Rivers of Betrayal

TUESDAY FLAT OUT

By Suyi Ayodele

“A child”, the elders of my place say, “only knows when he takes the oath of loyalty but is never aware when he breaks it” (Ojó tí omodé bá mu ilẹ̀ lo mo; kii mo ojó tọ́ bá da). They did not stop there. They go a bit further to talk about the consequence of treachery. Their judgement is a grave one. They submit thus: “Ilẹ̀ ní pa òdàlẹ̀” (The earth kills the one who breaks an oath). Now listen. When you hear the word, “ilẹ̀”, my elders are not by any means referring to the solid surface known as land – earth surface. No. It is deeper than that. Ilẹ̀ in Yoruba philosophy goes beyond the physical. My little knowledge of our culture tells me that once a person is cursed with the land, all terrestrial and celestial bodies are invoked and evoked to come to play. I know one or two persons that suffered the misfortune of being so cursed. As I penned this, my mind raced to those personalities in pity, and I trembled at the same time.

I tell you a short story of how someone I know suffered the fate that befalls every treacherous being. The two characters in the story are brothers of the same father. Their family, like every other polygamous set up, is not spared the ordeals of sibling rivalry. But those two guys were the closest in their family, or so we thought. They also shared one common character determiner; they are both rogues. So, it happened that one night, they conspired to burgle a tenant’s apartment in their father’s house. As planned, the elder brother was the one who climbed the ceiling to gain access to the apartment. As soon as his younger brother confirmed that he was in the room, he raised the alarm. Neighbours gathered and surrounded the house. It was to everybody’s shock when the thief was caught, and he turned out to be the son of the landlord. The culprit, on sighting his brother, asked why he decided to act the way he did. The police came and took him into custody. Days later, he was arraigned in a magistrate court and was summarily sentenced to a three-year prison term. He did his term and returned home in the dead of the night.

Early the following day, he left for the family’s ancestral home and sent a traditional message to the elders of their clan to join him there because he had a story to tell. The elders gathered. Some wayfarers joined them. Then he went ahead to narrate how his brother betrayed him on the night he was caught. His brother was in the audience. He did not dispute what the elder brother said. Before the elders could speak, the ex-convict did something tragic and irreversible. On the traditional spot where the family’s first placenta was buried, the ex-convict placed his left foot on it and issued a curse on his half-brother thus: “Let the land judge between us if I deserved the treachery from you that night.” The people present chorused “Ase”- Amen. He (the one caught) left town, only to return years later, a practically useless man. The last time I was in their place, I saw the two brothers. The signs of the effects of the jail term and the curse were very visible. Indeed, “Ilẹ̀ nií pa òdàlẹ̀.”

Mr. Nyesom Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers State, and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has been in the news in the last couple of days. And it is for very bad reasons, though that has, in itself, become the new normal in the Nigerian political firmament. Wike, unarguably, is a man who thrives in trouble and controversies. He is the typical “Arogunyo” (he who is happy when there is war). Is that an enviable attribute? I leave you to answer that. From doing-in his own political party, the now comatose Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the last presidential elections, to his attempt to remove, unceremoniously, his political protégé and successor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, to practically insulting a Bishop of the Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Oko-Jaja, the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Niger Delta, the FCT minister cuts the picture of a man whose yam turns out to be the biggest in the compound but has not learnt the wisdom of covering his mouth while eating it. There is a word of caution for such indiscreet behaviour. I don’t know how much of learning Wike has in our culture. I can just offer a free lesson here, to wit, what joins one to eat the biggest yam is more than one’s family members.

I saw the video of Wike’s tirade on the Bishop, and I asked myself what would have been the reaction of, let’s say, My Lord Bishop Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi, the retired Bishop of Akure Diocese. Tufiakwa! No Jupiter would dare do such a thing where my Lord Bishop Gbonigi presides. Not even a Military Governor or Administrator would ever come to the lion’s lair the way Wike did in Port Harcourt about a week ago, where he openly upbraided the clergyman for not recognising him when he (Wike) entered the church. Such behaviour also has a description in our traditional folksongs. In one of the songs, someone of Wike’s behaviour is called; “Ajaye ma wo ehin” – he who carries on without a thought for the end result. The elders, again, warn such an individual to note that the world rotates. Today, Wike is the FCT Minister. But for how long? Probably, another eight years, if God permits. After that, he becomes an ex-FCT Minister the same way he is being referred to as ex-governor! That is life. It moves, it revolves and those who carry on without sparing a thought for the repercussion of their actions and inactions are usually caught on the wrong side of history.

How true then is the saying that a man with bad character may not necessarily know himself? I found an answer to this question in the recent statement credited to Minister Wike, who was quoted to have said that he could not tolerate ingrates. Whao! So, the restless former governor detests ingratitude? Wike, while speaking at a function in Abuja, described his successor, Governor Fubara, as an ingrate, who attempted to crumble his political structure in Rivers State.

This is how the minister described his successor and the political crisis in the once-peaceful state: “Let me tell you, I don’t like ingrates. I can’t stand it. What is happening now is what former Governor Peter Odili said in his book: ‘Give a man, power and money, then you will know the person.’ If you haven’t given a man, power, and money then you don’t know the person…. You know what is painful? All these allegations, I smile. Who and who sat with him. In all your doings be grateful in your life no matter the circumstance. Nobody who is a gentleman, and a politician will support this kind of thing. I left projects for him to commission so he would showcase them during his 100 days, then politics came in. We are just starting. God gave you something, you are now importing crisis. God gave this on a platter of gold, no crisis. The Federal Government is not fighting you; nobody at home is fighting you. You are the one trying to create a crisis for yourself. What kind of system is that? Who does that? Only ingrates that it is in their blood that will support what is happening there. Only those who are naturally ingrates.”

