The Power Struggle: A State in Turmoil

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Gang way, gang way!"

The echoes of military voices filled the streets as the personnel marched forward , accompanied with the rumble of trucks and armored tanks heading towards the government house.

Everyone was confused, What has happened?? Is the beginning of world war three?? No one could give an answer.

Moments later, we started seeing a nationwide broadcast by the president that he’d declared a state of emergency in the state and the governor, his deputy and the house of assembly members has been unconstitutional and unceremoniously removed from their sit of office without the approval of the National Assembly.

How It All Began

2 years ago, When the former governor was about leaving office after ruling for two terms, rumors swirled in that he was handpicking his successor to still have control of the state. He allegedly bought forms for all his loyal candidates, starting from the governor, assembly members, local government chairmen and councilors. In order to have influence over them.

For his successor, it was only fair he picked someone from the riverine community since the uplands had ruled for 24 years. Several influential politicians tried to lobby the governor to be his successor but he refused to give them the ticket, he chose an accountant who is a civil servant and has no clue about politics.

Well, none of the candidates were the voters choice but as always, our votes don’t count, so they were all imposed on us.

The Conflict Begins

six months into his tenure, issues started arising. The governor couldn’t do a thing on his own without his Godfather giving a go ahead. Among all the 31 assembly members, only the 4 members he selected were loyal to him but he took his chances with those guys and defied the orders of his godfather exposing deep-seated corruption, including the true internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state. Questions started rising, what did the former governor do with 3/4 of the state revenue since he gave a fake figure for 8 years.

Lawsuits flew back and forth between the two camps. The president intervened, summoning both men to his villa to broker peace between the two of them. The governor agreed to drop his lawsuits but the terms of reconciliation favored the godfather alone and he refused to accept it. That was when the battle lines were drawn.

The Governor Strikes Back

With no intention of remaining a puppet, the governor took drastic measures. Despite knowing his actions were legally questionable, he presented the state budget to only the four lawmakers loyal to him.

Now that he had gained full control of the state, he did what no governor before him had done and I guess it was because he was once a civil servant and he knows the plight of the people better than anyone.

He started by increasing the salary and promotion of every civil servant worker in the states. This was something his predecessor never did during his 8 years tenure while in office. With the state money under his control now, he cleared a lot of backlog of gratuities of retired civil servants and is the first governor in the state to pay 13 month salary every December.

The people, who once dismissed him as a mere stooge to his godfather, embraced him. Despite the chaos, he was still building and commissioning projects, winning public admiration. He also appointed his own commissioners, replacing those handpicked by his godfather.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The governor realizing he couldn’t win the battle alone, he sought alliances with his godfather’s political enemies relying on them for strategic counsel to survive the political war coming.

The battle for supremacy

Meanwhile, his godfather along with his cabals loyal to him were plotting day and night on how they will remove this young man who they believed have betrayed from the seat. The majority of the assembly members defected to another party and attempted to impeach him.

But fate intervened. On the very day of their impeachment vote, the assembly complex was mysteriously set ablaze. Fingers were pointing to only one person but there was no evidence. The governor, Seizing the opportunity, decided to bulldoze the entire building.

When the fight became more intense, the governor declared the seats of the assembly members vacant citing party laws that mandate such action. He withheld their salaries, crippling their influence.

The assembly members, scared that they have made a big error, tried to return back to their former party by denying that the videos and pictures we saw them holding their new party flags were all fake. But the governor refused to recognize them.

To further cripple the political structure of the godfather in the state, he conducted a new election to replace the local government chairman and councilors the godfather had put in power as soon as their tenure ended even when the court tried to stop him with their malicious judgment. It was a fierce battle that day. It took the citizens of the state to chase them away for the new ones to occupy. Some of the secretariat was lit by fire and accusing fingers was pointed to the old ones who was forcefully sent out offices.

The final showdown

When we all thought the governor was gaining ground and the worse was now behind him, the godfather activate “plan B.” Since he has loosed his grip on the state, he had the president’s ear—a man with vested interests in the state’s rich oil reserves.

With alleged manipulation of the Supreme Court, the legal tide turned. In a shocking ruling, the court recognized the defected lawmakers as legitimate and ordered the governor to submit the budget to them and also ordered him to dissolve the new chairmen and councillors.

The governor had no choice than to carry out the orders of the supreme courts but the assembly members wanted more. They demanded the reinstatement of the expired local government officials loyal to their godfather but the governor ignored them. Instead, he fixed a new date for when the election will be held, while some heads of civil servants take charge temporarily.

The assembly members also gave the governor two days to submit the proposed budget but the governor couldn’t meet up with the deadline and when he was ready to submit the budget, he sent them a letter informing them of the day he was coming to submit it. The governor arrived there with his entourage to their quarters and was locked outside the premises.

Meanwhile, a certain group from the governor’s ethnicity has been threatening fire and brimstone because there were rumors that the assembly members were planning to impeach the governor again few days after they were called back to office.

The governor tried again for the second time to reach out to the assembly members, so that they can talk about the budget proposal, how to pay them all their salaries and also to build back their assembly complex that was destroyed at a later date but the assembly members were not ready to listen. Civil societies and groups were trying to call the president attention to get involved in this situation before it escalates but he gave it a deaf ears.

The godfather escalated tensions, making inflammatory remarks aimed at inciting violence. But the governor’s people did not take the bait. Since that didn’t work, the assembly members went ahead with the impeachment process, hoping this time it will trigger unrest in the region.

Few days after the impeachment process started, we saw two pipelines been destroyed in the state. All fingers were pointing towards the riverine ethnic group because they were the only ones who publicly threatened to destroy it but few fingers was also pointing towards his godfather who stand to benefit when there’s chaos in the state.

Their plans worked.

The End of the Governor’s Reign

Despite ongoing crises in other states where violence and killings were rampant, the president chose this state to declare a state of emergency that had only two incidents of pipeline explosions that was fixed the next day and now working effectively.

Citing the constitution of the country, a president doesn’t have any right to remove an elected governor even when he declares a state of emergency. Yet, he did it anyway.

The godfather's camp erupted in celebration because the new military governor in charge of the state is a friend of their boss.

The state was now under military rule, and for the people, it was a bitter lesson—democracy was just an illusion.

The end.

I will love to invite @bossj23, @goodybest and @josepha