Rainbow rubbish! By Donu Kogbara

Tomorrow, the grandiose FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, will lavishly host President Tinubu in our home state, Rivers. The head of state will be accompanied by a huge crowd of followers and will be met by a huge crowd of sponsored praise singers; and a massive rally is planned. The logistical aspect of the event is being firmly managed with military precision by Wike, who is in full-on generalissimo mode at the moment.

And no expense is being spared. The stage on which speeches will be made is being imported. All sorts of fancy fixtures and fittings are being flown in from Lagos. Thousands of matching outfits imprinted with Jagaban’s face have been sewn. Mouth-watering gourmet meals and vintage liquid refreshments are being planned for visiting VIPs. Even the hordes of hungry loyalist foot soldiers who are already descending on Port Harcourt will be very well fed.

And I’m told that everyone is going to be royally entertained by the best local musicians. The overall cost of this jamboree is going to be super high. Wike has many faults. Stinginess is not one of them. And people who share at least some of what they have deserve some accolades. But generosity can also be offensive within certain contexts. And we need to keep remembering that the billions Wike is spending were not inherited from his parents or earned via legitimate commercial projects!

We should also bear it in mind that extravagant politicians like him are blowing obscene amounts of cash – taxpayers’ money for the most part – on non-necessities at a time when most Nigerians cannot access basics like good healthcare and are drowning in traumatic financial anxiety. And, by the way, did Tinubu not tell us to ditch him if he had not solved the electricity problem by the end of his first term?

So, given that power outages continue to be the norm countrywide, why is he now frantically campaigning for a second term? Has he even bothered to apologise profusely to the electorate for breaking his promise? Does he think that all this fabulous fanfare will make us forget his failures or provide him with a free and fair win on January 16th? But the thing that annoys me most about the upcoming rally is not what it will cost, but what it symbolizes: It symbolizes aggressive state capture.

Wike currently controls both the PDP and APC in Rivers and has merged them into a nefarious “Rainbow Coalition”. I prefer to describe it as RAINBOW RUBBISH! It symbolizes the subjugation of Rivers People. We are told that Tinubu won our state in 2023. But most of us voted for Peter Obi, NOT Tinubu (mutilated results sheets exist as evidence). It symbolizes the weakness and surrender of Rivers People, Ogoni men in particular.

I am yet to understand why so many of my brethren are sheepishly following Tinubu and Wike when this Duo have done so little for us. To be fair to the President, he is trying to resume oil exploration on our ancestral land, after 30 years of economically crippling inactivity caused by the Ken Saro Wiwa drama. We need resumption because we need jobs and survival and dignity and prosperity.

And it’s good that he has made it his business to push for resumption…and is offering Ogonis incentives to encourage activists to support his resumption aspirations. But let’s face it: Tinubu is an entrepreneur; and he and his cronies will probably gain as much as we do from resumption; and I am yet to figure out why Ogoni leaders did not make resumption conditional on governorship (which Ogonis have never had)… …instead of allowing Mr Rainbow Coalition to get away with selecting yet another Ikwerre – like himself and 2 of his predecessors – as his 2027 governorship candidate.

If someone slaps you in the face after you have displayed utter devotion, shouldn’t you lose interest in being utterly devoted? Are there not times when rebellion is healthy? Would it have been so hard for Ogoni men to meet Tinubu and say: “WIKE HAS SIDELINED US AGAIN. AND WE ARE TIRED OF BEING POLITICALLY HUMILIATED COURTIERS AND THE NEW DEAL IS VERY SIMPLE: NO GOVERNORSHIP, NO RESUMPTION”?

Atiku’s disqualification I am a staunch Obidient but I absolutely condemn the dubious disqualification of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar by a court that is clearly under the thumb of the Tinubu administration. When will this country quit being such an undemocratic cesspit in which the government in power can do whatever the hell it wants to do? I didn’t want Atiku to run in the first place because I felt it was the turn of the South and because he is elderly.

But I hate David versus Goliath style bullying and hope that Atiku wins his appeal against this unjust court decision. In the meantime, I urge every Nigerian who still has functioning brain cells and any sense of pride to NOT vote for Tinubu!..and to NOT keep quiet and behave mu-mu-ishly if he rigs and tries to inflict himself on this poor suffering nation for another 4 years.

Tinubu possesses some strengths and has done some good stuff. But he has cynically chosen to