WIKE AND THE ABUSE OF POWER

WIKE AND THE ABUSE OF POWER

For the sake of some of us who have not heard about Idi Amin, I will brief us who he was. Idi Amin Dada Oumee was a Ugandan military officer who served as the President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. During his reign as the President of Uganda, he was ruthless, merciless, in fact, he was deemed to be one of the cruellest presidents in the world history. He ruled Uganda as if he owned the next seconds of his life. His rule entertained political repression, rampant human rights abuses, ethnic persecution, corruption, nepotism, gross economic mismanagement, etc.

Idi Amin carried out tons of legal decisions on his own. He barely took his offenders to the Uganda courts. No matter how big or modicum the offense was, he had a stool of judgement within his compound. He was the Judge to almost all the cases that had to do with him. He judged his offenders as his mood dictated. And afflicted the people who condemned his inhuman dispositions. Some International observers and human rights group estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed while he was the President of Uganda. No doubt, his inhuman idiosyncrasy was the reason why he fled to exile.

The Rivers State Governor, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, with his demolition of hotels and auctioning of vehicles for flouting his lockdown order is a pointer that he has some idiosyncrasy of Idi Amin in him. Aside the demolished hotels and auctioned vehicles, he had approached some social issues awkwardly in recent past. Is it how he insulted a traditional ruler? Or how he arrested Caverton helicopter pilots? I think it high time he’s told that we are not in the military era. And that his Idi Amin style can’t work in a democratic environ.

We’ve seen how people who flouted the lockdown order in others states were dealt with. The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, sealed a mosque for flouting his lockdown order. Some states governments temporarily seized vehicles that flouted the lockdown order. These are men that work in a democratic system. The demolition of hotels and the auctioning of vehicles by Wike is not only inhuman but an abuse of power and overstepping of constitutional bounds.

Gov. Wike should at this point note that power is transient and that it is only the uncreated creator of the universe who has the ingredients to rule forever. May I ask Wike where the yesteryear leaders are? If they could leave the seats of power for people like Wike, why won’t he leave the stool of power someday?

Aremu Lukman Umor, aremulukmanumor@gmail.com

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