Date Published: 03/04/10

Smear Campaign Against the Ijaws in Power By Theophilus Ebikebena

In Britain, a Straw Man engaged in a smear campaign once said “If you can't find a sin conservatives have committed to attack, then invent one. This is one of the most used arrows in the quiver of liberals who claim the Right wants to create a theocracy, kick senior citizens off of Social Security, or reward the rich at the expense of the middle class”, Smear tactics are often used to discredit, stain or destroy the reputation of someone. It is unfortunately common-place and is an age-old technique. It can either involve outright lies, or a distortion of the truth.

David Horowitz , the doyen of  Google Smear believes that the American public has a short memory and liberals count on that to get away with many of their most egregious lies. For example, that's the factor liberals count on when they try to pretend that George Bush lied about WMDs to get us into Iraq. Lies of that sort usually seem to work until someone points out that Democrats, including our current Secretary of State, were saying things like this before the war,

When I saw the catchy headline “Revealed: Why Ibori, Sylva and Others Plot Against Jonathanin the Niger Delta Standard of Sunday February 28, 2010, I thought the story was intended to show how Governor Timipre Sylva actually contributed money to fight the Ag. President – a man he respects and regards as a mentor and brother. I painstakingly read through the story, I discovered that the main characters mentioned were Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Turai Yar’Adua. Others mentioned in connection with the alleged plot include the Economic Adviser, Taminu Yakubu, Nduka Obaigbena, Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda and the Minster of Agriculture and Water Resources Abba Ruma.

Again, last week, a national daily (The Sun), carried a front page news about a smear campaign flavoured with Sundry baseless accusations, innuendoes and allegations all in an apparent attempt to undermine the integrity of the acting President. An allusion was made to Governor Sylva, but nowhere is it explicitly stated that Sylva contributed money to fight his brother. There is now an on-going smear campaign by a group from the South-South geo-political zone, to cause disunity among the Ijaws,  by polarizing the people of Bayelsa State – the only homogenous Ijaw State in Nigeria.

When the Ima Niboro the spokesman of Ag. President Jonathan disclosed the plot made by some vested interests to sabotage the Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, he did not clarify the role of Governor Timipre Sylva because Sylva can never ambush any attempt at making his kinsman the Ag. President of Nigeria. As a de-tribalized Ijaw man, I had to call his Press Secretary Mr. Doifie Ola, who disclosed that the rumour was the hand work of politicians who relish in blackmail because of political office. The whole scheme, he said was orchestrated to breed bad blood between the Governor and the Ag. President to divert the attention of the public because a united Ijaw people would not be in their own interest and Governor Timipre Sylva is not one of those ‘Wicked and ungodly people.

The smear campaign is orchestrated on two fronts. The most potent group comprises those who believe that the PDP structures and the governorship of Bayelsa State should not go to Bayelsa East because the Ag. President is also from that constituency. Some of these voracious hate mongers try to use certain disagreements between the two and blow them out of proportion. In doing so, they have just one aim in mind: incite the PDP and Jonathan to bring down Governor Timipre Sylva. Such people had severally and unsuccessfully gunned for the position of Governorship in the State. This group has two problems namely jealousy and the ambition to control the State. Sadly, because Governor Sylva sees Bayelsa State as one family, some of their staunch supporters are placed in key Ministries and parastatals. They have started to poison the minds of such people too in terms of frustrating policy implementation.

The second group, which is less potent but perhaps more lethal in its operations comprises those who comprises people who had served in the Sylva administration and have not performed optimally. These are not necessarily enemies of Sylva but they are scared of been shut out economically and politically. These people are fighting for relevance in the scheme of things. Although they have not exhausted other legitimate avenues to play a pro-active role in Bayelsa State, they believe that spreading wild rumours would be the easiest way to re-position themselves in the political equation of the State. This group is sustained by some members of the National Assembly as well as those who lost out in the power game in 2007. I have not authenticated the fact, but I am told one of such disgruntled non-performing functionaries just resigned from the Sylva administration.

 Indeed, if there was any iota of misunderstanding between the two, such hiatus have been bridged especially with the direct mediation of Ijaw elders like Chief E.K. Clarke, Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas, the Ijaw National Congress (INC) leadership and other opinion leaders have resolved them long ago. It does appear that the propaganda of the mischief makers is working. A segment of the populace has already swallowed the toxic rumours and innuendoes peddled by the workers of iniquity who are desirous of setting brothers apart. In politics, as in other areas of life, even a father and son may disagree on certain issues, and such disagreements have never been allowed to snowball into pulling each other down. This certainly is not the character of the Ijaw people.

As leaders, I expect the two leaders to understand the political machinations of the people. What should be uppermost in their minds is that it is only when brothers work together that they can influence a huge range of issues in favour of their people. I make bold to quote what Idumange said in an article a couple of days ago He said “ Governor Sylva would not derive any political or economic benefit by fighting against the Ag. President. Governor Sylva does not have a history of political betrayal throughout his career from when he was a Law maker in old Rivers State, Special Adviser to Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha till he became Executive Governor of Bayelsa State”. Leadership is not a cake-walk and discerning, visionary leaders should be able to look beyond the ideological wavelength of the followers.

