Olu Allen
Power is rarely seized in Nigerian politics. More often, it is surrendered, slowly, reluctantly, through exhaustion.
What is unfolding in Rivers State is not a soap opera of loyalty and betrayal; it is a structural struggle over ownership of power itself.
Strip away the drama and the moral outrage, and what remains is a familiar contest: a godfather who believes the state is his creation, and therefore his inheritance, confronting a governor determined to govern without supervision.
History shows that such colossi are not toppled by confrontation. They are undone by erosion.
Refuse the Enemy’s Battlefield
The godfather’s primary weapon is noise—media salvos, political threats, manufactured crises.
Noise creates urgency. Urgency provokes reaction. Reaction hands over control.
Every public outburst by the governor feeds the narrative the godfather wants: instability, rebellion, emotional weakness. Silence, in contrast, denies oxygen.
Political history is unkind to those who shout the loudest. It remembers those who endured, outlasted, and
remained standing when the noise faded.
Anger may feel cathartic, but it is strategically expensive.
Weaponise Process, Not Defiance
In asymmetric power struggles, impatience is fatal. The governor’s advantage is not force but procedure, law, institutions, and record.
Every court order obeyed, every hostile process respected, every legal slight endured quietly strengthens public perception.
Nigerians may disagree on who is right, but they are quick to identify who appears reckless.
Let threats be issued. Let impeachment be threatened. Let the process grind forward.
Over time, excesses document themselves. Political overreach is most dangerous when preserved in official records.
In Nigerian politics, today’s strongman is often tomorrow’s case file.
Ignore the Throne, Court the Ecosystem
Power does not reside only in one individual. It survives through bankers, elders, contractors, judges, party financiers, and informal brokers of stability.
Publicly confronting the godfather elevates him. Publicly deferring to him neutralises him.
Courtesy, acknowledgement of legacy, and constant calls for peace are not weakness, they are strategic insulation.
When aggression is met with calm, it begins to look irrational.
When domination begins to threaten stability, the ecosystem recalibrates. Power always migrates toward preservation.
Build Quiet Loyalty, Not Loud Support
Public endorsements are unreliable. They are often transactional and temporary.
Enduring loyalty is built quietly: through projects delivered without fanfare, grievances addressed discreetly, and respect shown where it is least expected. Influence works best when it is felt, not announced.
An opponent who cannot trace your alliances wastes energy fighting shadows. In politics, paranoia is a self-inflicted wound.
Govern as Though the War Is Peripheral
Nothing unsettles a political adversary more than being treated as irrelevant.
Govern visibly. Commission infrastructure. Meet technocrats. Be photographed with engineers, not political gladiators. The most effective rebuttal to political warfare is administrative normalcy.
When attacks fail to disrupt governance, they lose potency. Obsession traps the obsessed. Progress creates distance.
Let Time Do the Heavy Lifting
Political empires rarely fall from a single blow. They collapse under accumulated strain.
The more fronts an adversary opens, courts, assemblies, media, the more resources he expends.
The governor’s task is not to accelerate the collapse but to remain intact while it unfolds.
Time rewards restraint. It punishes frenzy.
Final Note
This contest will not be decided by headlines or press statements. It will be resolved quietly, in public perception, institutional memory, and political fatigue.
The godfather may dominate today’s stage. Let him. Stages change.
In politics, those who master the present often lose the future. Those who invest patiently in the future eventually inherit power without drama.
And that, in the end, is the most decisive victory.
Allen writes from Kano. He writes on public affairs and governance.
