By Sotonye Ijuye Dagogo
The organisers of the 10-day #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest threatened a million-man mayhem on the last day but ended on a very low-key, scanty and quiet in most of the states.
The protesters didn’t even show up in Port Harcourt streets where the protest ended three days earlier. They were accused of violence and chased away by anti-protest forces.
The Rivers State protest started slowly and peacefully. It grew in size and intensity as the days went by. The youths were on the streets daily, venting their anger against bad governance, corruption and economic hardship.
It was quiet until the sixth day when protesters marched to the sprawling mansion of former Governor Nyesom Wike on Ada George Road. They also marched past the Hyper City Malls, said to belong to President Bola Tinubu’s FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Yes, the protesters went to Rumueprikom and stood in front of the massive archetypal symbol of corruption and bad governance. They stood in front of the flagship of public corruption in Rivers State. They thronged in front of the gargantuan image of malfeasance and crime.
Rivers State is full of property owned by past and present public officers, property acquired with stolen State funds. Private homes, housing estates, shopping malls, mega filling stations and several other illegal acquisitions. But the Rumueprikom palatial premises is the loudest and the most audacious physical representation of corruption, sleaze and immortality. It’s brazen-faced. It’s shameless.
The protesters went to Nyesom Wike’s Rumueprikom palace but what did they do? What did the youths do?
They sang and danced in front of this insignia of monumental corruption, and in less than an hour, they left the area and continued their aimless march.
What a shame!
Right in front of the protesters was the sprawling image of #BadGovernanceInNigeria, an emblem of barefaced theft of public funds, an image of heartless looting of the state treasury and an eloquent testimony of corrupt acquisition.
But they sang and danced away in front of this ‘golden image’ and in less than no time, they went away aimlessly.
The supposed angry youths simply went away. They did not encamp around the corrupt palatial premises. They did not occupy and sit the whole day in front of the mansion. They did not make the area the new gathering point for protesters. They did not declare a hunger strike and demand the immediate acquisition and takeover of the premises by the Rivers State Government. They did not demand even an investigation into the property.
They only danced and sang and continued their aimless march.
They lost it. They missed it. They lost the opportunity of a lifetime. They were on the verge of making history but lost it. The youths of Rivers State threw all away.
It was their opportunity to trigger the process to officially and permanently deny Nyesom Wike ownership of the property.
It was their opportunity to sit down indefinitely in front of the property. The opportunity to encamp in front of the premises with blankets, food and water and refuse to leave until the state governor accedes to their demands. It was their opportunity for civil disobedience. A nonviolent but effective protest.
If the protesters had stood their ground and forced the state government to take over that Rumueprikom edifice of shame, they would have sent a very strong message to Nyesom Wike on the futility of corrupt acquisitions. They would have sent a clear message to corrupt public officers about the ultimate dispossession of ill-gotten wealth.
If the protesters had stood their ground and forced the state government to compulsorily acquire the property, they would have sent a message of stern disapproval of the Nigerian justice system.
A justice system that protects boldfaced thieves and declares them innocent until the corrupt system is unable to declare them guilty. A justice system that gives perpetual injunction against anti-graft agencies, stopping them from investigating thieving politicians.
A justice system that requires Nyesom Wike to be proven guilty of corrupt enrichment instead of requiring him to prove how he came about his stupendous wealth, knowing that he had close to nothing before getting into public office.
If the protesters had stood their ground and demanded the compulsory acquisition of the Rumueprikom palace by the state government, they would have sent a damning message to the police for protecting corrupt leaders and their loot with guns bought with public money. The EFCC would have seen the futility in foot-dragging on the Rivers State matter since 2007. Even the DSS would have witnessed the power of the people’s resilience in the face of the criminal enterprise that is called the Nigerian political class.
But the protesters lost the opportunity to make history. They allowed the thieving class to come together, irrespective of their partisan inclination, to chase them away from the streets three solid days before the end of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest.