Nigeria is a country that emits news materials per second. Before you finished processing one, 10 others had landed on your table. But the major concern is that these are usually all about negative developments. Some of them are mere trivia or “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” according to William Shakespeare.
Someone is openly advising a country to allow bandits and terrorists to determine how people live in a state. He also warned that the state should not provoke the bandits. And since he said all these things, there have been no consequences. Hello, are we still in a living country?
The mission of Ibok Ekwe Ibas as sole administrator in Rivers State may be ending today, leaving more questions than answers. The major concern right now is what manner of governance is expected to take effect as Siminalayi Fubara returns with all the landmines laid around him?
Absurdity is being elevated to statecraft. The penchant of governors flying into Abuja to line up at the airport to receive the President or to bid him goodbye each time he embarks on an outside trip is sickening. Let’s respect ourselves, please!
Sheikh Gumi’s caustic advice on insecurity in Katsina
Last Sunday, Sheikh Ahmed Abubakar Gumi, an Islamic cleric, made a controversial post on his Facebook wall, advising the Nigerian military not to annoy the bandits in Katsina State who had entered into a peace accord with some communities in the state.
Many Nigerians were miffed by Gumi’s advice, wondering why the Federal Government has continued to allow the man to say things that could upset the apple cart and embolden the terrorists.
We must get the picture clearer. Recently, some traditional rulers, political actors and community leaders in the Kurfi Local Government Area of Katsina, including the council chairman, had entered into an agreement with bandits to enable peace to reign in their domain.
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The peace meeting was reportedly held inside Wurma Forest, one of the notorious hotspots for insecurity.
After the meeting, the District Head, Ahmed Kurfi, reportedly said that it marked a new chapter for the people.
“This is a step for the progress of our community. We have chosen peace, and we will protect this trust for the sake of our people,” he said.
The bandits promised never to kill the people again, and the community, on its part, promised that the bandits’ members would no longer be arrested and that plans would be set in motion to release the terrorists from the police net.
The Katsina community took that pernicious way to stem the rising tide of killings and abductions in their domain.
Each time these happened, they were left to mourn their dead, and life moved on. They entered into the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with their tormentors as a last resort.
Nigerians saw a video making the rounds on social media of these bandits brandishing their AK-47s and other dangerous weapons during the peace meeting. The bandits were not afraid of anybody, nor were they challenged by any security agent.
This agreement is not an isolated one. Such has been going on in some communities of states in the Northwest, where bandits give conditions for the people to access their farms and carry out cultivation. We also read and hear about certain levies imposed on communities by these terrorists.
It was most probably against this backdrop that Sheikh Gumi advised that, since there is no better way to guarantee the safety of the community people, it would be safe to allow the agreement to hold. He wondered what the benefit of the military kicking against the pact was when it is not on the ground to protect the people permanently.
Gumi’s advice also came on the backdrop of the menace of bandits in other northwestern states of Zamfara and Kaduna, where many people are killed daily and several others abducted.
Recently, the Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, openly lamented that he knew where these bandits lived but that he did not have the wherewithal to confront them.
The security agencies heard him, and nothing has happened since that statement was made, and the bandits’ havoc has continued in the state.
Not long ago, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Christopher Musa, prescribed that every Nigerian should learn self-defence tactics as insecurity heightens in the country. Perhaps the agreement with bandits in Katsina is one such survival tactic being prescribed!
But on a more serious note, apart from his advice, there were also some inciting words that should earn Gumi an invitation to the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters for questioning.
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He was trying to justify the killings and abductions being carried out by bandits and some Fulani herdsmen.
He said, “Until justice is served to everyone, the President should allow justice to take its course, and at the state level, leaders should also do the needful… My second question is: why do they publicise only what we do to the world but never publicise what is done to us? There will be no peace if security agencies do not also stop killing our people.”
It would seem that the insecurity challenge is a sponsored thing through which some individuals are making a living at the misery of innocent individuals. It is a sign of the failure of agencies responsible for the protection of lives and property in the country.
While Gumi must be commended for advising the military not to upset the apple cart, he is also worthy of many stripes for inciting violence against innocent Nigerians.
Fubara’s return and the enemies within
On March 18, 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu suspended democracy in Rivers State and foisted emergency rule on the state.
