By Donu Kogbara
I am sorry if I sound like a sore loser, but I cannot graciously accept the result of last weekend’s elections in Rivers State. Resounding wins were declared for the PDP’s gubernatorial flagbearer plus all of its State House of Assembly candidates. And Chief Nyesom Wike is now, officially, the Governor-Elect.

But it is common knowledge that there was almost no real voting and that violence was rife. And it is the orgy of merciless carnage, rather than the alleged failure of the APC’s candidates per se, that is really bothering me.

Wike and Peterside

The APC candidates, led by Dr Dakuku Peterside, are going to court to seek justice; and they stand a very good chance of persuading the authorities to reject this fake result and re-run the election in a proper democratic fashion.

But the blameless citizens who lost their lives will never get justice.

So much evil bloodthirstiness and unimaginable cruelty occurred last Saturday and I’m struggling to forget the decomposing corpse that was spotted when I was driving through Ikwerre-land and I keep remembering sad stories about savage shootings, brutal beatings, bestial beheadings and gory dismemberings.

Such barbaric psychopathy is hard to take in.

Until today, every single victim I’d heard about happened to be an APC member.   But I’ve just been told that some PDP members also got murdered and maimed. And, frankly, I am too traumatised by these terrible tales – and I am too much of an emotional coward – to deeply investigate and find out what REALLY happened.

I have nightmares about the people who have died and wake up in the middle of the night in tears and don’t currently have what it takes to play detective.

So I cannot confidently separate facts from rumours right now and tell you whether this APC casualty or that PDP casualty was an innocent victim or a thuggish aggressor who was out-smarted and felled by stronger fellow thugs.

All I can say is that I am thoroughly sickened by recent events, that my heart goes out to the grieving relatives of all victims of wanton violence, regardless of their political affiliations, and that God should please have mercy on my home state and kindly save it from the satanic gangsters who want to control it.

Goats and goodwill

Is there a fundamental difference between the outgoing PDP and incoming APC? Yes. One is headed by an ex-general who has a low tolerance for rubbish, while the other is headed by an ex-lecturer who is (to put it mildly!) more laid-back.

But – let’s face it – while the APC’s head is VERY different, temperamentally, from the PDP’s head, both parties are pretty similar from the neck down!

Most APC and PDP members are birds of a feather who belong to different parties for personal rather than ideological reasons. And I become irritated when diehards on either side of the fence flatly refuse to acknowledge the fact that there are really nice folks and really nasty folks in both political groupings.

This seems like a good time to commend Kenneth Kobani and Toru Ofili, Rivers PDP stalwarts, who feel that it is better to feed than kill…and made a lot of ordinary people in their respective villages very happy indeed last weekend.

Toru, a beautiful lady chief, and Kenneth, the Minister of State for Industry/Trade/Investment, killed eight goats between them – in Bonny and Bodo City – and invited anyone (both PDP and APC) who was peckish to come and eat.

I heard about the hospitality and goodwill that Toru and Kenneth lavished on the general public from others rather than from them; and I was so touched.

If only all PDP and APC politicians could reach out to voters so pleasantly!

Deceiving Daddy?!

Many people like Buhari but fear that some of the personages around him will let him down and drag him down. And I share this fear.

Let’s hope that we don’t wind up with a scenario whereby Buhari is like a strict, well-meaning, God-fearing paterfamilias whose kids pretend to be innocent and pretend to be on the same page as Daddy…but sneak out to wild parties at night when he is asleep and then rush home at dawn and clamber into bed just in time…ie, just before Daddy wakes up and summons them for morning prayers!

By the way, the trouble with Jonathan was that nobody was afraid of him. He was an overly flexible “father” and his “children” did not bother to conceal their unruly ways!

Angry Jonathanists

Jonathan is a classic example of a father figure who was badly let down by some of the people around him. The buck stops on a leader’s desk and it is, ultimately, the leader’s fault if things go awry. But it’s much easier to do a good job if you have decent advisors and sincere subordinates who want you to do your best.

Some Niger Deltan Jonathanists are busily cooking up ridiculous conspiracy theories and directing multiple insults at everyone they blame for his defeat.

They describe pro-APC Niger Deltans like me and Governor Rotimi Amaechi as traitors who should  be killed (forgetting that the Jonathans not only betrayed some of us long before we betrayed them but failed to uplift our region!).

They accuse Buhari of securing foreign help by promising to legitimise gay marriage (forgetting that Buhari is not known for sexual liberalism!). They abuse Yorubas and Northerners en masse (forgetting that many Yorubas and Northerners supported Jonathan in 2011 and are still supporting him now!).

These angry Jonathanists are human, so I understand their anger; but I wish they would stop issuing vile death threats, stop peddling dangerous delusions and consider the possibility that they also contributed to Jonathan’s defeat.

A lot of them were only superficially devoted to Mr President. A lot of them only stood by and clung to Jonathan because of what they could get out of him.

A lot of them schemed to prevent Jonathan from fulfilling his potential, so they could run rings round him and exploit his weaknesses. A lot of them disgraced Jonathan by misbehaving massively. A lot of them arrogantly alienated voters who used to hold him in high esteem. A lot of them sychophantically assured him that there was no room for improvement in terms of his performance.

These fake friends of Jonathan are the REAL traitors, if you ask me; and I’m glad that they will soon be ejected from the gravy train!!!