His words; The reported attack on the Rivers State Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress, APC, situated at l268B Aba Road in Port Harcourt on Monday, 5 August, 2024, may be a red flag but the serious implication of the attack has been diluted by the claim by Chief Tony Okocha that the anti – Tinubu protesters were sponsored by Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State.
”As a human being, Okocha should be worried if the attackers left with a promise to return on Tuesday to continue from where they stopped, but he is looking in the wrong direction for a scape goat.
”While it is within the right of Chief Tony Okocha, as the leader of opposition in the state, to criticise the ruling government, his allegation linking Governor Fubara to the anti – President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Protesters, who attacked the Rivers APC Secretariat, is spurious and diversionary, as even the president, in his nation – wide broadcast on Sunday, acknowledged that life was becoming unbearable in Nigeria but called for patience and understanding.
”No doubt, our brother Okocha has been working hard, as usual, to justify the confidence of those who apointed him but he should know that there is time for everything, and in the current situation, look at the bigger picture instead of seeking to drag the Rivers State governor to a matter that is of urgent national importance.
”Except for the few Nigerians who are holding one political office or the other, the overwhelming population of Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, religion and political affiliations, are under tremendous pressure because of the harsh economic policies of the President Ahmed Bola Tinubu administration. It therefore follows, in the natural progression, that the ongoing nation – wide protest against Bad Governance is being driven, primarily, by hunger and hardship, and a hungry man, as our elders say, is an angry man. It has nothing to do with Fubara, who, in all intents and purposes, has no issues to grind with the president.
”In the last one year and three months that he has been in office, Governor Fubara of Rivers State has shown, both in words and deeds, that he is a man of peace, and not treacherous. One is therefore constrained, as a stakeholder in the Rivers project, to say that our brother, Chief Tony Okocha, had stepped outside the ‘zone of indifference’ by claiming that “the rampaging anti – President Bola Ahmed Tinubu protesters” were sponsored by Governor Fubara. Nothing can be farther from the truth.
”The truth, which Okocha’s Special Assistant on Media, Amb.Vincent Gbosi, excluded in his statement, is that the protest in Port Harcourt began to assume a violent dimension on Monday, and the reason was basically, because the president’s speech on Sunday did not address the issues of hunger, very high cost of living and price of petrol, as demanded by the protesters. And this sentiment resonates across the country, including the president’s home state of Lagos.
”While I agree with the APC chieftain that the attack on their secretariat is a red flag, it is also important to counsel that he looks at the bigger picture, and more importantly, ponder over the possible implications of the protest against hunger being upscaled to a level of national emergency, if the authorities neglect to take a second look at the demands of angry Nigerians.
”Against this background therefore, it will be expedient for Chief Okocha to look beyond the Inspector – General of Police and the Director of State Security Service, and send his ‘Save our soul’ message to the president, governors and National Assembly members, to make hay while there is sun. The reason is because, it is only those in government that have everything to lose should the situation degenerate further, and not the protesters, many of who are already on the ground.
”Okocha should consider that the desperate times that we are in require desperate measures. Against this background therefore, one is compelled to call on the Rumuigbo Chief to join well meaning Nigerians, to explore credible ways and means of addressing the national challenge and calm frayed nerves, before hunger and frustration push those who are already down to do the unthinkable”.
