The tragic drama that came about in Delta State final Wednesday captured the brutality of politics, significantly when pursuits are at play.
Essentially the most painful of the episodes was the one which concerned Ifeanyi Okowa, former governor of the state.
That specific day, Okowa dealt the unkindest lower on the Individuals’s Democratic Get together (PDP). It was least anticipated. However those that are aware of the story of Julius Caesar and the treachery of Brutus, his closest buddy, would perceive that Okowa solely performed to kind.
Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar depicts Caesar’s final phrases as ‘Et tu, Brute?” which interprets to “You too, Brutus?”
On the day that Caesar was brutally murdered by these he thought of his kitchen cupboard, there was one man he by no means believed in his wildest creativeness that might increase a finger in opposition to him. That man was Brutus. He, it was that dealt the ending thrust in Caesar.
Whereas the opposite buccaneer mates so-called, had been thrusting their swords in any a part of Caesar’s physique that caught their fancy, the dying Caesar noticed Brutus, who by this time was not going through Caesar however backing him together with his merciless sword able to do the unthinkable. Caesar reached out to him, and held him, searching for a protect and safety, however Brutus turned to him, and in a fiendish look that terrorized Caesar, thrusted the harmful weapon into Caesar. Earlier than he breathed his final, Caesar gushed out some disappointing phrases…Et tu, Brutus? (You too, Brutus?).
The historical past of the present disaster threatening the lifetime of the PDP can’t be written with out Okowa’s identify that includes prominently. The then governor of Delta State was among the many Southern governors that insisted that energy should return to south in 2023 after the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari.
The then governors had held numerous conferences in Asaba and Lagos on that very situation. However Okowa was to interrupt the rank when he accepted to be the operating mate to Atiku Abubakar, a former vp from Adamawa State.
Many stated it was a hypocritical transfer and he was accused of treachery. At the moment additionally, some members of the celebration had favoured the then governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike as Atiku’s operating mate, however that might not fly. That disagreement festered, resulting in the barefaced rise up by Wike in opposition to the celebration.
Though he didn’t and has not left the celebration, Wike has efficiently ensured that the PDP has not made any progress. He’s believed to have planted moles in every single place within the celebration, and is allegedly offering the ruling celebration the gas for the ceaseless conflagration in PDP.
Since after the election, Okowa has been very quiet. He has not been vibrant, and nothing a lot has been heard of him till late final 12 months when the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC) arrested him over alleged diversion of N1.3trillion.
Sources stated that though the previous governor had insisted he was not afraid of being investigated, he started to hunt a smooth touchdown, which culminated within the defection; maybe, having been assured that “insurance coverage covers him” within the broom organisation.
His ditching the PDP and becoming a member of the APC to fulfill Wike and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in opposition to whom he teamed up together with his presidential candidate to cease in 2023, can solely converse to the character of politicians as having quick recollections.
Dumping the PDP that’s nonetheless writhing in ache of the flawed determination (in his favour) in 2023 is an unkindest lower like that of Brutus!
Governor Alia, observers are watching!
Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has been placing the flawed foot ahead within the matter of continued massacres in his state.
A Reverend Father of the Catholic Church hue appeared to learn politics in all the things and makes statements that are likely to painting him as being economical with the reality.
Not too long ago, the governor drew the ire of many right-thinking members of society when he barred Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Get together within the 2023 basic election, from getting into Benue to commiserate with brothers and sisters who had been grieving over the bloodbath of their family members.
There is no such thing as a Nigerian who will not be saddened by what’s going on in Benue. Many individuals thought that the killings would abate with an All Progressives Congress (APC) governor within the saddle. But it surely appears the scenario has worsened.
A cleric-governor was anticipated to indicate extra tolerance than profession politicians, however that isn’t the case with Alia. Was he fascinated about the election already? Was he afraid {that a} go to by a politician from one other political platform might pose a menace by simply coming to his state?
Alia, a Catholic priest earlier than mounting the saddle as governor of Benue, is celebrating that he blocked his brother in the identical religion from visiting the traumatised.
Peter Obi had simply visited Plateau State, the place he was obtained by Governor Caleb Mutfwang, a non-cleric, however he ran right into a roadblock when he dared to go to his personal brother-in-the-Lord.
Whereas not talking for Obi, you will need to level out that the previous Anambra State governor stays one single person that has proven manifest dedication to the work performed by the Catholic motion in Nigeria.
