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Nigeria and Anambra Crisis

Daily Champion (Lagos)
OPINION
December 5, 2004
Posted to the web December 6, 2004

By Azeez Olaleye
Lagos
FOUR incidents were witnessed in the Anambra political crisis this past week.
Last Monday, (November 29), sporadic gunshots scared the Senate Committee on
states and local governments led by Mrs Iyabo Anisulowo out of Awka, the state
capital. Members of the team now had to take refuse in neighburing Enugu.
Gov. Ngige's convoy was returning to Awka after he had joined his colleagues to
welcome President Olusegun Obasanjo to Imo State who was there on a two-day
visit. The assassins had wanted to kill him were it not for God's intervention
and security reinforcement from Abia State Governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu
On Tuesday, at about 10.00pm, the Governor's lodge at Amawbia was rocked by
heavy explosion.
Governor Chris Ngige was having his dinner at the time of the incident. Thank
God, his excellency, like the proverbial cat with nine lives, escaped unhurt.
Of course, the opposition was aware he was in the building and thought they had
succeeded. On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu quashed the
January 2, 2004 judgement of the suspended Justice Stanley Nnaji. The order was
consequent upon a suit filed by a suspended member of the Anambra State House
of Assembly, Nelson Achukwu.
Justice Nnaji was at the Enugu High Court when he gave the ruling which
technically removed Gov. Ngige's security details. Justice James Ogabe who led
the panel of justices at the Appellate Court restored the security men.
Then on Wednesday same week, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mr. Tafa
Balogun sent signals to the Police Command in Anambra to comply with the ruling
of the Appellate Court. For 10 months, a sitting governor operated without
security. The hoodlums capitalised on the situation to make an attempt on
Ngige. The bandits had virtually taken over Onitsha and Awka for three days
(November 10-13) when they unleashed terror on defenceless residents and
visitors.
Operating in 43 vehicles donated by the opposition, about 300 youths held the
state hostage for three days while the police looked the other way. At the end
of the mayhem, the State Broadcasting Service, a state-owned hotel, Government
House in Awka and other government property worth N30 billion lay in ruins. A
frightening dimension to the lingering crisis was the plot to assassinate the
governor as witnessed last week.
With the seeming inability by the Federal Government and Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) to resolve the political crisis, the nation may experience the
human tragedy being witnessed in the Darfur region of Sudan and which Nigeria
is spearheading its resolution. The situation there had been allowed to linger
to this dangerous point.
The imbroglio began immediately Gov. Ngige took the oath of office in May last
year when his estranged political godfather and businessman, Chief Chris Uba
accused the former of reneging on a deal to vacate the office immediately after
being sworn in. Honestly, I really can't understand why somebody would be sold
that dummy? It is sickening and totally absurd. Gradually, the situation
degenerated when on July 10 last year (now Democracy Day in Anambra), a police
contingent led by the Assistant Inspector-General (AIG), the late Mr. Raphael
Ige abducted Gov. Ngige. The deceased AIG claimed he was trying to protect the
governor. Since the July 10 incident, the state had nor known peace.
It's baffling that Ngige's predecessor, ex-governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju faced a
similar ordeal for the four years he called the shot in Anambra. His enemies
made the state almost ungovernable. There was nothing he didn't do. At a time,
crime rate in the state was about the highest in the country until he
reorganised the Bakassi Boys who chased armed bandits out of the state. The
opposition re-grouped and ensured that the powers that be sacked the dreaded
Boys out of the state. At the end of the day, ex-governor Mbadinuju could not
pick the PDP ticket, ran and lost on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy
(AD).
I had thought with the Ngige administration, that a new dawn has emerged. But I
was wrong. Quite disturbing was the seeming connivance of the police in the
Anambra crisis. Members of the force played a major role last year during the
governor's abduction. An event that led to the retirement of Mr. Ige who later
died. Again in the November 10 to 13 mayhem, police claimed they had manpower
shortage to chase away and arrest the sponsored hoodlums who had a field-day.
Of course, the Police Service Commission (PSC) expressed regret at the way the
mayhem was handled and said it was investigating police role while the rioting
lasted.
The Federal Government and Ngige's PDP, keeping quiet while Anambra burns, does
not speak well of them. The crisis is no longer a family affair. It has gone
beyond that.
Those people making Anambra ungovernable for Ngige should be arrested now and
made to face the full wrath of the law. How long would it take the Presidency
and indeed, the PDP to put this bad dream behind us? The principal actors in
the debacle have not been reconciled, those hoodlums who attempted to kill
Governor Ngige are still on the loose and who knows what their next line of
action would be?
The signs are ominous as one can't predict how devastating they would be. The
Sudanese crisis started like this, it was allowed to assume a dangerous level
to the extent that the Darfur region is a pity and shame to the world. Mr.
President should handle the Anambra crisis with the utmost urgency it deserves
and let our charity begins at home.
Already, many genuine fears had been expressed about the imbroglio and its
propensity of imaginable catastrophe for the entire nation. We don't need
another civil war in this country because we can't afford it. Let's assume that
the powers that be have seen reason to restore hope in Anambra by returning
gov. Ngige's security. But that is not all. The criminals that are still
roaming the streets and their sponsors should be arrested, forthwith, if the
authorities want peace in Anambra and indeed, Nigeria.

   

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