The Caverton Helicopters issue brings into some bold relief the appropriate balances that need to be the struck between politics and governance as it relates especially to the current realities of the struggle against the Corona virus pandemic. The facts appear, in my view, to revolve around the obvious violations of the Rivers state government’s publicly declared regulations aimed at fighting the spread of the virus in the state and the Helicopter company’s operations which, as it has now been stated, is driven by the federal government’s economic imperatives. Simply put, whilst there appears to have been serial violations of the state’s directives by the company, the company states that they have the authority and thus the backing of the federal government to operate, regardless of the state’s directives and what , in essence, the federal government seems to be saying is that the expected economic benefits from the continuous flow of the oil business overrides whatever regulations the state may be putting in place to protect residents in the state from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over the years, I and several others, even at grave risks to our lives, have maintained that this country places so much premium on oil that it is even prepared, and in fact, does sacrifice lives of its citizens for oil revenues. This current imbroglio brings into bolder relief the extent of that sad situation that we have consistently opposed.
That this current controversy is needless is borne out of the fact that there is absolutely no reason for the federal government not to have had a conversation with the Rivers state government and put the state into some confidence before or after ‘authorising’ the Helicopter company, and indeed any other company, to engage in activities in defiance of current government directives. Many would wonder if this apparent lack of cooperation between the state and the federal government would have been the situation if the Rivers state was an APC state? As I have warned several years ago, the stability of the Niger delta region, and indeed this country, would continue to be dependent on the extent to which the central government is able to tolerate opposition state governments, not undermining them to the extent that its policies in those opposition states are perceived to be dictated by political exigencies of the ruling party’s leadership in those states.
Whilst advising that the current needles embarrassing posturing should urgently be replaced with humble dialogue between the two layers of government in this respect, let me clearly state that in any conflict between protection of lives of citizens and economic benefits, I will always cast my lot on the side of lives of the citizens. After all, in the current fight against the spread of the deadly virus, the federal government has practically wittingly or unwittingly conceded leadership to the states. Indeed apart from the daily ritual of press conferences, mainly to announce the current confirmed cases of the virus in the country, citizens of the states have hardly seen or felt the federal government’s efforts to stem the spread of the deadly virus.
There is no doubt that some of the states’ efforts might not have been the best or faultless , but as Dr. Michael J. Ryan of the WHO said recently, “ when it comes to dealing with an outbreak such as corona virus, the greatest error is not to move. If you need to be right before you move, you will never win. Perfection is the enemy of the good. Speed trumps perfection… The greatest error is not to move, the greatest error is to be paralyzed by the fear of error”. There is no doubt in my mind that Governor Wike, might not have been perfect, but he has shown that he is not paralyzed by the fear of not making the right moves. Let wiser counsel prevail !
