Nigeria, Coro & Murky Political Waters … Emperor Wike & the KITArisation of Pitakwa - Ik Muo, PhD.

Last week, we reviewed the international political dynamics of the war against COVID-19, where Trump is the key player. But one thing is clear; those people were and are playing strategic politics. Everything they do is a means (strategy) to some near or long-term  ends (objectives). In Nigeria, apart from the ordinary folks who are afflicted and affected by Coro itself or the consequential unplanned war, almost every other person and institution is ‘playing politics’ with the matter. The greatest worry is that the politics has no pattern! People play politics with the illness, with the numbers, with the medicine, with the people leading the war, with the federal or state governments, with the ‘other’ party or with everything. Even people supposedly in the same party are throwing thorny punches at their political brethren. I say ‘supposedly in the same party’ because Nigerian politicians belong to only one party: POTS (Party Of The Stomach)!

Just as the Director General of WHO did, may people had warned us against politicizing the virus or the war against it. And just as the warning of the WHO chief did not yield any result, the  warnings in Nigeria also did not yield any results. But the fact that people are warning against coro-politics is an evidence that there is serious coro-politics.  In March 2020, when we were still trying to set up the armoury and strategy for the war against Coro, the PDP accused the Federal Government of playing politics with COVID-19.  On 1/4/20,The National Association of Ogun State Students  appealed to Ibikunle Amosun, (former Governor and current senator) and the two other senators in the state to join hands with  Gov.Abiodun, to fight against COVID-19 pandemic, urging them to ‘ put aside differences as this is not the time for us to play politics’ because ‘the lives of people are more important than seeking personal or political vendetta’. Not long after that,, Professor Chukwu, who was in charge at the Ministry of Health  during the Ebola  era, advised Nigerians not to play politics with COVID-19 because ‘microorganisms do not understand politics’. That advice or warning was recently repeated (6/5/20) by Ebenezar Babatope who declared that “it is wrong to play politics with the disease…This is not the time to play PDP, APC, or APGA. We must unite to save lives. After we have defeated the disease, we can go back to full politics again.”  But it has been politics all the way, some dirty, some shameful and shameless, some full of braggadocio  and some subtle. We shall start with two incidents of micro politics

On 28/3/20, the Benue State Government declared one Mrs Susan Okpe as their Index case.  The first controversy arose from the fact that contrary to the usual protocols( there is a protocol for everything nowadays), the government announced the name on TV.  The second and more serious was that the lady, a Nigerian-British citizen insisted  that she had no coro, that the government was playing politics with the matter and that she was afraid for her life and called on the FG and Britain to move her out of Benue.  Why should the governor want to kill her? She was eventually moved to Abuja but as I write, she is still  saying that she is not sick, that she did not trust Nigerians, would not take any treatment from them and that the test in Benue was kangaroo.  As at 14/4/20, the Minister of health announced that her two results were positive but the woman accused the minister of lying and requested to be taken back to UK.  As at 12/5/20, she gave  fresh conditionalities: that the test should be conducted by World Health Organisation; that this should be done in the UK and that the Minister of Health should further  discuss with her lawyer! I don’t know what the local dynamics in Benue are but she accused the BNSG of playing politics with the matter.

 A similar matter, but not as complicated, occurred in Anambra State.  When NCDC/Anambra State Government announced the state index case on 10/4/20, neither the state nor the Center knew any peace after the announcement.  While the state moved ahead to trace and quarantine all contacts, the patient declared that there was nothing Coroish about his sickness, that the state doctored the result and that ANSG wanted to kill him through starvation. Again I ask: why should the governor want to kill him? The hospital that treated him then weighed in with its own side of the story, saying the result was not given to them before the governor made the index case announcement and that the patient had heart issues and  was properly discharged. The matter got more complicated when none of the contacts tested positive. People then started saying that it was a matter of politics and cash, that the ANSG wanted to attract funding from the  Federal Government. The Anambra State Commissioner for Information blamed certain opposition PEPs( Politically Exposed Persons),  who, with their eyes on 2021 elections, politicised  everything and that the government would not compromise the health of its citizens for politics and cash. The patient has been discharged and the matter has hopefully rested.