The Benue State governor stated that Obi didn’t inform him that he was coming. However the Labour Get together chief had defined that he tried unsuccessfully to achieve the governor straight however determined to undergo his ADC.
“I attempted repeatedly to contact the Benue State Governor straight with out success. I then efficiently contacted his ADC who instructed me that the governor was in a vital assembly and would name me earlier than midnight on the identical day.
“Sadly, I didn’t get that decision till Sunday night when he despatched me a message stating he had not been in a position to attain his principal for the reason that day I known as. I used to be disturbed by how an ADC wouldn’t have been in a position to attain his principal for 3 days,” Obi stated.
However whereas talking on a tv channel, Alia accused the Labour Get together chief of violating normal protocols by failing to tell him forward of his go to as courtesy calls for.
“A really revered Peter Obi was a governor. If you’re coming into somebody’s state, there are protocols. Very excessive character; you’re coming into somebody’s state, and your celebration doesn’t even know you’re coming.
“I, the sitting governor, didn’t know you had been coming. Then you’re going into the place I’m defending even essentially the most, the IDP camp. It’s my responsibility to guard them. They’ve been displaced. I want to guard them even some extra. I don’t know the intent you’ve,” Alia defined.
He added, “Is it not courteous sufficient for me to know as a sitting governor and even to supply extra safety to you and put together the minds of the IDPs {that a} visitor is coming to go to them?”
He additionally denied that he was unreachable when the previous Anambra known as to tell him of his go to.
“No, that’s not the correct narrative. I can by no means politicise that. I’m the one bearing the brunt, ache and sorrows of the IDPs in my state. No. That’s not the true story. If he (Mr. Obi) couldn’t attain me, I’ve a chief of employees, I’ve an SSG, and I’ve a PPS. That’s not true,” Alia stated.
So, is Alia making an attempt to say that Peter Obi, a former governor, didn’t know the protocol of reaching a governor, or what?
Effectively, no matter could also be his purpose for instructing the previous governor to not enterprise into Benue State, it’s in dangerous style, significantly when the state is bleeding, needing all the help it might get.
Governor Alia additionally made a critical verbal error when he stated that the terrorists attacking Benue didn’t resemble Nigerians, claiming that they arrive from Mali, and are normally armed with AK-47 rifles.
The governor, who shocked many Nigerians by developing together with his verdict, stated: “Let’s have the narrative very appropriate. We all know Nigerians — by our ethnicities, we will establish a Fulani man, a Yoruba man, a Hausa man — we all know them. Even the common conventional herders, we all know them. They work with cows, herding with sticks.
“However these people (the attackers) are coming in totally armed with AK-47s and 49s. They don’t bear the Nigerian look. They don’t converse like we do. Even the Hausa they converse is one type of Hausa.”
In keeping with him, “It’s not the traditional Hausa we Nigerians converse. So, it’s with the Fulani they converse. There’s a development within the language they converse, and a few of our individuals who perceive what they converse give it names. They are saying they’re Malians and completely different from our folks. However they don’t seem to be Nigerians — imagine it.
“That is the second part we’re seeing. The preliminary ones had been with the standard herders. The normal herders — we had fewer troubles with them. What we’re experiencing has a brand new, completely different, unusual face, and it’s now alarming,” the governor stated.
Effectively, whether or not the invaders are Nigerians or foreigners, it’s a failure on the a part of authorities to not shield the residents. There is no such thing as a justification for the carnage being recorded in Benue.
Was Alia making an attempt to please anyone? Was he talking tongue-in-cheek? Why was he shying away from calling a spade by its correct identify? Now that the governor has came upon that the killers are aliens; the query is, what subsequent?
For Nigerian politicians… no feelings!
Politics is only enterprise. Those that play it throw away conscience. It’s a enterprise the place all the things is truthful and good. If opponents are trampled underneath toes they usually lose their breath within the course of, it’s thought to be a sport.
The Nigerian model of politicians simply forgets friendship cultured and nurtured for a few years each time the warmth is on them to leap ship. They trumpet about service for the larger good of the folks, whereas of their innermost being, self-interest is the overriding drive.
Ambrose Bierce, American author, described politics as “a strife of pursuits masquerading as a contest of ideas; the conduct of public affairs for personal benefit.”
That’s the reason once they come to the folks throughout electioneering marketing campaign, they consciously spew out lies, realizing that no matter they promise would finish on the cleaning soap field and don’t have any lengthy lifespan after election.
