Nigeria: the moon is breaking apart!

That the Presidency deemed it necessary to issue a public reaction to the ongoing agitation by some Governors of the Northern part of Nigeria is enough indication that the denied import of the activities of the Governors is firmly in place. In deed contrary to contention, there is “fear, despair and sense of apprehension” at […]

That the Presidency deemed it necessary to issue a public reaction to the ongoing agitation by some Governors of the Northern part of Nigeria is enough indication that the denied import of the activities of the Governors is firmly in place. In deed contrary to contention, there is “fear, despair and sense of apprehension” at the Presidency. How else can anyone in Nigeria say that the current political going on are “grossly unfounded, misplaced and a deliberate over sensationalisation of the situation”. The moon is breaking apart and every earthly mortal can see that.
Rivers State is indeed on fire. There is no House of Assembly in place. 5 members have defeated 27 in a motion, forcing a breakdown of law and order in the House Chamber. The National Assembly has in the meantime taken over the State Assembly functions. The elected Governor of the State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is in court seeking a restraining order barring 11 of the 32 members from signing an impeachment petition against him as Governor. Does this describe a “calm and peaceful” State? Rivers State is in deed on fire.
Prominent and globally respected citizens of Nigeria, including former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, former Head of State, Abubakar Abdulsalami, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Governor of Edo State and world labour leader Comrade Adams Oshiomhole have opined publicly that in deed, “Developments in Rivers State do pose a threat to our democracy, with fears publicly expressed that Nigeria is drifting closer to Egypt’s situation just before the ouster of elected President Muhammad Morsi, how can the Presidency tell Nigerians that “Our democracy remains robust, alive and well”?
Far from the puerile assurances coming from Aso Rock, “the political disagreement in Rivers State would imperil and ultimately derail our democracy”!
The Ogun State incident in 2010 in which  Inspector General of Police locked up the House of Assembly for several months after series of sustained fracas and attempts at impeachment and counter impeachment, and all other cases of interference in institutional autonomy in Nigeria in the past are shameful sore points in our democratic experience and cannot pass for anything normal, as examples. They represent embarrassments below the acceptable high standards expected of Nigeria.
The Rivers State situation is critical because it represents attempts by the Presidency to misuse its powers to breach the democratic due process in favour of the ambitions of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the Presidency of Nigeria in 2015. This is what led to the attempt to undermine the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, first by creation of a PDP Governors’ forum, failing which followed, the “defeat” of 19 Governors by 16 in a clean and clear election, against the normal run of basic democratic principles of the majority winning the vote. The fracas in Rivers State was the elevation of the effort to take control of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, seen as the only institution without whose control, the whims and caprices of the Presidency cannot be satisfactorily attained.
It would hard to deny that the quagmire in Rivers State was not the handwork of the Presidency, desperately intent on removing Governor Amaechi by destabilising and taking control of the Rivers State House of Assembly, and by implication, successfully undermining the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.
If indeed the “Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) issue like the political development in Rivers State remains essentially an affair of the 36 state governors, then the will of 19 Governors should override the will and wish of the 16. If the “outcome of elections in the body IS inconsequential to the orderly governance of the Nigerian state by the Presidency”,  why the stress that is clearly evident?
Nigerians are no fools. Governors are crucial to the political calculation of who becomes President of the country as events in our recent history bear out. Governors control the State Party and produce delegates that vote the candidate that runs. Since Yar’adua, it has become sadly evident that “only” Governors qualify to aspire to run for President in a given election year. Why this is so, I wonder.
If it is clear “that occupying the chairmanship of the NGF does not in any way confer any political influence or advantage as regards who becomes President of the country nor will it be of any major political significance in the 2015 Presidential race as is being bandied about erroneously, then the Presidency should publicly retract its interests in the political status of Rivers State, allow the Nigerian Governors’ Forum resolve the crisis imposed on the Forum. The Presidency should rescind the glaring steps taken to frustrate the likes of Governors Amaechi, Babangida, Kwankwaso, and Lamido, who have indicated the need to throw open, the choice of the PDP’s flag bearer for the 2015 Presidential elections. There should be no political intimidation using State Power.
The crucial issue remains the Democratic due process, a clean and clear means of political parties, engaging in processes that enable choices to be fairly and squarely representative of the wishes of the people who have voluntary resolved to belong to a political party where their collective will determines whoever leads them. No one can deny President Goodluck Jonathan opportunity to present himself, but that same opportunity should be seen to have been given unfettered, to each and every aspirant, and in keeping with Party tenets.
This is the ONLY FUNDAMENTAL requirement that puts the “interest of the nation and our democracy first”. It is the only path to stability in the PDP and the polity.