By Ugoji Egbujo

Holidays and rests can be resorative. Jagaban, with chubby cheeks, bounced like a teenager but did everything presidential. He even left banters for Sawno Olu to handle. The days when he talked about how his opponents stole govt money and bought dresses for their girlfriends are over. He said he came to Port Harcourt to keep a promise.

That’s noble because politicians always make promises they can’t keep. However, Wike said he brought the president-elect to commission an overhead bridge. The garishly painted bridge, which a local govt chairman could have built and commissioned quietly. Some folks looked at the entire thing and said Wike was ‘workaholically’ for a federal appointment. But others insinuated the hustling outgoing governor man needs protection against the EFCC.

Rumour mongers and their perversity! Regardless of what rumour mongers think, it’s heartwarming an outgoing governor is still commissioning projects, even if they are lockup shops. Most other outgoing governors who exhausted themselves cutting corners around INEC processes emptied their entire treasuries at the elections. 

So, Wike is undoubtedly a strong and respectful man. He has proved that in churches and at media chats. He skins his opponents, gives away his hats and suits under the sun, and shows generosity to docile media houses by hiring them for gossipy media chats. To receive the president-elect, he shut down the state and kept all school children at home; so, that honour could be properly given to whom honour was due. At least that was better than keeping schools open and lining the roads with school children under an angry sun to wave at convoys.

The shops around the overhead bridge were also locked. A chief security officer of a state should know the sources of nuisance which must be kept out of the view of important guests. Perhaps, some of those traders are Obidients, the nattering mob, who like to labour in vain. So they needed not to be allowed to start anything that would give the president-elect the false impression that the Obio Akpor results announced by INEC are truly fake as suggested by IREV. 

By dragging the president-elect to Port Harcourt before he had time to unpack his French luggage, Wike didn’t just show capacity to the world, he peppered his erstwhile opponents in the Rivers APC. Tonye Cole, who was watching from his TV, later said that Jagaban didn’t need the cooked votes some people in Rivers added to his broth.

But Jagaban perhaps needed to luxuriate in the encomiums of job and clout-seeking politicians. From the faces of many genuflecting VIPs that thronged Port Harcourt, the Rivers jamboree offered an opportunity for many who haven’t managed to find access through the gates at the Defense House and Bourdillon to sneak in adulation into the ears of the incoming president. Soon a chief of staff will emerge to erect a wall. 

But something in the measured way Tinubu greeted politicians said he would seek to leave a major legacy. And while commissioning some judiciary buildings, he promised judicial reforms. Politicians do these things. They throw coded jibes. In the precinct where black market court injunctions could be procured all evening long, he promised judicial reforms. Sublime. And to reform the judiciary, he said he would start by prioritising the welfare of judges.

That’s laudable. A hungry judge is a devil’s catapult. But the revered Jagaban certainly knows that the independence of the judiciary cannot be built on the benevolence of the executive. In many states where scheming scoundrels paid elaborate lip service to the welfare of judges; judges started acting like seduced teenagers, showing carnal gratitude for basic constitutional entitlements that came as alms. Improving judges without lifting the police will look like bribing the judges.

The welfare of the judges must be improved. But a lot of the corruption in the judiciary isn’t caused by lack. It’s caused more by greed, incompetence and knavishness. So while addressing welfare issues, the political culture that allows industrial-level embezzlement by politicians and the promiscuous flow of illicit funds must be checked. The moral fabric of society must be repaired. Because without a general cultural paradigm shift, the judges selling judgments for hundreds of millions won’t stop because the govt increased salaries and gave them new SUVs. Impunity must end.

Wike deserves accolades. He brings in politicians, musicians, comedians and all into the soot city. That must soothe some local people who have been smothered by soot and peeved by electoral shenanigans. So the jamboree wasn’t total vanity. Tinubu started his unification agenda. In public, Magnus Abe shook hands with his friend Wike. Before Abe clinched the SDP ticket, he had been in a secret alliance with Wike to undermine his local party with whom he was at daggers drawn.

That’s why some detractors refer to the amiable Abe as a slippery chameleon with poetic gifts. But after clinching the SDP ticket, Senator Abe became a victim of the thugs and brigandage instituted to emasculate every opposition candidate in the state. After the elections, Abe in his usual eloquent style, reeled out atrocities that included the assassination of political opponents, stealing of ballot boxes, and forgery of results. Then he declared the electoral process a consummate sham.

But now Abe has thoughtfully withdrawn his petition. He said he did it for the state to move forward. Abe is principled, so he must possess pragmatic if not moral reasons for his flip-flop. Regardless of the apparent opportunism that this U-turn reeks of, Abe, the poet, is not a slippery chameleon. Because some states actually move forward by constructing bridges and compromises.

But compromises that include the naked condonation of the blatant usurpation of peoples’ right to elect leaders of their choice will only foster impunity. Yet Abe and Tinubu are experienced. They might know better than the crying electorate in Ogoni land who were robbed on election day. Only time will tell

The Rivers jamboree could be prudent after all. It’s good for politicians to gather in Nigeria rather than in London and Milan. It’s even good for them to gather and eat and laugh at our expense. At least that’s better than what is happening in Sudan. Rather than fight, let them throw bequeaths to commission small projects. We will pick the bills in the interest of national unity.

That said, if our country must depart the station of the prodigal son and return to its father, then our leaders must become sober and show remorse. The attitude must change from celebratory and vain to urgency and painstakingness. A national reorientation is needed to renew hope. This isn’t about commissioning enticing slogans on TV to say that change must begin from the poor in the street. That reorientation towards belt-tightening and austerity must begin from the top at all levels. It must include a public display of aversion to wastefulness and frivolities.

Jagaba looks ready. The EFCC has indicated an interest in some of his jamboree friends. May God help our incoming president to choose right, promote justice and retain public confidence.