It’s easy to quote the constitution, shout emotionally, and wail from now till eternity, but it won’t move a needle where wisdom, tact, and strategy are lacking in consolidating power. I wrote here a few days ago that many Nigerians love to deny the obvious and feign ignorance of the political reality in Nigeria. I repeat: there is hardly any governor in Nigeria who has come into office without the validation of a godfather since 1999. Quote me!
In fact, President Obasanjo took it a notch higher by picking his own successor as President and Vice President in 2007—Yar’Adua and Jonathan. I remember supporting Donald Duke during the PDP primary election campaign. Dr. Odili of Rivers State had the biggest campaign at that time.
It’s ironic that the online “hacktivists” always keep silent when incumbent governors jettison the primary elections of their political parties or stage-manage them to produce their preferred candidates. At such times, these online “hacktivists” are always in slumber—they don’t talk, they refuse to wail, and they don’t demand transparent primaries. Yet, when a fight later erupts between a godfather and his godson, these same people suddenly stream out of their holes.
The question is: where were you all when injustice threw out the man you are now wailing about? Suddenly, you want to canonize the godson and paint the godfather as the devil. No! He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. You cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time.
A man who subjects himself to being single-handedly picked as governor—knowing full well that, under normal circumstances, he could not have won his party’s primaries on his own—is just as guilty and complicit as the man who picked him and forced him on the party as a candidate. Let no one, I repeat, let no one come and portray one as the devil and the other as a saint.
To all the Nigerians taking sides in this Rivers situation—those who now see Sim Fubara as a victim but had nothing to say two years ago when he was forced on the PDP as a candidate—you are all a bunch of hypocrites, and your hypocrisy stinks to high heavens! You cannot build something on nothing. If the foundation was faulty, what can the builder build upon it?
I have no sympathy for Sim Fubara. As you lay your bed, so shall you lie on it. When you know you did not emerge as governor through the will of your party members, how dare you suddenly remember “the people” when demands are now being placed on you? Were “the people” there when you were forced on the party?
Knowing how you came into office, shouldn’t common sense tell you to apply superior wisdom to governing the state and managing your relationship with the man who installed you? Sim Fubara just turned 50—I am much older than him—and I expect a 50-year-old man who understands the circumstances of his rise to power to also understand power dynamics.
If I were him, I would pick up my phone and seek an audience with former governors like Babatunde Raji Fashola, who also emerged through similar circumstances. I would pick his brain, ask valid and salient questions on how to handle the godfather-godson relationship while still delivering good governance and maintaining a working relationship with my godfather. Did Fashola not have issues with his godfather? Of course, he did! But was he able to manage them without disrupting governance in Lagos State? Absolutely, yes!
Yet, here is Sim Fubara—less than a year in office—already thinking he can suddenly wean himself off the man and the system that brought him into power. I don’t care whose ox is gored—I have no iota of pity for him. Even after peace was brokered and he signed a peace accord to abide by all ten resolutions, he went back home and allowed people who had no role in his emergence to deceive him into rejecting the agreement, arguing that the president had no constitutional right to broker it.
Did you get into office by constitutional means? Now, suddenly, you remember that the peace accord was “not constitutional”? Okay. Odiegwu. Sorry, Sim, you are not a smart guy.
And to the wailers whose only preoccupation is to cry over every action of a president they don’t like—welcome to another season of your wailing. You wailed for eight years under Buhari, and your wailing shall continue for a long time.
In Ekiti, my governor, Mr. Oyebanji, cannot claim he emerged without the validation and endorsement of former Governor Kayode Fayemi. Have you heard of any fights or rancor? Never! In fact, Oyebanji has not only managed to unite 4 former governors (Adebayo, Fayose, Fayemi & Oni) —who were once arch-political enemies—but he has also secured their endorsement for his second term, which is still over two years away. That is a man who understands power dynamics and knows how to use them to his advantage and for the good of his state.
I hate the fact that this emergency declaration had to happen, but who caused it? If you like, curse Tinubu and Wike from now till eternity—it changes nothing! Now, at this late hour, you suddenly want to teach us about good governance and constitutionality? Go ahead.
Anuofia!
Sim—good riddance to bad rubbish!
Shared as Received.
