PERSONALITY FOCUS Shhh…Governor Wike is Speaking
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike’s thanksgiving message was food for thought, writes Olawale Olaleye
It is the season of gubernatorial thanksgiving. Thanks to the magnanimity of the Supreme Court or is it its judicial wisdom? From Bayelsa to Abia, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Ogun, Ebonyi and of course Rivers State, the miracle working apex court of the land also made it possible for some religion denominations to harvest bountifully – all in the name of thanksgiving.
Some were very brief and straight to the business of merely thanking God for making the seemingly impossible, possible whilst some had a reason to throw some lavish celebrations, thanking God for helping them keep their jobs, despite the odds.
But of all the thanksgiving speeches by the chief executives of the states, that of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesome Wike was “remarkably outstanding”. Understandably, other governors delivered their speeches too and made points that underscored the basis of their celebrations. But Wike went a notch up. He not only exposed the “secret of his victory” through his ballistic missiles; he also confirmed certain insinuations doing the rounds in the public domain about the judgment on the Rivers election.
Obviously, a political statement, Wike said he would have declined participation in the rerun if the Supreme Court had ruled against him. This much he claimed to have confided in the person of the Peoples Democratic Party top shot and chairman, Chief Uche Secondus. But his reasons are also common knowledge.
“Blood would have flown if the election was going to hold again. Many people were being arrested. I would call the security men, asking why; they would say they were going to make sure there won’t be any problem. So, I called some people including the Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus that I was not going to run again. They said why and I explained that if I did, many people would die.
“On the day of the judgment, we were sitting in the parlour when my CSO came to tell me that I was going to lose, and I would be arrested. I asked him to leave my house. He said whether there was nothing we could do, I said he should leave. I pray that my enemy should continue to have permanent high blood pressure. I wouldn’t pray that God will heal them. My own has come down now, and for several months, it was high. It is time for their own (blood pressure) to rise,” he said.
But if you thought that was no big deal, then what about this? “Let me thank our former governor, Dr. Peter Odili (whose wife, Mary Odili, is a Supreme Court Justice). He will call me midnight to tell me what to do....he will say ‘go so so place.’ I took all his advice, and here we are today.”
Without much ado, Wike has simply hinted of the extra-judicial efforts that might have weighed in his favour in the case eventually decided by the apex court. Whilst he had clearly given up as much as many a Nigerian had also thought the Rivers’ matter would end up in a fresh election, the intervention of the Odilis, he claimed, was the game changer. And why would Odili not be able to pull such strings, after all, he is the only Nigerian, who has successfully secured a restraining order against his arrest by security operatives in the country, whatever his crime. And that order still subsists.
Wike’s thanksgiving speech was an eye-opener in the nation’s justice system and has revealed so much about the vulnerability of the apex court in the systemic scourge of compromise. It has, according to observers, shown that truly, everyone has a price, regardless of who is standing tall from where. Wike was confident about external interventions in the matter such that both the rulings of the tribunal and the appeal court failed to ruffle him. He was certain it would end at the Supreme Court and it, simply because the Odilis, according to him, had his back.
It was no wonder, therefore, that of all the judgments handed by the Supreme Court, the one of Rivers raised eyebrow and threw up questions that would be left for a cracking legal class to resolve later in life. The basis for the judgment was though technical, largely seen as illogical and of course, bereft of legal common sense, which evidently demystifies the stature of the Supreme Court and her justices. Many renowned legal luminaries had also frowned at the judgments – everyone waiting to read the basis for the decision of the apex court as promised soon.
Perhaps, it was as a result of this that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the 2015 governorship election in the state, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, held a press conference recently to situate the issues in proper perspective as well as state his fears about what is to come.
The APC candidate stated that since the judgment by the Supreme Court, “I, the APC Governorship Candidate, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, despite receiving the judgment with mixed feelings, came out to publicly announce my unreserved acceptance of the verdict. However, a few days later, the Governor, while addressing Civil Servants in Port Harcourt exhibited unconscionable indiscretion of the highest order by re-echoing his earlier incendiary statements threatening INEC personnel with death over the forthcoming National and State Assemblies rerun elections.
“He said, ‘Anyone who plans to rig an election is an armed robber and should be treated as such. If you are coming to rig an election in the state, first prepare your will before embarking on the journey. Inform your wife or husband and go ahead to say your last prayer.”
Tying this to an earlier statement by Wike, Peterside recalled when the governor said, “We are not afraid of any re-run at all. But we have always said if they said there should be a re-run, let it be a re-run and not to write the result. Let them bring anybody as INEC official from anywhere that wants to be funny, I wish the person must have written his Will before he comes.”
Peterside, however, thought the statement was callous, coming from a sitting governor. “It is a known fact that Wike promotes violence and believes so much in jungle justice but he forgets that such outlook does not have any place in a civilised society.
“Despite my acceptance and temperate public comments on the verdict of the Supreme Court on the 27th of January, 2016 Governor Nyesom Wike, by his unguarded utterance last Sunday, seems to give credence to the pervading doubt being expressed on the judgment in public space especially in the media. Many a Nigerian continues to wonder why PDP and Governor Wike’s supporters went on wild celebration across Rivers State as early as 9am on the Day of Judgment, even when the actual verdict was handed down at about 6:20pm of that day.
“It clearly suggests that they might have been in the know of what the judgment would be long before the Supreme Court pronounced it. This is coupled with several comments especially on the social media some three weeks earlier such as ‘Thank God there will now be no need for a rerun election... It is surely ending at the Supreme Court.”
Peterside contended that information at his disposal confirmed that Wike had earlier confessed to some persons of having met one of the Justices of the Supreme Court in Mbaise during an important burial, another at Owerri in a hotel and yet others in Dubai and Saudi Arabia respectively. These Justices were in the panel that decided the matter in Wike’s favour.
“However, the most striking revelation by Wike is contained in his account at the thanksgiving service last Sunday. He obviously stunned his audience and the watching world when he confessed that when it came to the Judges, Dr. Peter Odili and the wife, Justice Mary Odili (a Justice of the Supreme Court) were his advisers. This simply confirmed his earlier statements that he had contact with the Justices after several attempts to reach the Chief Justice of the country failed.
“It is therefore obvious that the decision of the Supreme Court on the Rivers State Election was not a product of justice but rather a product of compromise and orchestrated contrivance to legalise electoral violence and rigging and, in turn, reward injustice. This calls for serious introspection by our Judiciary and judicial officers,” he said.
According to him, “These voluntary confessions made by Governor Nyesom Wike confirm beyond doubt that Nyesom Wike was obviously behind the orgy of violence during the last elections. He funded and sponsored it. Juxtaposed with his recent threats, it is obvious Nyesom Wike thinks he can dare the state and people of Rivers State and will always get away with reward of visiting violence on innocent people.”
When placed side by side with the statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari recently, where he reportedly dismissed the judiciary as the biggest hindrance to the fight against corruption, then, there is the probability to situate a link. The president didn’t just speak in vacuum; he obviously spoke from the position of knowledge of the information at his disposal and the happenings around have not proved differently either.
Talk is often dismissed as cheap. But where the innocence of the phrase is being deliberately exploited to massage sinister ego or in other cases, cover up mischief, then those who could see beyond the façade should act. The roles of certain individuals in the alleged plot believed to have thwarted the cause of justice in Rivers, observers maintain, must be addressed and so done for posterity.