By
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja.
Your Excellency, Sir (Dr.) Siminialayi Fubara GSSRS Sir,
In my write-ups, there is a reason why I keep making repeated references to historical events (more than even references to legal concepts) to drive home some points.
The DNA of humans especially those who are leaders or rulers are the same and have not changed from the days of time immemorial.
There is a part of the DNA of humans especially leaders (rulers), majority of Nigerians that hold political power that makes them to value holding on to political power rather than being morally upright!!!
Therefore, any good student of history stands a better chance to survive and weather the storms that life throws at him or her, if he or she can understand this nexus or connection between morally upright leaders and good governance. Conversely, morally bankrupt leaders or rulers produce bad or poor governance.
In this my write-up, I will make reference to two historical events to drive home the point that you should not raise your hopes regarding any peace accord offered by both President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) and His Excellency, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike (NEW).
The first historical reference is to the Emperor of the Roman Empire named Marcus Aurelius.
As can be seen in his dialogue in the movie, Gladiator (2000), Marcus Aurelius makes the point that a good leader is a person who is a morally upright person.
Instead of handing over leadership and rulership of the Roman Empire to his biological son, he refuses to hand over power to his son, on the basis that his son, Commodus is not a morally upright person. Instead, he gives orders on his deathbed that his power and leadership of the Roman Empire should pass to the general Maximus, who is to rule and then hand over the power to the Senate of Roman so that the Roman Empire should become a democratic republic again
Moments before his death, he called his most trusted Roman general and said the following words:
"Commodus is not a moral man,” the emperor replies. “Commodus cannot rule. He MUST not rule.”
As evidence that a leader or ruler that is not morally upright can inflict hardship upon the citizens, when the said son Commodus seized power and ruled Roman by killing his father, the Roman Empire suffered series of setbacks
Another historical event that illustrates the folly of putting your trust in any morally bankrupt leader or ruler is how the rulers and leaders of the colonial British Empire treated King Jaja of Opobo.
Historical records abound of how it was the military support of King Jaja of Opobo in the year 1871 that proved to help the colonial British Empire to conquer the Kingdom of Ashanti in modern day Ghana.
Before the battle of 1871, the Kingdom of Ashanti had proved to be a difficult nut to crack for the colonial British Empire who had purchased it from the Dutch.
For his valour and support, the then Queen of England, gifted a sword of honour to King Jaja of Opobo. That sword was looted from the palace of King Jaja of Opobo by soliders of the Nigerian Army during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970.
The point is that even after King Jaja helped them to conquer the Kingdom of Ashanti, the same colonial British Empire conspired and exiled King Jaja of Opobo in the year 1887, just six years after he helped them.
The lesson is that when dealing with any morally bankrupt leader or ruler whose sole preoccupation is acquisition and RETENTION of more power and territory, anyone or anything can be sacrificed, even a formerly loyal ally who had made sacrifices!!!
To conclude, let me reiterate that both PBAT and His Excellency Nyesom Ezenwo Wike (NEW) are not morally upright leaders or rulers.
To both of them what matters the most is how to hold on to power by any means necessary even if it means sacrificing Governor Fubara and the entire Rivers State!!!
The reason is because the peace and welfare of Rivers State is not of paramount importance to both men, their most important priority is how to retain hold on political power and STRUCTURE of Rivers State from now until 2027.
This paramount goal of theirs is the most important goal, even if achieving this goal requires the death of the career of Governor Fubara and every other indigene of Rivers State!!!
Their goal is so important to them that they are prepared to invent DISINGENUOUS methods to bend any law of the land including the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. This is what they demonstrated when they proclaimed a State of Emergency in Rivers State based on a phantom
Their paramount goal is so important to them that they are ready to cook up ways to circumvent the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
For example, the 28th February 2025 at page 47 judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria stated as follows:
"In a constitutional democracy the foundation of every act must be located in the Constitution as the grundnorm. Autocracy is out of place in a constitutional democracy".
However, this part of the judgment is not as important to both PBAT and NEW as the part that stated that the 27 law-makers of the Rivers State House of Assembly had not defected from the People's Democratic Party'(PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Be guided!!!
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
2nd July 2025.
+2349056760119
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