Tribune The assault on governors in Port Harcourt · Monday, 22 July 2013 00:00 Rather than yield to the persuasions of the intellect and rationality and then abate, the crisis in Rivers State reached a higher notch recently when the convoy of some governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the northern part of the country was attacked by some irate mob described by the media as protesters under the aegis the Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI), on their way from the airport in Port Harcourt. The governors whose convoy was attacked along with that of Rotimi Amaechi were Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State and Sule Lamido of Jigawa State. According to the reports, the trouble started as early as 7.00 a.m. when anti-Amaechi protesters started arriving at the airport with some of them carrying placards with inscriptions warning the expected visitors to steer clear of Rivers and it peaked later when the convoy of governors arrived at the airport to receive him. It was also reported that the protesters threw missiles at the governors’ convoy and that a driver was eventually injured. The degeneration of the brewing imbroglio in Rivers State into outright lawlessness is condemnable, especially as the Police Commissioner in the state was reported in the media to have denied any knowledge of the presence of the mob. It is incredible that the mob action which had meticulous planning and execution written all over it could have been missed by police intelligence and surveillance and if the claim of the CP is correct, it should be considered as a telling comment on his efficiency as a police officer. This scary development is clearly a subjugation of the safety and security of life and property of citizens resident in the state to the whims and caprices not to say desperation of the political gladiators in the state. Such is the desperation of these gladiators that the status of these governors as members of the Council of State and National Police Council could not guarantee their freedom of movement as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution even for ordinary citizens. These rights were summarily abrogated by an implacable mob that was definitely egged on by some dark sinister authority higher and opposing to the state governor as only the timely deployment of an armoured personnel carrier (APC)prevented the five governors from being held as hostages indefinitely at the airport. It is sad and bothersome that the ambitions of politicians for the most part are held more sacrosanct than the interest of the state that they serve to such an extent that they are even ready to deploy the facilities of the state against the security and safety of life and property which they swore at their inauguration into public office to defend. It would seem that the indiscipline, desperation, vaulting ambitions of the political class and their refusal to accept that the state is bigger and more important than these are the albatross to the country’s political development. It should be possible to play politics in a more decent way without necessarily jeopardising the security of life and property or even causing so much unpleasantness in the polity. The tactics being employed in the unfolding saga in the state are not only archaic and counterproductive; they tend to detract from the intelligence and political savvy available to the dramatis personae. It is interesting that those flexing political muscles are from within the same political party and this says volumes about party discipline. More importantly, it bodes ill for 2015. These recent events in Port Harcourt call the capacity of the state to conduct free and fair polls to question and any observer should cringe at the possibilities available to the ordinary citizens in 2015 if state governors can, on the whim of a political interest, be summarily stripped of their much touted immunity in such a crude manner.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 08:47:53 +0000
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