Once they include branded merchandise, akin to rice, onions, tomatoes, garlic and beans, even loaves of bread, they know they’re investing that yields good-looking returns.
John Webster, English dramatist, stated: “A politician imitates the satan, because the satan imitates a cannon; wheresoever he involves do mischief, he comes together with his bottom in the direction of you.”
The speed of defections by politicians is motivated by self-protection. Politicians don’t have any events so to talk, what they’ve are platforms that get them what they need at any materials time.
After the 2023 basic election, politicians elected on the platform of Labour Get together (LP) had been being regarded upon as puritans who would carry sanity and do all inside their powers to purify a system that everyone believes wants sanitization. Sadly, they had been the primary set of people who started to ditch their celebration once they started to obtain particular messages of their “e-mail packing containers.”
Earlier than Nigerians knew what was occurring, these LP senators and Home of Representatives members went quiet. They neither increase any situation nor contend in opposition to points which are anti-people. They’ve since adopted a survivalist technique of “see nothing, say nothing.
At the moment, these politicians who received the 2023 basic election on the platform of the LP, Individuals’s Democratic Get together (PDP), Younger Progressives Get together (YPP), New Nigeria Peoples Get together (NNPP), Social Democratic Get together (SDP) are operating to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) due to self-preservation.
None of these from the so-called opposition is sustaining no matter ideology they claimed to face on through the electioneering marketing campaign. Actually, critics allege that they’re the loudest “ayes” voices each time Godswill Akpabio and Tajudeen Abass, Senate President and Speaker, Home of Representatives, respectively need to have their means within the chambers.
The Delta coup
What came about in Delta final Wednesday must be taken for what it is- pure political survival! Governor Sheriff Oborevwori had ceaselessly denied he was nursing an ambition to empty himself into the APC.
He had additionally within the course of accused the press of dangerous report in that regard. That’s their stock-in-trade. Any time the media open to the general public what appears a secret, political actors would label such studies as false and go forward to assert the reporters had been both paid to malign them or are working for the opposition.
At the moment, the world can see who was telling the reality. Such denials are swelling in another states. A sitting governor of an opposition celebration the opposite day accredited the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu two years forward of the election. Such a governor is pretty much as good as a spy within the PDP household so long as he stays there, bodily!
Now, on the tsunami in Delta, the query that has been ringing in many individuals’s ears since Wednesday, has been, what motivated the exodus in a state that had been a PDP fortress?
Many individuals have additionally tried solutions, saying it might be {that a} guess had been dangled earlier than the governor that he couldn’t resist. A part of that guess might be an assurance for a straightforward trip to re-election, given the style of elections within the nation these days.
Some others pointed at a chance of coercion utilizing the unguarded moments of the governor. Maybe, he could have been discovered to have some bleating goats at his yard and the powers that be in Abuja are torch-lighting the darkish spot. Might or not it’s that the one choice to extricate himself is to hitch them in order that his sins might be forgiven? Too many permutations and hallucinations!
Once more, when the information broke that every one the equipment of the PDP has moved to the APC, many Nigerians started to drink Panadol for the imagery headache of the management of the APC in Delta, significantly the likes of Ovie Omo Agege, who had been constructing the once-unknown celebration within the state.
With the way in which events are run in Nigeria, the place a sitting governor within the state is the chief of that celebration, it has develop into clear that Governor Oborevwori has routinely assumed the management of the APC in Delta pushing down those that had laboured to make it enticing. Speak of the therapy of the biblical Prodigal Son vis-a-vis his (loyal) elder brother!
However one factor about these defections and the barber’s chair model of politics in Nigeria is that it’s ephemeral, like all the things else on the planet earth.
Earlier than the 2015 basic election, Chibuike Amaechi led about 4 different PDP governors and a few members of the brand new PDP (nPDP) to hitch the APC. They fought in opposition to the umbrella celebration and ensured that it misplaced the election. At the moment, a few of them have both fallen out from the broom celebration or are “party-less” as within the case of Amaechi.
Earlier than the 2023 election, Nyesom Wike led 4 different governors, underneath G-5 to work in opposition to the celebration, whereas staying contained in the celebration. The continued disaster rocking the celebration is their making. At the moment, they’re like caterpillars residing on a tree and destroying the tree. Observers say that tomorrow is pregnant!