These two are minor and micro political cases and they occurred before the macro and full blown DIRTY political wars started.( next week)

Other Matters: Emperor Wike & the KITArisation of Pitakwa

Last week,(7/5/20) I complained about the KITA (Kick In The Ass) and by-fire-by-force strategies freely   deployed in our war against  Corvid-19, the undisputed World Enemy1. I argued and still argue,  and every behavioural scientist will agree with me, that people are not forced to change; rather, they are persuaded and convinced so that they understand the ‘why’ and thus, own the process. The other day, I saw El-Rufai hopping atop a trailer in search of illegal human-cargo. I note the dexterity with which he mounted the tailboard but I wander what he would have told the world if he slipped and broke his neck in the process!  What he did, and what many governors have been doing since this COVIdious war, is crass showmanship. But what is happening in  Pitakwa ( Port-Harcourt) is something else. This has gone beyond the war against Coro to unbridled highhandedness and lawlessness in a democracy based on the rule of law and separation of powers, where the citizens are the ultimate bosses.

 In the recent past, His Imperial Majesty,  Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has been seen on TV, arresting lockdown violators,  unleashing verbal terrorism on  them  before trying and convicting them.  I think he passed an executive order (legislature) on the basis of which he tried and found them guilty (Judiciary) and executed the punishment through the police and his hangers on (executive).  We watched as all powers in, above and below the earth became vested Wike, courtesy of the war against Coro. The last time we had such concentration was during the military era. But, he has gone beyond this and extended his dictatorial powers beyond imagination. He impounded their cars and ordered that the cars be auctioned.   Hear the him ‘ the defaulters will be tried by the mobile court and I have told the attorney general that all the impounded vehicles MUST be auctioned’. He interrogated the offenders, found them guilty, sentenced them to isolation centers, seized their cars, and then remembered that there are mobile courts and  ORDERED the AG that the cars should be auctioned. This is a lawyer-turned-governor in a democracy! He followed it up by constructing a gate in the boundary between Rivers State and Abia State. I assume that this is a Federal Road

And then on 10/5/20, he capped his tyrannical and Idi-Amini’sh credentials by demolishing two hotels in the state (Prodest Hotel, Alode Eleme & Etemetheh Hotel, Onne) for violating some or all the aspects of his lockdown orders. And Like Saul who stood by to ensure that Stephen was fully dead,( Acts,7:58) Wike was there , live, to supervise the demolition of the hotel. As in earlier instances, he judged the hotel, found it guilty (assaulting  government officials, housing harlots, base for criminals) passed the judgement and executed the judgment! 

He classified all those who criticized his actions( including the son of man) as ‘uninformed critics and social media legal practitioners who, blinded and prodded by sheer politics, bias and hatred, have opted to demonized and paint our lawful and responsible actions in bad light’. He further justified his  dastardly action in an interview with AIT, ( 11/5/20)  where he boldly declared: I have no regrets.  He followed this up by declaring the hotel proprietor wanted and  plans to construct a primary school on hotel site. As our people would say, Alu & Mpu! (Abomination and impunity!).  And we watch as a monster emerges. The most painful aspect of this sordid affair is that the man is said to be a lawyer!

 In Lagos, where I am faithfully serving my coro detention, there have been many ordinary and not so ordinary people who violated the lockdown regime in the state. All of them were arrested, tried by mobile or normal courts and sentenced accordingly. Some hotels have also violated the lockdown advisory. On the same day that Wike was overseeing the demolition of the two hotels in River state, his Lagos State counterpart sealed two similar facilities( Maggi Hotel  and Tambari  Night Club, Badagry), for similar offences. The Governor’s adviser on Tourism + who oversaw the sealing assured that Lagos State Government  will

bring the full weight of the law on these erring operators and ensure that they show total compliance level before they can regain access to these facilities. The difference is clear indeed.

What is happening in Pitakwa is against the rule of law and especially being done by a democratically elected governor.  Port Harcourt has been KITArised. It is condemnable and I condemn unequivocally. For those who applaud the emerging ‘action governor’, our people say that those who are not involved, a corpse being carried along is just an ordinary log of wood. As for Wike, let him remember that tomorrow will surely come; he will not be governor forever. And for all of us, ( including those who travel inside containers) lets abide by these covidious regulations, both those that are normal and those that appear abnormal. We need to be safe and alive in order to live our lives, post coro. This shall SURELY come to pass.

- Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business administration, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye