²
Anambra + Enugu + Abia + Imo + Ebonyi = 29,525KM²
Kogi = 29,833KM²
Ogun + Oyo + Osun + Ondo + Ekiti = 76,320KM²
Lagos = 3,345KM²
Niger alone = 76,363KM²
Niger State = Entire Southwest States - Lagos
*The entire Southeast
is a little less than Kogi State only.

JUST FOR OUR RECORD
The North Has enough land for ranching and cattle colony.

We in the South West have little land mass. PLEASE LET US BE; LEAVE US ALONE TO MANAGE THE LITTLE LAND WE HAVE

GLOBAL CATTLE BUSINESS: FACT SHEET
A. Top 10 NATIONS in terms of Cattle inventory (2017).
1. INDIA 303 million
2. BRAZIL 226 million
3. CHINA 100 million.
4. USA 93 million.
5. EU 89 million.
6. ARGENTINA 53 million
7. AUSTRALIA 27 million
8. RUSSIA 18 million
9. MEXICO 16 million
10. TURKEY 14 million.
B. TOP 10 MILK EXPORTERS
1. NEW ZEALAND $4.4 Billion
2. GERMANY $2.6 Billion
3. NETHERLANDS $1.9 Billion
4. FRANCE $1.5 Billion
5. USA $1.4 Billion
6. BELGIUM $1.2 Billion
7. AUSTRALIA $852 Million
8. BELARUS $637 Million
9. UK $569 Million
10. SAUDI ARABIA $556 Million
C. TOP 10 BEEF EXPORTING NATIONS (2016).
1. AUSTRALIA $5.6 Billion
2. USA $5.2 Billion
3. BRAZIL $4.3 Billion
4. INDIA $3.7 Billion
5. NETHERLANDS $2.7 Billion
6. IRELAND $2 Billion
7. NEW ZEALAND $1.9 Billion
8. CANADA $1.5 Billion
9. URUGUAY $1.4 Billion
10. GERMANY $1.3 Billion

Additional Considerations:
1. Nigeria is not among the top 20
nations in the global cattle
business.

2. Non of the top cattle producing
nations create cattle colonies or
engage in primitive cattle grazing.
All the top cattle producing and
exporting nations utilise modern
technology and ranching m**hods
to maximise production and profit.

3. Non of the top nations earning
billions of dollars annually from
the cattle business condone the
killing of citizens for cattle.

4. Nigeria's cattle business requires
a complete re-think now and not
later, for posterity's sake.
Knowledge is power.
Share to educate our leaders and citizens!

06/05/2022

Sen Benneth Birabi Wrote:

ODILI, AMAECHI, WIKE AND THE PROFLIGACY OF RIVERS STATE COMMONWEALTH.

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” Albert Einstein.

Last week I witnessed a rather pathetic scene at the state secretariat. I was driving by when I saw a large gathering of old, bedraggled men and women clustered together and singing choruses but the melancholy on their faces was unmistakable.

Indeed, theirs was a chorus of wailing and lamentations. I was humanely compelled to stop and enquire what was going on. A mild-mannered man told me that they were all retired civil servants and they had come to beg Wike to have mercy on them. He said he retired 5 years ago and since then he has not been paid his gratuity or pension. He said he has been forced to relocate his village, when his rent expired and that his last son has dropped out of school as he couldn’t keep up with his fees. These tales of woe are unfortunately familiar in the 7 years of Wike’s government;

1. No retired civil servant has been paid his gratuity.

2. None has been paid their pension.

3. There has not been a single civil service recruitment exercise despite the thousands that have retirements.

4. There have been no promotions and therefore no salary increases despite the exponential rate of inflation which has severely reduced purchasing power of the average Nigerian by almost 50% thus rendering the cost of basics such as Garri and Bread exorbitant.

5. No new commercial or industrial investment has entered the state so no jobs for the teeming population of youths graduating from our tertiary institutions every year.

There are three universities and two polytechnic colleges in Rivers State. The 2019 convocation at University of Port Harcourt saw a total of 9,452 students graduate out of which no less than 4000 were Rivers indigenes, this being a Federal university. It is not too much of an extrapolation to assume similar figures for Rivers State University Nkpolu, Ignatius Ajuru University, as well as both the Bori and Elechi Amadi Polytechnics.

The upshoot of this is that there is an annual turn out of on average 11,000 – 12,000 graduates with no opportunity to deploy their education and training to the betterment of the administrative capacity of Rivers State Government. The multiplier effect of this is legion. No tax base, a capacity transfer gap within the civil service, and eventually a complete erosion of knowledge and experience. So much for “growth and development” in River State.

This is just the tip of the education iceberg. Digging deeper reveals a devastating deficit in investment in the sector by the state government. This is fundamentally worrying because an ill-educated populace will one day become a docile electorate, unable to demand their rights under law as enshrined by the constitution. My fellow Rivers people, this underinvestment is not accidental. In one of my local governments, less than half of the over 100 primary schools in the area were open. The rest, through sheer neglect and abject abandonment, have been rendered moribund, some of the school football fields have even been converted to farms. On enquiries at the Primary Schools Board, the excuse was that teachers could not report to work because of insecurity but there is a full compliment of staff on the payrolls.

