With the proclamation of State of Emergency (SOE) in Rivers State by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), the theomachy unfolding in that oil-rich corridor for more than year came to denouement on Tuesday. The state Governor and godson, Siminalayi Fubara, and the immediate past Governor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the godfather, Barr. Nyesom Wike, have been locked in a battle of the gods for several months with no end in sight until BAT sounded the whistle for the stoppage of the tug-of-war.
As permitted by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the SOE will subsist for a period of six months in the first instance, subject to extension. A sole administrator and former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, has been fished out of retirement to oversee the affairs of the state within the period.
Many watchers of the theomachy were flummoxed by the proclamation. No one saw it coming except an unknown cleric, I cannot even remember his name, who claimed to have delivered a prophecy to that effect. Consequently, opposition politicians, public affairs commentators, opinion leaders, constitutional and non-constitutional lawyers, civil society organisations, and even lay men have scrambled to the media space to voice their objection or support for the declaration.
The developments in Rivers State have become a matter for public debate for several months now. Nigeria is not new to the declaration of SOE. Only folks born long before Independence in 1960 may remember the one declared by the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, when the old Western Region boiled over. Code-named “Operation Wetie”, the region was turned into a (political) killing field where brothers turned against themselves as if they had sworn to an oath of self-annihilation. By the time sanity was restored, the prosperous region had become infamous with a sobriquet Wild, Wild, West added to its identity 1962.
The second SOE was declared in Plateau State 43 years after the first one in 1962. The situation that led to the 2004 SOE in Plateau was dissimilar to the 1962 episode but it came with the same package: orgy of violence characterised by wanton killings and destruction of public/private properties. After the Plateau calamities, Ekiti state, under Ayodele Fayose, was also dragged under the SOE in the twilight of the Obasanjo administration in 2006 following the political crisis triggered by governance failure and corruption accusation. A retired military officer, Tunji Olurin, was dug out of retirement to pilot the affairs of the state until normalcy was restored.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan did not escape the SOE bug during his tenure. Overwhelmed by the Boko Haram madness, he swept three states, Borno, Adamawa and Yobe under the SOE. But he did not sack the sitting governors. He took the decision to rein in the madness of the insurgents and send a strong signal that he would henceforth handle them with the fists of steel.
I was in Jos when the crisis that led to the SOE took place and I am still so traumatised that the mention of the acronym sends jitters down my spine, regardless of where it is promulgated. Before the 2004 madness gripped Jos, the city was so peaceful, complemented by a salubrious weather. Owing to its healthy climate that slows down aging, Jos was my dream city right from my boyhood days. At the slightest opportunity, I would race to Jos for my long vacations… away from the Wild, Wild, West where I was schooling. My elder sister was married to a medical doctor who was posted to the city to take charge of the General Hospital which later morphed to the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).
When I grew up and found myself in Zaria reporting for the New Nigerian Newspapers Ltd., headquartered in Kaduna, my prayers and desire had been to live the rest of my life in Jos. The climate was just irresistible. And so, when the opportunity came for me to switch over to The Nigeria Standard Newspapers of Jos, I did not even give it a second thought. I grabbed it with both hands. You can only imagine how shattered I was when the hostilities of 2004 emerged to fracture the peace of the city.
The whole crisis started with what appeared like an innocuous objection by the natives to the appointment of Mukhtar Hassan, the son of a prominent businessman named, Saleh Hassan, a so-called settler from Bauchi state, was picked as the coordinator of the Jos North Local Government chapter of the newly created National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP). The (Berom) natives would not accept such an affront. Consequently, a protest began to build up. By that time the state Governor, Chief Joshua Chibi Dariye, under whose watch the appointment was made, had travelled out of the country.
Somehow, the protest was not gaining any traction as expected because non-Beroms remained passive. They saw the protest as an issue between the indigenes and the settlers. The natives went back to the drawing board and before you could spell N-A-P-E-P, the smoldering situation blew out of control. Why? A religious colouration had been introduced to it. With that new dimension, all hell broke loose. How religion was woven into a purely economic empowerment matter still baffles till today. But it was and the entire city erupted with violence. Muslims and Christians, hitherto cohabiting peacefully like members of the same family, tore at one another with ferocity. While the Muslims were fleeing from Mecca to Medina, the Christians were scampering from Jerusalem to Jericho, so to speak. Non-adherents of the two major faiths, who were supposed to be neutral, did not take chances. They too were switching from pillar to post.
As though everyone had become possessed or waiting for such an opportunity to strike, the Jos city and environs like Bukuru were turned into war zones. Residential houses, business premises and vehicles were set ablaze. Car dealers along Zaria Road were badly affected. Tens of thousands of human lives were gruesomely terminated, butchered or incinerated. Gory sights sickened survivors. Expectedly, the military were called out to quell the madness. Armoured Personnel Carriers were rolled out to streets to restore sanity.
From my Jenta Adamu neighbourhood situated along Joseph Gomwalk Way, Jos, renamed New Jerusalem, we could hear and feel the vibration as the military pounded troubled spots around Dilimi and Nasarawa Gwom settlements up to the Bauchi Ring Road. For days on end, everyone was confined to their neighbourhood. Of course, the entire city had to be dragged under a 24-hour curfew. Markets and business premises were under a lockdown. Vigilante groups sprang up in all neighbourhoods across the city to ensure that there were no infiltrations of enemies. At the New Jerusalem where I had just moved into my personal house, we were taught how to manufacture petrol bombs or what is known as Improvised Explosive Device (IED) for self-defence. Other weapons available to us included machetes, bows and arrows, spears, swords, daggers and even catapults. Some residents had better weapons such as double barrel guns or shakabula (dane gun). Others boasted of charms. For once, I contemplated owning a pump action. The gun was going for about N100, 000 and a friend promised to help me acquire one but getting a licence became a huge problem because of the prevailing security situation in the city. Given my hunting background, I knew I would require just a little time to hone my marksmanship.
After days of lockdown, many houses ran out of foodstuffs. I also observed that domestic animals like goats and chickens that used to roam about had vanished from the neighbourhood not out of fright. They had all been hunted down for food by hungry neighbours. I had a respite from marauding goats sneaking into compound to feast on my plants
Eventually, the government of the day had to give way and an administrator, Gen. Chris Mohammed Ali (retd), was appointed by the Obasanjo administration to restore law and order. Interestingly, many saw the administrator as belonging to the two faiths by virtue of his name combination… Chris and Mohammed. That must have informed Obasanjo’s choice of him!
During the period and seeing the level of desolation, I wrote Jos off, convincing myself that things would not be normal again. “Jos is finished!” was my verdict. After the major upheaval that precipitated the SOE, pockets of crises persisted even during the regime of Jonah Jang who succeeded Chief Dariye. The seeds of mutual suspicion had already been sown. The city is now balkanised to the extent that some locations have become no-go areas if you do not belong to the faith of the major residents. The situation is now worsened by the incessant attacks by marauding bandits in isolated settlements in different parts of the state.
All told, I believe Rivers State will flow back stronger after normalcy has been fully restored.