FOLLOWING the First Lady, Patience Jonathan’s visit to Okirika, Rivers State, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, yesterday, swore in James I. Aduko as the new Chairman of Okirika Local Government Area.

The former Chairman was sacked for allegedly hosting a reception in honour of Mrs. Jonathan without informing the State Governor – front page story of a national newspaper Sunday August 28, 2010.

A REVIEW of the stories and comments, including editorial opinion in some sections of the print media last week indicates a biased, one-sided view of the disagreement between their Excellencies, Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan. It was the late sage Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who opined that “the main issue in any dispute is the determination of what is right and not who is right”.

The main question that arises in a riverine community where land is a very scarce commodity is, is it right to forcefully takeover community land without discussions, negotiations and agreements with the landowners? Yes, the Land Use Act provides for the compulsory acquisition of land by government in the public interest and payment of adequate compensation for so doing.

This policy will not have the same effect on the citizenry in all parts of the country. In the Northern states, for instance that has thousands of acres of farmland, government may acquire any size of land for development purposes without the citizenry feeling the impact of the acquisition.

This is not the case in the South, especially in the riverine states of Rivers and Bayelsa. The little land available is so much valued that it will amount to an overkill to acquire such land, no matter how good the intention of government without dialogue with the landowners. This is the simple request of the First Lady to His Excellency the Governor of the State. “My people have no land.

They so much value the little that is available. Please engage them in useful discussions during which they will see the need to give up their highly valued inheritance, for building of public schools and other infrastructure.

They will reason with you and accept your innovations in good faith as it is in their own interest and that of their children”. But to acquire this land compulsorily, threatening them with demolition of the structures where they eke a living is ill-advised, insensitive and most unfortunate.

The action negates the basic essence of governance which is the welfare of the people.
It is common knowledge that the problems of the Niger Delta region arose from years of neglect and despoliation of the means of livelihood of the communities within the area. Oil exploration activities have impoverished them by making them lose their main economic activity, fishing and allied industry.

The water front activities some of them engage in are the only means of economic engagement to survive the harsh economic environment in the country these days. The least a caring government can do is to empathise with these people and discuss with them ways and means of improving their lot. Destroying their means of livelihood by demolishing their abode is definitely not the best way of providing good governance to them.

Since the creation of Rivers State in 1967, there had always been this dichotomy between the Upland and Riverine areas of the state. The main grouse of the Riverine areas, especially under the leadership of those from the Upland area is that, ‘magnanimous’ and ‘over adequate’ compensation is paid to those landowners in the Upland area, especially the Ikwerre area while only a pittance is paid to their brothers and sisters in the riverine area who indeed deserve much more compensation due to their difficult terrain.

The Governor of Rivers State will do well to check the veracity of these allegations and debunk them with facts and figures. Otherwise he should realise that he is presiding over a state where a good number of the citizenry are disgruntled, unhappy and feel alienated. This easily negates the peace and concord the Governor has set out to achieve in the state. It is this feeling of ‘us against them’ that gives rise to the raising of the voice of the opposition to the fact that the Governor, not having faced the electorate in the 2007 general election is the only court-imposed Governor in the history of Nigeria.

Only actions of fairness and justice, equity and fairplay to all will remove this skeleton in the Governor’s cupboard, in the minds of the people.

And talking about the Governor being the Chief Security Officer of the state. This is beyond any question or iota of doubt. But Rivers State is only part of a whole, the entire Federation of Nigeria where the First Lady’s husband is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. A part can never be greater than the whole. There is no need for the Governor to flex unnecessary muscles as he will only be provoking a little matter into a major conflagration in which in the end, he will emerge the loser. Only the wise tread with caution, decency and decorum with their power. The fool thinks he knows it all and even equates himself with God, until a situation arises as it always does, when man is exposed in all his nakedness. Nigeria has many examples of this.

The First Lady who came home to visit her people, along with wives of state Governors, Service Chiefs and Ministers of Government of the Federation and other eminent Nigerians deserve the courtesy and respect of His Excellency the Executive Governor of the state.

Emphasizing and repeating the boasts of “I must demolish the water front structures no matter whose ox is gored”, in the presence of the First Lady is definitely not the best way to show decorum and decency to a First Lady who is a daughter of the state. It smacks of rascality and irrationality.

Even if a major opponent and critic of the Governor Chief Abiye Sekibo hails from Okrika, his people should not be humiliated and wiped from the face of the earth, just as a confrontation to Sekibo. Chief Sekibo will still need to get the majority votes of Rivers people and not only his Okrika people, to occupy Government House Port Harcourt. You do not kill a fly with a sledge hammer.

The office of First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria deserves respect by all Nigerians. She even deserves much more, when in the midst of her people. His Excellency Governor Rotimi Amaechi should appreciate this and extend a hand of fellowship and partnership to the innocent lady.

LBy Sam Ekpe, a former CPS to the late Dr. K.O. Mbadiwe, writes from Abuja.