However no one has asked what the root cause of said insecurity is. How is security guaranteed in a region where children are truant, university graduates and those from other tertiary institutions have no employment and a downright hostile environment for SMEs due to completely random and arbitrary regulatory system run by a feral mob of revenue agents unleashed on the citizens of Rivers State by their own government. The very definition of leaders feasting on the public.

As I travel around the country, meeting various people as the political fever pitch fast approaches its crescendo, the recurrent question that I am confronted with is “what is it that makes every Governor of Rivers State believe that he is automatically qualified to be the President of Nigeria”? Indeed, since H.E Dr Peter Odili, with the exception of H.E Celestine Omehia, this is a truism.

My initial reaction to this enquiry is one of reactionary “Rivers Pride”, I always retort with “why shouldn’t a Rivers man aspire to the highest office in the land?”. Invariably, the conversation steers towards the phenomenal war-chest this particular breed of Presidential aspirants have amassed at the expense of Rivers people in pursuit of this ill-fated ambition. However, this paradigm is without the historical awareness that the Presidency of Nigeria has NEVER been bought by the highest bidder.

A quick peruse through history should teach us that the Presidency is not a prize procured by the proceeds plundered from the public purse. On the contrary, riches have never been a guarantee of victory for Presidential aspirants. From the first Republic, in the fight for leadership at Nigeria’s independence, Awolowo and Azikiwe were arguably the the most educated politicians perhaps the richest in terms of access to money. But Tafawa Balewa a primary school teacher became the Prime Minister.

In the second Republic, despite the vast amounts of funds in the coffers of the founders of NPN, following 15 years of military government contracts, it was a humble school teacher/local government chairman the late Alhaji Shehu Shagari (under whose administration I served as Minister) who became President.

The 4th Republic H.E President Olusegun Obasanjo was uprooted from prison and sworn in as President. His successor was perhaps the most humble of the Northern Governors accompanied by the equally mild-mannered southern gentlemen in Goodluck Jonathan as his VP.

It is redundant to relay the facts about President Buhari’s emergence as we are all familiar with his rise to the top job in the land. Nevertheless, no one would’ve classed the then General Buhari (rtd) as a substantially wealthy man.

I listened to my Governor in a video message where he was enumerating the public offices he has held- local government chairman, Federal Minister, Governor etc. Very impressive CV. Indeed Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike has done very well in some respects. The physical transformation of the Port-Harcourt metropolis is laudable. Although I am completely unaware of any vision for rural development, his achievements in infrastructural provision are only comparable with what Godwill Obot Akpabio achieved in his time at the helm of affairs in Akwa Ibom. Urban regeneration, if not plagued by arrant land grabs and quasi-seizure of people’s properties without proper compensation, would’ve been a good feather for his cap. I am in no doubt that his performance as President would no more remarkable.

However, is Wike the “outlier” who will break the mould of finally achieving the high office of President with funds plundered from the State’s coffers? Is he the one that will achieve what Odili and Ameachi before him could not? The development of a State goes beyond infrastructure. It is investment in people and institutions that accelerate growth and development not roads and bridges. Perhaps it is in pursuit of this elusive dream that Wike will realised that he is the emperor wearing new clothes whilst his court of jesters and sycophants are too subjugated to tell him the truth.

So while we have pensioners unable to claim their statutory rights after 35 years of hard work for the government of their state and vast swathes of children across the state out of schools for any myriad of reasons, the utter absurdity of their Governor perambulating around the country spending billions in a futile and fruitless misadventure for the Presidency, is surprisingly lost on his acolytes but certainly not lost on me.

No one is perfect, but some are less perfect than other. Bridges and roads are great but what is the real multiplier effect for socio-economic growth given how much has been spent? What impact will it have on a populace ill-equipped and ill-educated to use said infrastructure.

The generational effect of the astronomical levels of air pollution across the state from the unmitigated illegal oil refineries will be outstandingly deleterious to children yet unborn. The failure to promptly and effectively address this particular issue will be seen by future generations as an unforgivably, arrant neglect of responsibility. Indeed, one senses a streak of self-loathing in Gov. Wike. This might be the reason he is so quick to spit vituperations at our Traditional Rulers here in Rivers State while he kneels in obeisance to same class of chiefs from other states.

The moral, spiritual, intellectual and political justification for Wike’s pursuit for the Presidency is shaky at best and jaundiced at worst. However, it is a testament of our ailing democracy that very few of his fellow aspirants stand on much firmer ground.

My personal relationship with my Governor goes back far beyond what many people think. Indeed, he never hesitates to admit that at the embryonic stages of his political career, I was a foundational figure in this political life. Consequently, one thing he also knows is that I am never backwards in coming forward with the truth. I always speak truth to power and although he is now a very powerful man, he has also always accorded me the courtesy of listening and taking on my criticism in the constructive manner that it is meant, without fear or favour, and most importantly, without any injurious effect on my person or property.

My dear friend Governor Wike, you are eminently qualified to run for the office of the President of our great country. Nevertheless, it might serve you and the good people of Rivers State better if they are able to feel the full value and impact of your qualifications before you extend it to the rest of Nigeria. Finally, I wish you the best of luck in this endeavour and I would be delighted for you to “break the mould” but only for the right reasons.

Senator Ben Birabi.

Rivpolitics

17/05/2022

16/05/2022

12/05/2022

10/05/2022

09/05/2022

09/05/2022

06/05/2022

06/05/2022

06/05/2022

06/05/2022

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share