So, in all his dealings with all the benevolent political squirrels that cracked his political palm kernels for him, Wike has remained grateful to all of them? Who among his political benefactors has Wike not shown ingratitude to? Who among them has he not decimated? Which of the political structure that was used in making Wike chairman of a council, Chief of Staff to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of State for Education and finally governor of Rivers State, is still standing today. Has Wike been eternally grateful to his benefactors, like Dr Peter Odili, whose book, “Conscience and History – My Story”, he quoted at the Abuja function. If Odili had not shown magnanimity, maturity, and a deep sense of forgiveness, would he and Wike have been on talking terms today? What about Rotimi Amaechi, the man who handed over power to Wike? Is the Ikwere man not nursing the fatal political injury inflicted on him by Wike till date? If Amaechi were to write the memoirs of his political voyage, how many negative chapters would Wike occupy? What has been the foundation of Rivers State since the beginning of this present democratic dispensation if not treachery, ingratitude, and acute backstabbing?

While one will not necessarily support Fubara burning the bridge that he used in crossing his political river, it is completely out of place for Wike to talk about ingratitude. His entire political life and journey is built on that infamy. Whatever a man sows, is what he reaps. Nothing changes that! Is Wike not ungrateful to the PDP which sharpened his political teeth for him? Did he not sink the PDP in Rivers, Enugu, Abia, Oyo, and Benue States, when he led the PDP G-5 Governors, in the last election? Without the PDP, would Wike have amounted to anything politically? Is he not an ingrate and a prodigal political son to the benevolent Odili? Did he not repay Amaechi, the man who made him a CoS, a junior minister, and a governor with ingratitude when he found new masters in the former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his wife, Madam Patience Goodluck Jonathan? But for selling his old godfather, Amaechi for 30 Shekels of silver like Judas Iscariot, would Wike not have been long confined to the ignoble dustbin of political history? Something is wrong with Rivers State. The owners of the land need to look deeper into the issue of political treachery in the oil-rich state. The way political leaders there change loyalty like a baby’s diapers calls for concern. Political decency appears to be in short supply over there!

In Rivers State, it has been an unbroken stream of treachery. Odili tells it all in his “Conscience and History – My Story.” The Rivers’ political ancestor tells the story of how he made his own Personal Assistant, Rotimi Amaechi, a member of the House of Assembly, and then the speaker. Wike was a council chairman in the Odili government. When it was discovered that the Abuja powerhouse would not support Amaechi’s governorship PDP candidature, it was the same Amaechi who nominated his cousin, Celestine Omehia and he was elected governor. Suddenly, the same Amaechi became incommunicado and disappeared from the radar of the godfather, Odili. By the time Amaechi resurfaced, Omehia was no longer the governor, having been removed by his cousin, Amaechi. As the new governor, Amaechi appointed Wike his CoS, and the duo ganged up to dethrone Odili as the political godfather of Rivers and stripped him naked! Then it was the turn of Wike to derobe and dethrone Amaechi, who made him CoS, nominated him to Goodluck Jonathan for appointment as minister.

Amaechi lost Wike to Abuja and from there joined forces with Amaechi’s foes to sack him from Rivers politics. With Abuja behind him, Wike defeated Amaechi’s candidate and became governor of Rivers. In the last election, Mr. Wike made his Accountant General, Fubara, the governor. Seven months down the line, Fubara is up in arms against Wike as a continuation of that narration of treachery. One strange thing about it all is that at every bus stop of treachery, each of the traitors complained loudly that he had been betrayed. The Yoruba say curse (egun) moves from one generation to the other. Treachery will continue in that political family in Rivers for a long time until an outsider comes in to break the jinx. Did Odili ever do that to whoever his political godfathers were? That is a task for political historians to handle.

It is true that Wike has been much luckier than his mates. He has enjoyed the best of political patronage and upliftment. He has the right to behave like the proverbial “Ajaye ma wo ehin.” Most people in his category see others who are less-fortunate as never-do-well. But there is always a tomorrow for people in that mould. When you eat in the house of a benevolent deity, it is foolish to look at others in a home that suffers lack with disdain. Why? There is a saying by my people that “Ebora ayini je, he yini hi ta”- the deity that feeds you doesn’t give you to sell. This means there is an extent to which luck can carry a man. Wike had used the sword of treachery to decapitate his political benefactors in the past. It is natural that Wike is worried that Fubara is sharpening that same sword and aiming at his political skull. He can fight all the fights. He has the support of those in power. But one thing is sure; vengeance will surely come at the appointed time. The sword has been unsheathed. It is now like the Biblical “bow of Jonathan”, and the “sword of Saul”, which “turned not back, and returned not empty” without touching “the blood of the slain”, and “the fat of the mighty” (2 Samuel 1:22). He can only postpone the evil days; they will surely come the way day succeeds the night. This is not a curse; it is the course of life that no man can change. We will witness it and we will recall that at a point in time, the past treachery of a mighty man was fully repaid in full measure, if not more. It will happen!