By Amieyeofori Ibim
We read the Press statement by Warisenibo Chris Finebone, erstwhile scribe of the fractured and haemorrhaging Rivers State All Progressives Congress, APC, titled: PLANS BY RSG/PDP TO DESTABLIZE APC NATIONWIDE USING RIVERS COURTS UNCOVERED, and the first impression was to chuckle at the apparent whining and bellyaching which has become synonymous with that political contraption called Rivers APC over the years.
Indeed the puerility and incoherence of the very first paragraph of his press statement, immediately evokes an uncensored sympathy which kindred spirits would spontaneously feel for poor old Chris Finebone and the reductionist toga he has now been compelled to dorn in this pathetic attempt to upgrade the very pedestrian and watery efforts of present day successors in the publicity department, to paper the cracks of an already crumbled structure and puff some hot, fighting air for a decimated, dismembered opposition that can hardly breathe.
A closer, more critical appraisal of the press statement reveals however, a more sinister, disturbing template, already deployed in previous circumstances, with the dubious intent to heat up the Rivers polity ahead of the 2023 general elections and ultimatelytly provoke and instigate unnecessary conflict across the state.
To put the matter in clearer perspective, the statement by Warisenibo Chris Finebone is not only ridiculous in context but hilliarious in it’s contained allegations, especially when placed against the backdrop of a political party that has not only been mired in endless internal litigation, but whose key figures have been intent and tenaciously insistent on testing the authenticity of their demands in the Court of law, now crying wolf about some external force taking it to Court.
In a nutshell, Rivers APC should first remove the massive log in it’s political eye before accusing any other party or even the Rivers State Government for that matter, of attempting to destablize APC nationwide, using Rivers Courts, because the APC itself is the number one client of Rivers Courts and has had a chequred relationship with the judiciary, culminating in the autocratic ignominy and impunity which resulted in the dictatorial shutting down of the Courts in Rivers state for months by the leader of the same Rivers APC.
Again, there must be something fundamentally wrong with a political party like the Rivers APC, which nurses a morbid phobia for any attempt to test the legality of whatever decision it’s godfathers and dictators foist on its members, through legitimate due processes. The lame excuse of always alluding to ‘tendencies within the APC in Rivers State that have been working in cahoots with the Rivers State Government,’ jangles like the repetitive chorus of a broken record.
To set the records straight, neither Governor Nyesom Wike nor the Rivers State vPeoples Democratic Party, PDP, will waste any time engaging in any legal battle with a political party that has already self destructed as a result of it’s own uncontrollable appetite for running to the Courts, to institute diversionary legal processes over every matter, including red herrings and audacious directives
It is also important to remind Warisenibo Chris Finebone in case he deliberately chooses to conveniently forget, that the Courts belong to the third realm of our democratic system, which is the judiciary and the APC itself has suffered monumental electoral humiliations nationwide as a result of litigations and legal processes that did not emanate and had no connection with Rivers Courts. It is also on record that the APC has enjoyed some amazing, mind boggling judicial victories, particularly the most recent Supreme Court judgement that imposed a Governor in Imo State.
So, if the APC decides, in its own wisdom, to engage the jurisdiction of Courts in Rivers State to test the mettle, credibility and authority of actions and decisions within it’s own internal party structure, then one wonders how PDP/RVSG can be accused of complicity in such circumstances.
Even as we speak, the confusion in the national APC has deepened further across the country and we do not wish to remind Chris Finebone that while he and his fellow pipe dreamers are busy receiving paper weights and spent forces into their fold and speculating on the next arrivals of political no deliverables, whose value and usefulness have since expired, the PDP has already taken over the entire South South region, achieved with the considerable astute, strategic contributions of Governor Nyesom Wike and is even now, waxing stronger by the day and embracing solid political figures, whose stature will grow in leaps and bounds as the 2023 general elections draws near.
Governor Nyesom Wike and Rivers PDP will definitely not be bothered by the whining of Warisenibo Chris Finebone, who, if truth be told, is just as confused as other diehard refusenics APC members in Rivers State who are already braced for the impending fate of the Titanic, but are just trying to keep up appearances, while their ship is sinking.
For the avoidance of doubt, the fate of Rivers APC is already a prophecy foretold by their leader and godfather himself in January 2018. Speaking during a reception organised for him as grand patron of Ikwerre Youth Movement (IYM) in Rivers state, Rt. Hon Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi told his rapt audience of rabid loyalists in his very clear, unequivocal tones, that the 2019 general election in Rivers State will be the party’s last battle.
He said: “The 2019 elections, especially the governorship, are our last battle. If we win, we will take over Rivers State. If we lose in the election, we will go home and rest”. The rest as they say is now history.
