The Indomitable Spirit Of A Rivers Woman And The Spontaneity In Response To The Attempted Usurpation Of The Office Of Rivers First Lady By Mrs. Ibok-Ete Ibas:
Rivers Women, The New Hope Of Rivers State
From Solomon Lenu
Firstly, I want to thank and commend the First Lady of Nigeria Her Excellency Senator Oluremi Tinubu for her thoughtfulness towards the poor women of Rivers State who are equally going through the nationwide agonising pains of poverty, occasioned on them by the ravaging economic hardship emanating from the quasi-Monarchy regime of Mr. President. This thoughtfulness and compassion must be commended.
I equally want to thank the great Rivers women who staged a “Walk-Out” on the subtle but vexatious insolence intended to surreptitiously demean and impugn on the dignity and validity of the office of the First Lady of Rivers State. Your charisma, conscious and spontaneous reaction must be commended, and recorded in the annals of our history for trans-generational referencing.
That said and commendation allotted….
It is sad to see some people applauding the misgivings of the SOLAD, (Sole Administrator) in Rivers State, and all his chicanery because of partisan consideration. Not minding the cataclysmic catastrophe his arrival and actions has created for Rivers people, both politically, economically, structurally and psychologically. Including our grit and perception index. But for the daily efforts and resentments by these Rivers women, Rivers people would have been demystified.
Mr. Ibas Ibok-Ete has gone far and above, with overreaching actions beyond the letters of his mandate and has constituted himself into a new demigod for our state, taking unilateral decisions and actions “suo moto” after testing the waters to the extent he has conscripted his wife to lead the left wing of the takeover agenda, while we all watched in silence.
And it is either because we hate Fubara, or because we support the opposing faction, forgetting that the damage being done will affect us all, irrespective of our petty sentiments and party delineation.
The title allocated to Ibas Ibok-Ete upon arrival reads “SOLE ADMINISTRATOR”. And this title is written simplicita without ambiguity or circumlocution. This is why, even all the appointments Ibas Ete has made is considered illegitimate and illegal. So, from where then does the role of his wife come in?
Remember, it was Governor Fubara that was suspended, the First Lady of Rivers State who carries a supportive responsibility to the elected Governor by social contract was not mentioned in the suspension. So, why the plot to takeover her rights and privileges?
And let’s not also forget that—Suspension is NOT sack or impeachment. And for Sen Oluremi Tinubu’s nationwide outreach programme, Dame Mrs. Valerie Fubara, the wife of the Governor His Excellency Sir Siminalayi Fubara is the state coordinator as it is in other states. So, why the attempted coup and usurpation of the office of the Rivers First Lady?
One pertinent question I would love to ask the inconsequential noisemakers in support of the orchestrated State Capture of Rivers is… Per adventure Rivers State is eventually captured (God Forbid), what credence do you think would be accorded to you, when even now while the process of the capture is ongoing, an alien from Cross-Rivers State is preferred over you? Is it when the job is over that you will be regarded??
The First Lady Mrs. Remi Tinubu was in Delta State few weeks ago; she has visited Akwa-Ibom State, she has visited other states in the North but doesn’t see the need to step her foot into Rivers State, the home of sycophants who are only good to be used for destructive and exploitative ventures. Yet, some of our people are still singing praises.
In almost two years of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, he has awarded monumental projects across the country, but which one of these projects has come to Rivers State with one of the super Ministers in his cabinet? Aside from the road infrastructure which they have systematically excluded Rivers State from benefitting, the Federal Government has approved the building of a “Federal Government Specialist Hospital” in all the geo-political zones in the country, and Rivers State was also ignored.
President Tinubu recently approved a “Special Funding” for selected federal universities across the nation; again, Rivers State was omitted. So what are we getting in return for surrendering our dignity as a people on the alter of what I call illicit politics?
Finally…
There is something called “Self-Worth and Dignity”. My self-worth and dignity are the reasons why I cannot go to eat from my enemy’s table no matter how hungry I may be, or how delicious or appealing the meal may be.
The preservation of my dignity is the reason why I cannot kowtow to a man who spat on my parentage or heritage. This self-worth is what makes human beings different from other homosapiens who are our historical cousins, although separated by evolution and now live in the wild.
It is the same self-worth and dignity that made our forebears to kick against the British imperialism, even when it was suicidal to do so. The great King Jaja of Opobo Kingdom exfoliated himself from the British colonialist in the 1880’s and took a stand to liberate his people from the fear of questioning the excesses of the British colonialist, and today, we are free.
Sir Isaac Adaka Boro led the Revolution against the neo-colonialism in Nigeria against the people of the Niger Delta, and the benefits we are still reaping today. The same reason was why Ken Saro Wiwa laid down his life for the cause of the oppressed people of Ogoni, even though he had ample opportunities to negotiate his way out of the gallows and live his life in opulence as a happy slave ever after. He didn’t do that, but rather chose to preserve his Self-Worth and dignity, and today he is celebrated.
These women are descendants of these great heroes of the Niger Delta, so keeping quiet would have been callous, satanic and an aberration of gigantic quantum. It would have been a genetic misrepresentation that one akpa-akpa Mrs. Ibas would come to pompously levitate over the daughters of unconquered men of the Delta without being called to order.
It hasn’t happened before, and it can’t start now. I hereby doff my hat for our courageous Rivers women for keeping the light shining in terms of courage and doing what the men are lacking the courage to do, even while thanking Her Excellency, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu for her thoughtfulness and benevolence towards the suffering women of Rivers State through her outreach programme.
Comrade Solomon Lenu writes in from Port Harcourt.