Fayose: A Comedy of Errors

Comfort Obi

Let me confess that I am worried. And this is the first time I am feeling like this since May 29, 1999, when the military handed over power to a civilian regime. It is so bad that my usually normal blood pressure has inched up. Neither my doctor, nor I, believed it. So, he had to re-check it six times within a period of two hours. It remained the same. And this is the first time I would have this problem. So, my doctor asked me what the problem was. And I blurted out: “The state of the nation.” Dear readers, this is the absolute truth.
It starts as soon as I wake up from sleep in the morning. As the hands of the clock inch towards 7.00 a.m, I become nervous and full of anxiety. That is the time the newspaper vendor supplies my copies of the dailies. In the last two months or so, I have stopped listening to local radio and television stations for news at night. I am permanently tuned to foreign stations. The reason is that I don’t want to hear anything that would disturb my sleep. So, I depend on the newspapers. Once they are brought to me, my heart starts pounding, as I quickly browse through, first, the front pages, and then, the editorials.
I never get disappointed. For each day, we gallop from one crisis to the other. There is no breathing space. They happen so fast that we can hardly catch our breathe. In my profession, bad news is good news. We make a mince-meat of it, and sell copies and copies on end. But well, when the bad news, each day, touches on the stability of one's country, one is bound to be worried. And I am not the only one worried.
These days, Victor (the editor of this magazine) and I spend about two hours each day, discussing the state of the nation, sighing, and worrying about tomorrow. The other day, I was with three of my senior colleagues. One of us said something about looking for a plot of land to buy and build a residential house. Ordinarily, that meant progress. We should all have been happy for our colleague. But one of us pleaded caution: “With the way things are going, I would advise you to tarry a while. Your house may become an abandoned property very soon.” Thinking about it later, I was like, if we don’t even have the confidence to invest in our country, how do we expect foreigners to invest in it? Things are as bad as that now.
Yet, all things put into consideration, that advice from one of us was correct. Nigeria is being pulled to the brink. I don’t know how the ordinary Nigerian has managed these past two months. It is like the powers-that-be have conspired to deal with us. So, everyday they serve us anxiety, headache, and hypertension for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And it is not just the quarrel in the Presidency between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar. This is brewing from one state to the other. A check list:
In Oyo State, the governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, a product of an illegal and contrived impeachment of his boss, has a frosty relationship with his imposed deputy, Alhaji Azeem Gbolarumi, over Akala’s desire to contest for the governorship seat in 2007. Apparently, Gbalarumi, whose educational qualification is still shrouded in mystery, and whose only claim to importance and power is that he was an aide to Lamidi Adedibu, wants to contest too. He wants what his oga wants. So, there is tension in Ibadan.
In Plateau State, the tension has reached to high heavens, and is threatening to pierce it. Soldiers are on the streets. So are the police and armoured cars. There have been clashes between them and supporters of the state governor, Joshua Dariye. At least, one death has been recorded. Security details, attached to the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly have been withdrawn. Unconfirmed reports say those of the Governor, Dariye, have also been withdrawn. If so, this wouldn’t be the first time he would suffer this. The first time his security details were withdrawn, some women in Plateau State decided to guard him. Lucky chap! But more important, Nuhu Ribadu, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), is threatening to put him behind bars. “He will suffer the fate of DSP (Alamieyeseigha), the impeached governor of Bayelsa State, who has been in detention, courtesy, EFCC, whether he likes it or not,” Ribadu was quoted as saying penultimate week, by a national newspaper. An impeachment notice by eight (or is it six?) of the House members has been served the governor. Accusing fingers are being pointed at the EFCC for the crisis in Plateau State, just like the one in Ekiti. But Ribadu denies it.
In fairness to Ribadu, Dairye, like Alamieyeseigha, is the architect of his problem. Allegedly caught with about one million pound sterling in London, he jumped bail and since then has shamelessly remained the governor of the State. In more civilised countries, he would have resigned and began a defence of himself. But he, surprisingly, has the full support of Solomon Lar. Promptings by the EFCC on the House members to impeach him has not worked. Until this recent divide-and-rule tactics.
