Omoku Killings: Wike Should Stop Crying Like A Baby But Face Insecurity In Rivers
The killing of 21 persons said to be returning to their homes after
the crossover night of 2017-2018 service in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni
Council and other restiveness in Rivers State, have become an
albatross to Governor Nyesom Wike of the state; a puzzle he would
rather blame-game instead of accept the reality of the mishap in his
governance and find a lasting solution to the problem.
Instead of prop-up for possible means to shorten the impasses, Wike
rather resorted to lengthening his hand for help from the Federal
Government (FG), like a child badly beaten and decided to roll on the
ground and raises hands up for help; a FG he had severally criticised
as inept? As-an-alternative for Wike to do everything within his
constitutional power as Govenor of Rivers State to curb the epidemic
of killings in Rivers (as they have gotten out of hand), he was
circuitously and barefacedly calling for assistance from the FG?
This call for help is a body language suggesting that Wike is handicap
in handling Rivers State and yet, would not want to resign.
The incessant killings in Omoku in particular since late 2015, was how
the Islamic State in West Africa, formerly known as Jamā'at Ahl
as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād and commonly known as Boko Haram until
March 2015 (wikipedia), started in 1999 in most parts of the
North-east of Nigeria and today, all mercenaries the FG had and is
putting put in place to stem the orgies of destruction of property and
lives by Boko Haram, have not given Nigerians hope that Boko Haram
would end in the near future.
Wike expressed and showcased his flaw in governance when on Friday,
January 5 2018; in lieu of accept the fact that the state he governs
was insecure, he blamed those from the blues of planning to make the
state ungovernable. Hooey!
Wike’s unedited calculation and what may be seen as a political
language was brashly dished out when the Minister of Interior,
Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau (Rtd) paid him a courtesy call in Port
Harcourt, the Rivers State seat of power.
Wike’s statement that the state was ever ready to co-work with the FG
to engage in the security challenges in the state would make a
hypothesis for researchers that Wike has indirectly told the residents
that they should not look up to him for the security in Rivers State,
but the FG.
He would say, “The security agencies have the profiles of all cult
kingpins in different parts of the state and they know their
locations, there is no wisdom in the politicization of security.
Insecurity can affect anybody; you can never know the next victim of
insecurity.
“In every system, the security agencies know the flashpoints, here we
requested for the strengthening of security around these flashpoints,
especially areas with high prevalence of cultists.
“I expect that security would be beefed up in these places; I ask this
question, is there an orchestrated plan to tag Rivers State unsafe? Is
the situation above the security agencies, despite the information we
have made available to them?”
While Wike is trading blame of the insecurity in Rivers, he forgot
that some two years ago, as governor-elect, he raised hope and assured
investors in and out of the country that Rivers State would be save
for investment beginning May 29 2015. This was even as he swaggered of
boosting security in the state: A statement he was fund of, just for
the purpose of making the government he succeeded to be treated by
critics as a beehive of insecurity.
Wike made this security-for-all declaration on a Wednesday of that
year, while in a meeting with Ambassador John Groffen, the Netherlands
Ambassador to Nigeria in Port Harcourt. Wike saw insecurity as
alarming in the state before May 29 2015 and boasted, “We are
committed to creating an enabling environment for foreign investors to
invest in our state. We understand the importance of foreign direct
investments in the creation of employment for our unemployed youths.
“We will improve on the security of lives and property across the
state and ensure that kidnappings become a thing of the past in the
state. This state which is key to Nigeria and the international
community, will once again be a beehive of economic activities. We are
committed to creating a new Rivers State, which all our people will be
proud of.”
As they say, talk is cheap. Today, instead of own up that his
government has failed the Rivers residents in providing adequate
security in the state, Wike started making a career in blame game:
Blaming the governor before him of the spate of insecurity in Rivers,
just as the man from Daura and his failed cabinet would not stop to
blame the government at the centre before them of their failure to
deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians in regard to their
2015 presidential campaign promises to the Nigerian masses.
Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau (left); Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers, and Police Commissioner in the State, Zaki Ahmed, during the Minister’s visit to the Government House in Port Harcourt yesterday to commiserate with the state government over the recent Omoku violence PHOTO: NAN
When Wike saw that he had no way to escape his failed boast of
providing security in the state, on Sunday, October 2, 2016, he blamed
the government he succeeded of bequeathing his government with the
insecurity in the state. Wike was no longer talking about providing a
safe landing investment ground for investors in the state, but that
the killings and kidnappings in Rivers started during the government
that he succeeded.
It was at the thanksgiving service at Saint Andrew’s Anglican Church
in Okrika to memorialize the rescue of Patience Tam-George, the
octogenarian mother of the then Commissioner of Information, Dr.
Austin Tam-George, who was held hostage for six days by kidnappers,
that Wike who was represented by the Secretary to the state
government, Mr. Kenneth Kobani made the statement.
Before spectators would pronounce Ibinabo, the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) in the state dubbed as saying that the FG has been
sabotaging Wike’s fight against insecurity in Rivers. It was the State
Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Samuel Wanosike who made this blatant
comment while chatting with newsmen in Port Harcourt, in September
2017.
In the words of Wanosike, “First of all, let me tell you that the
Federal government is sabotaging the security in Rivers State. You all
know that there is nothing our ggovernor has not done to improve the
security of the state." Did you hear that?
Perhaps, in order to churlish the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and Army
as a non grata, Wanosike said that Wike, upon funding the Police in
Rivers State and Army to what he characterised by "their maximum
capacity" with gadgets, gunboats for the Navy , equipment and
logistics support to the police, which he said that even the IG could
testify to, insecurity still persists.
In October 2017, Wike while speaking during the National Security
Summit in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, replayed what was of the
Rivers in PDP against the security agents in Rivers State. Hear Wike,
“If we don’t work together, how do we fight crime? I have told
everybody who cares we are all politicians. Join me to fight crime in
my state. When the time for politics comes, don’t worry, I know how to
do it, but for now fight crime for me...
“I came here to support the IG and I want to say nobody has any
personal thing against you. I want to assure you that if you send your
boys to the streets to fight crime, I will continue to give them my
support.”
But why does Wike think the FG is sabotaging security in the state? He
would accuse SARS of kidnapping, accuse APC of the insecurity in the
state and so on. Yet, we have an article with the title, "How Wike
Solved Rivers Insecurity Challenge" published on October 2, 2017, in
one of the national papers. However, governance is like a romantic
relationship and must be guided with all manner of truth than lies and
boastfulness.
A Mark Tyrrell, a relationship expert in "Overcoming Insecurity in
Relationships" intemised points that must be put in place to secure a
relationship. As if talking to Wike, Tyrrell says: Stop confusing
imagination with reality, avoid the Certainty Trap, give the
relationship room to breathe, stop 'mind reading', stop comparing
current relationships to past ones, for security: Seek self-assurance,
focus on the good.
Odimegwu Onwumere is a Poet, Writer and Media Consultant based in
Rivers State. Tel: +2348032552855. Email: [email protected]