Introduction In Nigeria today, it has become painfully evident that education no longer pays. The irony is loud and clear: a person who has laboured through the grueling academic ladder – first degree, Master’s, and PhD – often finds themselves poorer than someone who sweeps office floors in other African countries. Across Africa and beyond, janitors and cleaners are treated with greater financial dignity than Nigerian scholars. This is not to smear the reputation of the janitors, or ridicule the honest cleaners; rather, it is to highlight the shameful undervaluing of academic excellence in Nigeria. When a PhD holder lives in debt, and a cleaner in South Africa, Kenya, or Ghana lives in dignity, something is tragically wrong with our system. It reveals, in the very depth, the misplacement of priorities in the country, and the endemic corruption that continues to perforate the socio-economic fabric of the Nigerian state. Table 1 and 2 below reveal frighteningly the dispar...
The clash between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his erstwhile political godfather, Nyesom Wike, has transcended the realm of mere governance disputes to assume mythological proportions. Like the titanic battles of old, where gods waged war upon gods, this duel has left a trail of ruin in its wake. It is no longer a contest of political ideology but an apocalyptic struggle, a modern re-enactment of the Clash of the Titans—where ambition, vengeance, and power collide, and mere mortals suffer the consequences. The collateral damage extends beyond scorched government buildings and fractured alliances; it has rippled into the very soul of Rivers State.
The Smouldering Ruins of Governance
In
the heat of this epic confrontation, the first casualties have been the very
structures meant to uphold governance. In Ikwerre Local Government Area, the
council secretariat burned as though consumed by the wrath of feuding gods.
Files of administration and governance, the chronicles of the people, turned to
ashes in an inferno that bore no signature but the hand of chaos. (Source)
Meanwhile, the arteries of the State’s economy—the Trans Niger Pipeline—suffered an explosion that mirrored the thunderbolts exchanged in the mythic battles of old. Was it sabotage? Was it a mere accident? In a land where power is seized and held as though a divine right, destruction often follows as a grim repercussion. This single explosion sent tremors beyond Rivers State, shaking an already fragile oil-dependent economy. (Source)
The Political Titans at War
Like
Zeus and Kronos locked in an unrelenting struggle for dominion, Wike and Fubara
remain trapped in a spiral of mutual annihilation. One, a god of the old order,
refusing to cede his dominion; the other, a son risen to power, struggling
against the shadow of his predecessor. The tides of this struggle turned
violent when 27 lawmakers, beholden to Wike, sought to dethrone Fubara, an
impeachment drama that has since crippled legislative harmony. (Source)
In
response, President Bola Tinubu played the role of a modern-day arbitrator of Olympus,
stepping in to impose order over the chaos. He declared a state of emergency in
Rivers, sidelining both combatants and appointing a single ruler to restore
stability. (Read: THE DECLARATION OF EMERGENCY IN RIVERS STATE AND ITS FAR-REACHING IMPLICATIONS.) But does this intervention break the cycle, or does it merely set
the stage for another clash? Another Titan, another throne, another illusion of
control over the ever-raging storm. (Source)
A
Disturbing Conclusion
In the echoes of these battles, one must ask: who truly wins? The people—the silent spectators in this grand performance—are the ones who suffer most. Roads are abandoned, hospitals lack funding, businesses crumble under uncertainty. Like the ancient Greeks who prayed for the warring gods to relent, the people of Rivers State find themselves caught in the storm of a power struggle that knows no end.
Perhaps
the most harrowing lesson from this modern Clash of the Titans is that such
duels never truly resolve. One victor ascends, another contender rises, and the
cycle begins anew. The price of power remains unchanged: destruction, division,
and the eternal torment of the governed.
Rivers State, once a beacon of economic strength, now stands as a battlefield littered with the remnants of its own promise. The Titans have clashed, but it is the land and its people who bear the scars of their war.
OKOM, Emmanuel Njor (PhD)
You may also want to read the following articles for more information: THE RIVERS RECKONING: A BATTLE OF POWER, PRIDE, AND POLITICAL BETRAYAL and THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL UNDERLINING OF THE EMERGENCY DECLARATION IN RIVERS STATE.
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