In Abia State, the cloud is gathering. The EFCC, which has been gunning for Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, is intent on putting him to shame. Days ago, they declared 18 officials of his government and his mother, Chief (Mrs) Eunice Uzor Kalu, wanted. That was 24 hours after the operatives of the agency had gone to her Aba residence at an uncivilised hour (12.30 a.m), to arrest her. They were, amazingly, rebuffed by her guards. Since then, the governor, sensing it is a ploy to give him the Alamieyeseigha and Fayose treatment, has been threatening fire and brimstone. He says nobody can impeach him. He says he would resist his mother's arrest. And he says, considering that when the chips are down, he may not trust the police, he would resort to “self help.”
In Anambra State, hell is let loose. There are riots in the streets. Why? Members of the House of Assembly served the governor, Peter Obi, and his deputy, Virgy Etiaba,an impeachment notice. Obi is just a few months old as governor. But the PDP-controlled House has managed, within these few months, to compile a deluge of crimes, he allegedly committed against Anambra people. Now, if you have followed the sad story of the state since the days of the failed Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju’s administration, you would wonder if anybody cursed the state. Perhaps. To think that this is a state which parades some of the best brains and some of the richest in this country. Yet, they allow charlatans to take control of their destinies!
But let me confess that Obi does not excite me as a governor. I have seen neither focus nor vision. All I see are laughter and broad smiles, when he should be serious. Even my driver has taken note and on occasions asked: "What has this man done in Anambra, except smiling and laughing?" Obi may have been a good bank chairman, but he doesn’t seem to have the capacity to govern a state. He seems too laid- back. But the question is: What will it profit Anambra people if they go on record as having had three governors, plus one in an acting capacity (the speaker, if he pulls this coup through), within a space of four years? I wouldn’t call the honourables, rascals, like Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu did, but they seem not to be a serious bunch! For, let’s look at it, these are the same guys, who, of all the serious things they should have handled in Anambra, including an erosion that is threatening to wipe out whole towns, moved a motion asking President Olusegun Obasanjo to release his Senior Special Assistant, Dr. Andy Uba, to run for governorship!
I can go on and on. There is tension everywhere. But that of Ekiti State takes the cake. In Ekiti, there are parallel governments – one headed by the impeached(?) deputy governor, Abiodun Olujimi, and the other, by the ambitious former(?) Speaker of the House, Friday Aderemi. He, the same man, who was recently indicted by the EFCC for receiving gratification. So, you wonder what has happened to the indictment. Ayo Fayose, the impeached(?) governor of the state is in hiding. He says he would soon hit the streets. His wife, Feyisetan, has been arrested for undisclosed reasons. The Chief Judge of the state, Justice Kayode Bamisile, has been sacked by the House. In sum, nobody knows what will happen next. There is confusion in the state. This confusion is a product of “illegality upon illegality.” The House, in a bid to sack Fayose, broke all laws guiding this country. What is happening in Ekiti is a comedy of errors. The most shocking, however, is that, in the face of an episode that could turn bloody, and shake Nigeria to its roots, the Federal Government is double-speaking, let me not say “blowing hot and cold.”
Nothing has amused me more than the utterances of Bayo Ojo, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister for Justice. In what was calculated to both annoy and ridicule at once, he dismissed the appointment of Justice Jide Aladejana as illegal and declared any action he had taken so far as unconstitutional, null and void. Interpretation: The constitution of an impeachment panel by Aladejana, the impeachment therefrom of Fayose and Olujimi, and the swearing-in of Aderemi as the acting governor, are unconstitutional, null and void. Meaning: Fayose and Olujimi are still the governor and deputy governor of the state respectively.
So, you ask: Why did the Federal Government wait till after the impeachment to make its stand known? Was it deliberate? If so, why? How will it convince anybody that it is not behind the Ekiti crisis? Otherwise, who ordered soldiers to take over Ekiti Government House? Who provided security cover for Aderemi and co., to do what they did? Who arrested Fayose’s wife and for what? Who is beating the drums being danced to in Ekiti by both sides? But more curious, Olujimi, courageously reported at her office on Tuesday, October 17, with the full compliment of her security details in toe! Who, and what gave her the courage? Why were her security details not withdrawn? I guess there is a deal somewhere which we, however, don’t know about yet.
But a piece of advice. The sooner this deal is made public, the better. This tension is killing Nigerians. Nobody knows for how long they can endure. I guess Nigerians are entitled to some breathing space.