By Reuben Abati

In 1973, writer and dermatologist, Professor Anezi Okoro published a novel for young adults titled “One Week, One Trouble.” It tells the story of Wilson Tagbo, a secondary school student, who from the first day he got enrolled until he got to senior secondary 3 grade, had one trouble or the other in what was clearly a process of becoming and self-discovery. “One Week, One Trouble” made it to the Nigerian school curriculum, and has further become a ready reference for the reckless manner in which Nigerian politicians are drawn to controversies like flees to nectar. Accordingly, we have had cause to use this phrase to describe the reign of impunity, ego and chaos that has now overtaken the oil-rich Niger Delta state of Rivers. If Wilson Tagbo got into trouble on a weekly basis, the situation in Rivers is worse. For the past three months, Rivers has been experiencing trouble on a daily basis, creating a situation that is best described as “One Day, One Trouble” in a two-hander plot featuring Nyesom Wike, former Governor of Rivers State, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and his successor, the incumbent Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara. The conflict and the drama are a classic stuff of godfather-godson relations in Nigerian politics.

As it was in the past, so it is now, and so shall it be in the future, except Nigeria de-monetizes its politics, emphasizes the integrity of the people’s vote and insists on transparency and accountability of processes, and institutions. More than 24 years after Nigeria’s return to civilian rule, the pervasive opinion is that democracy in Nigeria is putative. What usually happens is that a Godfather with too much money or influence, acquired through control of state resources which he can deploy at will, as in the case of incumbent Governors seeking to cover their backs, by installing a successor through whom they can continue to rule, even after leaving office as constitutionally mandated, or the Godfather may be a man of influence whose political weight is built on the widely acknowledged assumption that he has direct control of critical institutions of state and that his will could override the people’s wish. Godfathers in Nigerian politics are genetically delusionary. One after the other we have seen them exhibiting a Messianic complex until they are either reminded that they are human, all too human, or they succeed in removing the recalcitrant anointed godson. Between the two polarities is a lot of melodrama, the type we are now witnessing in Rivers State, and as we saw before in Enugu state between Jim Nwobodo and Chimaroke Nnamani, in Anambra State, Chris Uba vs. Chris Ngige, in Oyo Sate, Lamidi Adedibu vs. Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja, in Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje vs. Rabiu Kwankwaso, in Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole vs. Godwin Obaseki, in Delta, James Ibori vs. Ifeanyi Okowa, and in Lagos, Bola Tinubu vs. Akinwunmi Ambode.

The sociology of godfatherism in Nigerian politics is a complex power game, and it is not restricted to anointed Governors. Even lawmakers and local government chairmen owe their emergence in public positions to the dexterity of Godfathers. This may involve the anointed godson being asked to enter into a covenant to hand over a percentage of state resources to the Godfather and his wife every month – in Lagos, they call it “Baba ke e pe”. The exponent of Amala politics in Oyo state fell out with Rasheed Ladoja because having assumed office, the latter did not see why he should continue to hand over 15% of state resources to Adedibu on a monthly basis. Occultism is also involved. Chris Uba took Chris Ngige to the Okija shrine stripped to his under-wears, to pledge that he will always be loyal to the master. When Chris Ngige reneged and began to assert himself, Chris Uba released photos from the dreaded Okjja shrine. Chris Ngige did not deny but he said he went to the shrine with his Bible – his own talisman! This is the level of decay and rank opportunism in Nigerian politics. People would do anything to be in power without working for it, and that is why there are so many dumb persons in the top most corridors of power.

We do not yet know what pact, Satanic or Godly that Sim Fubara entered into with his Godfather. Was he also taken to a shrine? Did he sell his soul to become Governor? What agreements did he reach with Wike? What code of honour did they both agree to which is now causing trouble? What can be established is that Fubara is a political creation of Nyesom Wike, who made him Government House Accountant, Permanent Secretary, Government House, and later Accountant General of the State. As his eight-year tenure came to a close, Wike decided that Fubara who had always been in charge of the Rivers state’ accounts should be rewarded with the biggest diadem, the Governorship of the state. During the campaigns, not many people knew Fubara, other than that he was the man Wike wanted to make Governor. Wike was all over the place campaigning for him. And he put him in office as a PDP successor, despite his own defiant relationship with their party at the National level. When opposition parties challenged Fubara’s election at the tribunal, Wike again stepped in. He must have trusted Fubara so much. The big mistake he made though is that he is a poor student of history and human nature, now projecting himself as a victim of his own contradictions. His critics have had cause to remind him that it is Karma at work. Even one Eze Eze who would never have dared to talk back at Wike in his glorious season as Rivers Governor is now talking. Wike used to tell traditional rulers to shut up publicly, and they would literally shut up and say “Yes sir,” on top of it.

Relationships between Godfathers and their anointed candidates have not always been rosy. In the aforementioned cases, the Godsons always managed to get the Godfathers off their backs. Ladoja fought all the way to the Supreme Court and he was reinstated. Obaseki watered down Oshiomhole’s influence. Ganduje clamped down on the Kwankwasiyya Movement and drove Kwankwaso out of Kano. The latter’s attempt at a return is currently the cause of trouble in Kano State. The only Godfather that seems to have survived would be Bola Tinubu of Lagos. He is probably the most ruthless of all the Godfathers. He has been described as a man who knows how to identify and groom talents, but when the same persons try to assert themselves, he crushes them without batting an eyelid. Babatunde Raji Fashola as Governor and Tinubu’s successor had ideas of his own, and he was making tremendous impact and taking credit. He had to be reminded that he could not outshine the master. Somehow, he survived. Akinwunmi Ambode, a Fulbright scholar, first class brain, who succeeded Fashola was not so lucky. He was denied a second term because the Godfather got tired of him. Nigerian Godfathers are not looking for scholars and first-class brains. They want slaves and yes boys and girls. For example, when Umo Eno, the incumbent Governor of Akwa Ibom State became Governor, he, 59, knelt down before Udom Emmanuel, 57, to pledge his allegiance. In Kogi State, after the November 11 off-cycle Gubernatorial election in the state won by Ahmed Usman Ododo, Governor Yahaya Bello’s anointed candidate, he and his elected Deputy took their certificates of return to the Governor, knelt and bowed before him in a show of gratitude. Nobody knows what the relationship would be tomorrow in Kogi and Akwa Ibom states between the Godfathers and their “anointed successors”. The whole idea of anointment is a mockery of Nigeria’s democratic process. Where are the people?