By Pascal Brisbe 

WHEREVER democracy exists in good health, there will surely be a diversity of thoughts and ideas. Such interplay of ideas is true evidence of democracy and the fulcrum of government.

Democracy should be representative and genuinely people-centered, and not about party supremacy, nor about ‘strong or stubborn’ ruler. Such titles belong to communist totalitarian rulers like Kim Jong-un, and should never be used for a democrat. 

This is why we should all commend the Rivers Conscience Initiative, RCI, for their timely intervention in the affairs and present circumstances of Rivers State. The group in its recent publication titled ‘Rivers State on the Brink’ takes our minds through salient issues bedeviling the state, and points us to a frightful danger ahead, visible enough to all those who love Rivers State.  

The group believes that most Rivers men and women are dejected and wary about their future and that of their children. They believe that public institutions in Rivers State have failed and are in advanced stages of decay. A plethora of sad and regressive issues enveloping the state is highlighted in their memo.

Other matters include increasing number of Rivers children who are out of school and roaming the streets; retirees not paid their gratuities, with so many going to bed hungry and wake up unsure of the next meal. The elderly, the weak and the vulnerable are abandoned to their fate because politicians loot the resources of the state brazenly.

They sell off state assets to themselves and convert public property to private estates. They secure governorship tickets for their business partners to cover their crimes. They disrespect the traditional institutions and treat Rivers people with disdain.     

The common belief since the birth of the Fourth Republic is that successive Rivers State governors have been profligate with state resources in the pursuit of wasteful presidential bid. Huge amounts of Rivers State funds are gifted to other states, political parties and private individuals.

Rivers State governors sponsor elections in other states of the federation and bankroll presidential elections. They are sought after as “beautiful brides” of Nigerian politics because of the state resources they share and squander so freely.  

Rivers State governors are shielded by a perpetual court injunction against the EFCC and a subsequent court ruling giving subservient Rivers State House of Assembly members the exclusive right to investigate the finances of the State. The governors have had a free ride. Rivers people are the casualties of this recklessness.

Huge funds that could have made enormous differences in their lives end up in private pockets.

The looting politicians derive authority to manage state resources from the very people they rob. The situation is dire and unless Rivers people rise up to the occasion and put a stop to the present course of events, the future will be too bleak to imagine.

According to the RCI, the situation was different at the creation of Rivers State in 1967, even under military government. The Alfred Diete-Spiff’s administration delivered excellent governance to the people.

The footprints of that “Golden Era” are still visible. The magnificent state secretariat complex (that has gone into rapid decay and an eyesore under the current administration), remains an iconic reminder of the Diete-Spiff era.  

The huge investment in human capital development produced the workforce that sustained the state for decades. This was achieved under a massive scholarship scheme that is yet to be paralleled in the history of the state.

Rapid industrialisation created jobs and opportunities for the teeming youths. Rivers State was a prime destination for foreign and domestic investment capital. Unfortunately, the industries that flourished in the ’70s and ’80s are now moribund, causing high youth unemployment and insecurity. Governance is now for politicians and their friends without the people. The culture of egalitarianism and fairness has given way to the era of impunity, greed, exclusivity and divisiveness.   

Amidst the crude looting of public funds by the rulers, Rivers people are silent and aloof. The people whose resources are mindlessly stolen and plundered have remained silent. They have lost their voices to poverty and the so-called stomach infrastructure. They even endorse and applaud the very rulers that have weaponised poverty against them.

A strange culture of silence now pervades the land. The people are cowed and in vice grip. Governors are elevated to the status of all-knowing gods, while the people are reduced to slavish acquiescence. Leadership is deified and sycophancy is the new source of livelihood for the political elite. Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly feign dumbness.

The traditional rulers, after series of shabby treatments by governors, have found wisdom in keeping their own counsel. The clergy concentrate on winning hungry souls. But this is the same state that produced courageous men and women like Chiefs Dappa Biriye, P.G. Warmate, GKJ Amachree, Opuogulaya, Obi Wali, E.T Dimiari, C. D. Orike, Emanuel Aguma, Napo Graham-Douglas, Ken Saro-Wiwa, to mention a few.  

Rivers State’s annual consolidated revenue could fund the budgets of several African countries. The state ought to be competing with Lagos at the national level and Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar on foreign scale. Unfortunately, megalomaniacs who reign as maximum rulers have seized the state. The RCI wants Rivers people to speak up and take ownership of their destinies.

No longer should an elected governor rule Rivers State as serfdom. Fortunately, RCI, a new, purposeful, determined and pragmatic group, has reared its head with a mandate to pick up the gauntlet. This non-partisan body recognises the urgent need to sound the warning bell, speak truth to power and protect the interest of Rivers people. The organisers said it is a child of necessity. That seeks to objectively speak for Rivers people, act as an unelected parliament of the people and stand as the conscience of the people.

According to their agenda, the RCI will advocate and galvanise support for the rescue of the state from political marauders and restore it to the dreams of the founding fathers.

They noted that the task is daunting but worthy. The RCI called on Rivers people to step forward and join in this course, for the state and for posterity, stating that if nothing was done, the next governor will be far more wasteful than his predecessors have been.

The RCI claims that persons with questionable characters have hijacked the race for 2023. This, it said, is despite the availability of many decent and patriotic Rivers sons and daughters with proven competence. It condemned political parties that produced candidates of questionable reputation who are wanted by security and anti-graft agencies. Accordingly, the RCI supports efforts by the current administration to recover misappropriated state funds and prosecute persons alleged to have looted Rivers State coffers.

Brisbe, a political activist and analyst, wrote from Port Harcourt, Rivers State