I also expect  Ijaw leaders to impress it upon the Ag. President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Timipre Sylva  to maintain the cordial relationship existing between them. The two leaders should not allow take any actions based on reports from the grapevine because even leaders of the most powerful countries are misled by this class of self-seeking propagandists, whose stock in trade is to sow discord and create imaginary factions among their people to keep them perpetually disunited.  The Ijaw race has particularly suffered that fate. During the administration of DSP Alamieyeseigha, an Ijaw son in a powerful Federal parastatals mounted a similar campaign against him. The campaign  went beyond the accepted level of constructive criticisms to a bizarre magnitude of crude mudslinging and character assassination. While it was widely acknowledged that the administration did not achieve much compared to the huge resources  
that accrued to the State, but it was his kinsmen that demonized him and handed him over to the hangmen.

When Dr Goodluck Jonathan was Governor of Bayelsa State, a similar campaign of calumny was launched against him. Not only did they attack his policies; they went to the bizarre extent of attacking his country home to violate the sanctity of the peace of his kinsmen. These same people are now pretending to be the Ag. Presidents’ loyalists. What is heart warming is that Dr. Jonathan is not a man given to sycophancy, and he knows who his true loyalists are without the benefit of newspaper advertorials, courtesy visits, congratulatory messages and elaborate parties. The tirade of smear campaign did no abate when he was tipped as a running mate with Yar’Adua. In fact, most of those who wrote petitions against him were Ijaws from Bayelsa State. Most of those who mounted intense smear campaign against the Ag. President are now his “loyalists”, spokesmen and apologists, most of his core supporters have been relegated to the background. Politics, Isn’t it? . Is that what politics is supposed to mean? Certainly not.

Is that the reason most people hew the battlements of life from compromise, erecting their impregnable keeps from judicious submissions, fabricating their philosophical drawbacks from emotional retractions and scalding marauders in the boiling oil of sour grapes, I asked. Is it possible for Governor Sylva to plot against his master when the two have had robust cordial relationship? Again, what would be the political capital would Timipre Sylva garner if he fights against a man whose elevation created space for his ascendancy? Further, what would an Ijaw man  like Governor Sylva gain by stopping another Ijaw man like his mentor Dr. Goodluck Jonathan at the centre, when the Ijaws have been crying about marginalization, oppression and criminal neglect?

It is all too obvious that the purported role of Governor Sylva in the plot to stop Dr. Goodluck Jonathan from becoming Ag. President is a smear campaign which started like a rumour but gradually magnified through disparaging disinformation to cause a rift between the two leaders. They should know that it is only in cooperation and unity that the Ijaw nation can boldly confront the developmental challenges facing us as a people. We  must not repeat the mistakes of the past, in which we were instigated kinsmen, pulled down our leaders and denigrated them with impunity because of political power.

All the charges against Sylva plotting against Jonathan  have been made with one purpose in mind - to place the office of the Governor  on the defensive, distract attention and make  the Government of Bayelsa State waste valuable time and resources answering allegations that have no basis. Perhaps the second purpose is to tempt the loyalists of Governor Sylva in engaging the mischief makers in a media war. Pleasantly, Governor Sylva understands the intent of these political jobbers and has decided to engage in peace and confidence building in the State.

Consensus building or collaborative problem solving in which all segments of society would participate  in building the institutional mechanisms that would sustain peace and progress in Bayelsa State. Consensus-building processes also allow a variety of people to have input into decision-making processes, rather than leaving controversial decisions up to government representatives and politicians alone.

Things are moving fast in Nigeria and new political alignments are being made, and it would be counter-productive for Bayelsan and indeed the Ijaw ethnic group to be bogged down by power tussle on the domestic front. The Ijaws should form a formidable alliance with other formidable groups to forge a stronger political bloc to protect their interest at home and in Diaspora. Given the huge contributions of the Niger Delta to the economic well being of the Nigerian State, the Ijaw nation cannot afford the to be disunited because nature has entrusted in her a constructive, historic role to  play in Nigeria’s nascent democracy. The Ijaws have to reappraise how far they have travelled from the Willink Commission to the Niger Delta Development Commission and from the Ministry of the Niger Delta to the Amnesty programme, and emphasize only those issues that would positively affect the collective consciousness of the people.

The advisers of Ag. President Jonathan should also manage certain sensitive information capable of causing mistrust among the Ijaws. Information not properly managed may degenerate to disharmony  confusion, which are injurious to good governance. If something looks like a conspiracy, sounds like a conspiracy, acts like a conspiracy, feels like a conspiracy, and smells rotten like a conspiracy, it probably is a conspiracy."  The most secret knowledge, a science which outdates history, is the science of control over people, governments and civilizations. The foundation of this ultimate discipline is the control of power and wealth. The control of power requires accurate information, and this can better be guaranteed through the control of news media.

Irrespective of the centrifugal forces that tend to divide the people the Ijaws have learnt their lessons on using traditional mechanisms to resolve their conflicts. The Ijaw ethnic nationality is now insulated from political disunity. It is against this background that the people have decided to reconcile their differences and to protect what they perceive to be their interest.  The interest of the Ijaws is to forge stronger ties between the Ag. President and Governor Timipre Sylva. Now that Jonathan is Acting President, the hope of the Ijaws has been rekindled. The Ijaws have a responsibility to demonstrate to the world that they can provide genuine leadership for Nigeria. And this is the wish of all Ijaws at home and in Diaspora for their sons and daughters in positions of authority. For the sake of posterity, let Ijaw leaders UNITE.