CORONAVIRUS: DEMOLITION OF HOTELS, GOVERNOR WIKE WENT TOO FAR.

"The problem with assessing political candidates is that you never really know what they are like until they get hold of power and by then it is already too late. The decent ones wield power with restraint and humility. They understand the limits of their own wisdom, human wisdom. They also understand the inevitability of unintended consequences which are the rule. They know that they will not be in charge forever so they thread lightly. But the bad ones, they go crazy and the more power they get the crazier they go. Power is the drug they have been searching for. It is why they went into politics in the first place, not to help you or their fellow citizens or to improve the society, but to fill the empty space inside themselves. These are profoundly damaged people." - Carlson Tucker, FoxNews. 

With those words, FoxNews Tucker Carlson succinctly captured Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State Nigeria, the absurdity of his manner of governance, particularly his recent demolition of some hotels in the State which he governs simply because their operators were in violation of his coronavirus inspired shelter in place order. ICHEOKU says this is brazen as there is no justification whatsoever for demolishing peoples business premises based on such a flimsy excuse that they did not obey his executive order on coronavirus quarantine. Such an extreme measure was unnecessary as there were other more rational and reasonable alternative measures, which the governor could have applied to achieve the same purpose of punishing and deterring those who were not compliant to his shelter in place order. 

The Governor could have fined them, sealed off the hotel premises until further notice, suspended or even revoked their operating business licenses and permits; or totally ban them from ever engaging in hotel business in Rivers State. Any of these penalties would have sufficiently punished those violators, short of demolishing their business premises. But for the governor to take bulldozers to the hotels which are helping to ameliorate the acute unemployment crisis in Nigeria, particularly in his Rivers State, through job creation, was rather an unmitigated disaster gone too far. Did the governor even think through his action before levying its execution? Did he think about the workers employed by the hotels, regardless of their number, who earned their living working there but who now have no jobs to return to when his shutdown is eventually lifted. These people will now rejoin the burgeoning unemployed population and with it, their dependents, who they hitherto supported could become destitute. 

Governor Wike is a fella who ICHEOKU has no admiration for, principally because of the manner and style of his governance. He is supposedly a lawyer but doesn't behave like someone who understands how law works. He has no regard to the rule of law otherwise he would have taken those breakers of his order to court and let the judge determine their guilt and then mete out necessary punishment to them accordingly. He has no regard to basic principles of civility and the time honored tenet of due process. In the matter under discussion, he was the legislature, the judge and the executioner and you ask yourself is there any other better way to describe a despot? His behavior is not civilized; he lacks decorum and decency; he is thuggish and roguish; he is braggadocios; he is boastful; he is arrogant; he has neither empathy nor sympathy; he is dictatorial and brutish; and he is somewhat ruthlessly very mean. He possibly have killed people and looks like someone who is tormented by some inner demons. 

What if those people who were found on the hotel premises were on extended stay or are permanent residents therein? What if those people were observing their shelter in place in the hotels? What if the operators were using the opportunity of the lockdown to carry out some needed maintenance and general repairs or do some renovations? What if they were relatives of the operator and staying therein on the premises. In fact, it does not and should not even matter what they were doing on the premises, all ICHEOKU is saying is that the punishment does not fit the crime. It was rather too draconic and drastic to demolish the hotels because of an alleged crime of violating a no movement order imposed by the governor on the State as a result of coronavirus and therefore repugnant. Why demolish hotels, business investments which created jobs and were bringing revenue to the State from taxes, liquor licenses and business permit fees just because of violation of no movement order? 

In short, there is nothing to understand here as the rational for the demolitions, irrespective of the shelter in place order which was violated. Why scare away future investors that their investments in the State are not safe and could be so cavalierly destroyed. Such a despotic quick to action is why investment in Nigeria is always a risky proposition or did Governor Wike not factor in that those hotels could be some people's lifetime savings and only investment income. El Rufai carried out similar demolitions when he was Minister of the FCT and now Nyesom Wike is repeating same as Governor of Rivers State. What got the better part of him or was it just a power tripping display, the original power show as Fela Anikulapo Kuti would call it. Why did the governor not think through the ramifications before he sent in those bulldozers? Education make people to weigh things before they act on them or was his own education so useless that it precludes common sensical logical deductions. 

ICHEOKU says it was a thoughtless action which the governor put in place to demonstrate that he is the lord and manor of and in Rivers State. But like other fellow reprehensible and revulsive governors before him throughout Nigeria, Governor Nyesom Wike too shall one day cease to be a governor and he will see how quickly he will morph into irrelevance. The same Rivers State's former Governor Rotimi Amaechi was once as despotic to the extent that he shutdown the courts in Rivers State for nearly one year without a care in the world about lawyers who earn their living through the courts and the thousands of litigants who had cases and controversies to adjudicate. But he did it anyway because he can and had the power to do whatever he liked, but today even visiting Rivers State is not an easy task for Rotimi Amaechi as he has since become a persona non grata there. 

Unfortunately, it appears that Governor Wike did not learn any lesson from Rotimi Amaechi's fate. He was supposedly democratically elected, but he does not behave like a democrat nor cares enough about the people to be compassionate. There are so many other lawless misbehaviors associated with this fella in the past, but the demolition of these hotels just because some people there violated his order to quarantine is the height of his arbitrariness. It is incomprehensible, to is reprehensible, it is heartless, it is inexcusable and it is as wicked as sin. What manner of a man behaves in this way. Even if he was on drugs or was totally inebriated, why would he allow himself to be completely so overwhelmed beyond rationality to succumb to the temptation of demolishing the hotels based on a violation so trifle that fine would have sufficiently atoned for it. 

It is sad and it is pitiful. Were Nigeria a rule of law abiding society, the owners of the hotels would have the courts restore them to their status quo ante through award of punitive damages against Rivers State government and Governor Nyesom Wike. Even Michigan State Governor Gretchen Whitmer, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam were not this horrible, admitted they equally went too far in enforcing their respective States' shelter in place orders. Governor Nyesom Wike was one of those people who accused President Muhammadu Buhari of being a dictator  and not acting like a democratic president and you wonder what separates him from Buhari or any other jackboot dictator. If he could demolish people's business premises on a whim and without according them due process rights just because they violated an order to shelter in place, imagine what he would do were he the president and commander in chief of the armed forces. 

So what if they broke his order, where was his notice of the violation to them? Where was his cease and desist order to them? Where was his fine and where was his order sealing off the premises until further notice or even an order of revocation of operating licenses and business permits. Why didn't he even arrest them and detain them until they sign an undertaking not to operate the hotels again until the shutdown is lifted. What was he trying to prove by taking bulldozers to the hotels which provide revenue and employment to the State. The punishment does not suit the crime. It was unreasonably too harsh and excessively punitive. ICHEOKU says will not accept any explanation in justification because none made sense nor will ever make sense. Simply put, Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike was wrong in demolishing the hotels and should immediately apologize for his misdeed and pay compensation to the owners and operators of the hotels for the wrong done to them.