The President predicated his decision on the alleged absence of peace in the state and the threat to the economy following a standoff between Nyesom Wike and Siminalayi Fubara.
He said that the emergency rule was aimed at restoring peace. But many Nigerians believed otherwise.
The President appointed a former Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok Ekwe Ibas, as sole administrator to ensure the return of peace.
Truth be told, since Ibas mounted the saddle, there has been peace in the state, as there were no clashes of opposing political groups, no tough talks, and no words of threat, which were regular features. But many observers seem to believe that Ibas merely supervised ‘peace of the graveyard”.
The Rivers’ people just decided to tag along to watch the drama to the end. The Sole Administrator has done his best, but whether his best was good enough, the jury is still out.
All things being equal, Fubara will be returning to his office today after the 6-month suspension, which many believe was illegal.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the proclamation on March 18, 2025. While the man was on suspension, a sole administrator jacked up the state’s annual budget by several billion, which made jaws drop and eyebrows raise.
Ibas single-handedly appointed a chairman of the state Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) and brazenly organised what he thought was a local government election. Fubara had no input in all 23 people who emerged as council chairmen.
When he resumes today, he will be coming back along with the Martin Amaewhule faction of the state House of Assembly that ceaselessly gave him uppercuts and made the state ungovernable for him.
Is he returning with his commissioners, or would the other side foist cabinet members on him?
Fubara left office ignominiously like King David (who was run out of his kingdom by a trusted son, Absalom), equally betrayed by a most-trusted ally, Wike, who gathered an army of invective-hurling mob to run the governor out of the Government House in Port Harcourt.
What may contrast the return of David and that of Fubara is the quality of reception. Whereas David returned with pomp and ceremony and became more powerful and astute than when he went out, Fubara would be returning with less razzmatazz. His return would be a mixed bag. He is now a castrated man with landmines laid on every inch of his way.
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His enemies are as potent as they were in March and have even increased in number. Without a doubt, Fubara’s support base has thinned out.
Will he be welcomed with pomp and ceremony as was the case with King David’s return? Perhaps. But the decibel level of the celebration noise and its quality will definitely not be the same.
King David returned and resumed his duties as the authentic king without looking over his shoulders, as his arch-enemies had been decimated, but Fubara’s enemies are still bragging about holding the better part of the stake.
There is no indication that the numerous mischievous traducers in Rivers State will come to seek forgiveness from the returnee governor in the manner those who traduced King David on the day he was escaping from Jerusalem did. This is because they are still perfectly in charge. The main tormentor-in-chief, the “Absalom of Rivers’ politics”, is still the man who calls the shots.
When King David returned from the forced exile, he reorganised his kingdom and put things in perfect order. The business of leading his people went on seamlessly. This is where the apprehension lies for Fubara.
From the way the so-called reconciliation went, even though the details have remained the best-kept secret, it does not appear he has been given the power to govern without interference.
The mines laid around him speak eloquently to that effect. He will return anyway. But “the taste of the pudding”, they say, “is in the eating”.
‘Pom-pom’ politicians at Abuja Airport
Many governors on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform and the principal officers of the National Assembly are just behaving like the “pom-pom” girls in sports arenas.
Pom-pom girls are female cheerleaders who perform routines at sporting events and rallies, often using large, decorative clusters of streamers called ‘pompoms’ to encourage a team.
These political practitioners behave as if they were idle on their respective beats. The quality time they should deploy to planning for the good of the people, they fritter away in endless junketing.
They leave their states and work and fly to Abuja at their people’s expense to see the President off whenever he is travelling out of the country and when he is returning from his frequent journeys.
On each of these occasions, they line themselves up a short distance away from the presidential jet on the tarmac just to have a handshake with the president and flash their incisors.
They are neither the President’s aides nor do they have any special roles to play at the airport, but just to “show their face”, as they say. This hypocrisy is laughable. This shows that they are largely idle. Some of the governors can be said to be permanently residing in Abuja, only visiting their states.
Little wonder many states have remained underdeveloped, even with the multiple billions the state governors are carting away from the central purse in this dispensation.
It would be fair to suggest that these hypocritical receptions stop, as they negatively impact the health of the country. The sights are always annoying.
