By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

The Janjaweed have sprouted in Rivers state.

In Rivers, nobody can campaign freely. The INEC has a constitutional duty to monitor election campaigns and prosecute electoral offences, but it has said nothing. A few days ago, Senator Abe of the SDP was rushed off the campaign stage as gunshots sent the crowd gathered to listen to him scampering. His security details looked horrified but not surprised. That wasn’t the first time the senator had been forced to scurry into a protective hole like a squirrel by hired gunmen enforcing executive lawlessness.  

In Rivers, only campaigns organized by the state governor for his lackey can take place without people bothering about their safety. Tonye Cole, the APC governorship candidate, tried campaigning in Opobo a few days ago. He had adequate security and determination but met a battalion of hired armed thugs. The armed gang insisted with gunshots that the APC, despite its federal incumbency, could not campaign in Opobo. APC’s campaign tents and cars were casually destroyed. The police watched helplessly. The APC campaign team withdrew to avoid bloodshed. The mob sang in triumph. INEC has made no statement. The Federal Government isn’t that concerned. 

Imagine if a battalion of buccaneers were also arranged to enforce a one-party rule in every state in Nigeria. So in Kano, for instance, Ganduje would assemble 500,000 idle youths, baptize them as political advisers, and arm them to prevent the NNPP and PDP from campaigning. And whenever the opposition parties proved stubborn, the militia, assisted by corrupt policemen, would chase them back into their houses with sporadic gunshots and cudgels. That scenario would have attracted national and international attention because Aminu Kano’s Kano has a liberal political culture. Imagine a state like EDO, another state where two or three parties are fighting for all the votes. Imagine that dogs of war paid from the public treasury were arranged to keep all other parties except the governor’s party off the streets. The Oba of Benin would have spoken up because he is bold, and Edo has a political tradition that must be protected.  

Perhaps, Sergeant Awuse’s Rivers is different. In Rivers today, the elders aren’t that bold, and there appears to be no worthy political culture to protect. The traditional rulers have since been browbeaten into literal subservience. The Bishops, who regularly lend their pulpits to the emperor when he is tired of media chats and press conferences, are scared of going to heaven too soon. The federal government is cunningly ambivalent. The ruling party can’t protect its members in Rivers because it’s politically promiscuous. 

A few weeks ago, Dumo Lulu Briggs, the governorship candidate of the Accord Party, set out to campaign in Port Harcourt. An armed gang accosted his team and scattered the procession. Lulu Briggs made noise and went home. Then the state government warned him and others to desist from daring constituted authority. A constituted agbero authority that operates through janjaweed mechanisms. 

In the days of the Janjaweed in Sudan, Omar Al Bashir, the president, armed  an Arab militia to do dirty work for the army. That Arab militia would confront the opposition and commit crimes against humanity. But being faceless and perhaps nameless, the mercenaries couldn’t be isolated and sanctioned. Through them, Omar Al Bashir terrorized Dafur, committing atrocities he wouldn’t want to be associated with his army.

In Rivers, the government has made draconian laws that make electioneering campaigns impossible for the opposition. People can only use a village primary school field if they pay 5M naira to the government. Nobody can use the open grounds, which have been used for campaigns for nearly a century. Nobody can hold processions on the street. Nobody can enjoy the freedoms the current governor enjoyed while he was campaigning in 2015. If the executive lawlessness adopted by Rivers spreads to other states, our democratic experiment could come to a speedy end.

Often clowns get away with a lot. They cross the boundaries of decency, and people permit them. After all, they are jokers. Brutes get away with a lot too. When they slap someone, the person is deemed lucky because his skull could easily have been broken. Many immature politicians enjoy similar liberties. They are cuddled like infants by the public, who cheer their profanities. But such sentimental little instances of normalization of evil help to alter societal moral values and cause retrogression. Our democracy has grown to the point where people take for granted the freedom to campaign everywhere. Though politicians still buy votes and alter election results, candidates campaign freely in Lagos, Uyo, Sokoto, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Aba, and everywhere. Everywhere, except Rivers. Except for Rivers because the system has often excused the belligerence of the ill-bred man as a lifestyle. So a fellow can threaten his political opponents, forbidding them from setting foot in their home state to campaign, and nobody flinches. The INEC doesn’t think that the threats constitute electoral offences. So INEC issues no cautions even in those extreme circumstances. The INEC would wait to see broken limbs and skulls. But haven’t the police and INEC seen the mayhem in Opobo?

If the governors of Lagos or Ogun dared utter half of the threats dished out in Port Harcourt to political opponents, they would be crucified. Perhaps those are effete gentlemen, not strong men. Perhaps, the standards of conduct expected of them are higher than would be required of a man with ‘intigrity’. Perhaps, the only man who understands the misuse of executive orders to constrict the electioneering space to his most cynical advantage is a loquacious megalomanic in Rivers. 

Fortunately, power is ephemeral. Some years ago, one Ayo Fayose was the governor of Ekiti. One day, he used logs of wood to block all the main highways leading into the state. He did that to prevent the opposition party’s governors from coming into the state for the final rally for the 2015 presidential elections in Ekiti. Then Fayose was a loquacious deity. Today, Fayose strolls around like a lamb humming his jeremiads.

But the country must wake up to contain the nuisance. Because, unlike lousy incontinent politicians that fade away like apparitions, political gangsterism and the culture of brazen opportunism and impunity are not easily uprooted from society.