LAST Saturday, the Ebonyi State governor, Mr. Dave Umahi, gave an order that must be disturbing to right-thinking Nigerians. While narrating how his convoy was blocked the previous night by mourners at a wake in the state, the governor declared that henceforth, anyone who dared to block his convoy would be shot on sight. The governor’s convoy was reportedly blocked on the Onicha Road in Onicha Local Government Area of the state on his way back to the state capital from his Uburu, Ohaozara hometown on Friday night. And while receiving some guests at the State Executive Chambers in Abakaliki on Saturday, the governor expressed fury over the incident, saying that it was a criminal breach of the law. His words: “I say, all of them will go to prison. So, they have to identify them, bring them here and we will prosecute them to show an example. Next time, the ADC should order for a shoot. It is very illegal to block the governor. And if anybody is killed in the course of that, it is allowed in the law. And it is not me that is the problem, it is the common man, nobody should be oppressed.”
Next, the governor announced a ban on wake extending beyond 10 p.m. in the state. “Henceforth, no wake should go past 10 p.m. If you must pass 10 p.m, take written permission from the chairman of the local government, and both the chairman and the person that requested will be held responsible if any problem occurs. This should be widely circulated and properly announced. My problem is not that they blocked the governor, but my worry is this: supposing that it was a smaller person that was passing, who had no army and police, they would have robbed the person.”
To be sure, Governor Umahi, like every citizen of Ebonyi State, is entitled to free movement, and has a right to protest if his movement was circumscribed in any form. What he is not entitled to are reckless pronouncements that could fuel the trigger-happy posture of the country’s security operatives, particularly those attached to top public officials. From all indications, Governor Umahi spoke in anger, but that still cannot justify the wider ramifications of his quite unguarded statements. If you give a blanket order to your security aides to shoot at anyone who blocks your convoy, how can you predict the number of persons that would actually die in such circumstances? Over the years, many innocent citizens have lost their lives as security aides attached to politicians gunned them down in cold blood. It is shocking that a public officer of Governor Umahi’s standing did not take this reality into account before issuing his provocative order.
To the best of our knowledge, Nigeria currently practises the democratic system of government which precludes state chief executives from operating as military emperors riding roughshod over a traumatised populace. Nigerian politicians must learn that being in office does not confer on them royalty. In any case, determining what is the law or not goes beyond pronouncements by politicians: the courts remain the proper setting for the determination of such questions. In any case, if a citizen of Ebonyi is falsely accused of ‘blocking’ Governor Umahi’s convoy and executed on the spot, how would such citizens have benefited from the law about which the governor waxed so lyrical? Which law permits a Nigerian governor to decree instant death to those ‘blocking’ his convoy? It sounds utterly ridiculous that the governor even hinged his order on the fact that “nobody should be oppressed.”
Going by his own account, the governor did not actually face any protest but only had his convoy delayed by a crowd of mourners. To all intents and purposes, Governor Umahi’s averment, namely that “supposing that it was a smaller person that was passing, who had no army and police, they would have robbed the person,” is a mere afterthought. It is clear that like many of the country’s politicians, he has a superiority complex and considers the people he presides over quite beneath him. This is not a helpful attitude. We reject Governor Umahi’s order and call on him to rescind it forthwith.