Soyinka, Nwabueze, others condemn Rivers Assembly crisis

By DAPO AKINREFON
THREE days after the mayhem at the Rivers State House of Assembly, the
polity was still awash with condemnation of the action of the
lawmakers and feuding stakeholders.
Among those who spoke on the crisis, yesterday, were Nobel Laureate,
Professor Wole Soyinka, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, legal
icons, Professor Ben Nwabueze, SAN, Itse Sagay, SAN, Olisa Agbakoba,
SAN, Femi Falana, SAN.
Nobel Laurete, Professor Wole Soyinka has condemned the ongoing
political crisis in Rivers State, saying that democratic grounds were
being eroded in the state.
Soyinka also took a swipe at the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan
for her alleged over bearing tendencies and urged President Goodluck
Jonathan to call her to order.
While he faulted the presidency for trying to absolve the president
from the crisis, he said "the perception in the world is that he bears
a vicarious liability in the crisis."Besides, he said the indifference
exhibited by the President creates an enabling environment for his
followers to act on his behalf.
He said: "What I want to do here is to remind you of a certain
historic figure. I am sure most of us here must be familiar with
Thomas Becket, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 11th Century,
who was murdered at the altar by four Knights of King Henry II."
Commenting on the crisis, he said: "Now, I have read on the pages of
newspapers and watched on television that the President's spokesmen
have been trying to distance him (President) from what is happening in
Rivers State. They are doing their job and I wish them well but they
have to understand that the President has to understand that the
perception out there in the world is that he bears a lot of
responsibility for what is happening in Rivers state."
Drawing a parallel, he said "My reference to Thomas Becket was this:
the absolute Monarchism that obtained at that time was that King Henry
II saw that Thomas Becket was becoming too influential and what he
said was that: 'will no one rid me of this pestilence?'
"What happened after that was that four Knights went and attacked the
Archbishop at the Cathedral. Historically now, we have five operators
carrying out the imaginary will of the absolute monarch, again another
parallelism."
Continuing, he said "Again, I have beenasking myself are we not
tilting towards absolute monarch? There are many ways of saying: will
no one rid me of this pestilence in Rivers State? You don't have to
utter a word directly but from your conduct which can convey very
strong signals or better still say I will come after you."Stating that
he was not casting aspersion on any individual, he said, "I am saying
that one can establish certain conducts in the mind of one's
followers, all of which circle around impunity. There are certain ways
you can convince your followers, your officials, your cohorts that
they can act with impunity. There are many ways, for instance, you can
expose a prey andsay that prey is available."
First Lady's excesses
Decrying alleged excesses of the first lady, Soyinka said it was
unfortunate that a mere domestic appendage of power could go to a
state and take over the state for 11 days. "A queen goes to the
archbishop's domain, stays11 days and the baron is not even allowed to
move; creating an enablingenvironment for that baron to be dealtwith.
He is stopped by a Sheriff and that baron is responsible for security
and governance."
He continued: "I am calling on the President Jonathan please curb the
excesses of his wife. Too much is too much. Is she the first First
Lady we have had? She is now being used to abuse the authority of an
elected governor.
"The governor's lodge was tear-gassed. Anybody who said teargaswas not
thrown into Amaechi's lodge is either ignorant or lying. Some of
Amaechi's security has been removed. The democratic grounds are being
eroded. With a teargas thrown, the next one may be a smoke gun".
He chided Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu over his
role in the political imbroglio and described him as a political
policeman.
Falana laments crisis
Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana said it was regrettable that
exactly 10 years after a group of thugs attempted to abduct a sitting
governor in Anambra State, another set of thugs attempted to undermine
democratic institutions in Rivers State.
Falana said the silence of President Jonathan on the unfortunate
development in Rivers State was tantamount to an endorsement of the
political crisis.
He said: "We have been through this route before. We must tell them
that we are not a conquered people. The case of Rivers is more absurd,
more odious, where five members of the assembly aided by the state
invaded the Assembly chambers and chased away their colleagues".