Governor Nyesom Wike has been accused of playing ‘bolekaja (uncultured) politics’ concerning the State pardon granted by President Muhammadu Buhari to a former Governor of Plateau, Joshua Dariye, and his Taraba State counterpart, Jolly Nyame.
Recall that Nyame and Dariye, who were serving 12 and 10 years’ jail terms respectively, were granted pardon alongside 157 others at a Council of State meeting last week.
Wike, speaking in Minna on Saturday, criticiced the state pardon, saying the president made a mockery of the judiciary and the nation at large before the international community, adding that the State pardon was strategically done towards the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
However, reacting, President Buhari’s Senior Media Assistant, Garba Shehu, advised the Rivers State Governor to stop playing ‘bolekaja politics’ which is a Yoruba term that means ‘come down, let’s fight’, and derives from the mass transit system commonly found in Lagos.
Shehu wrote in a Facebook post: “I do not see the moral justification for Governor Wike’s criticism of the decision of the government to pardon Governors Dariye and Nyame at a meeting to which he was duly invited but did not attend.
“The Rivers State Deputy Governor, Dr. Ipalibo Banigo who joined the Council of State meeting virtually switched off her camera so it was difficult to determine whether she sat behind the dark screen or just walked away after first joining.
“If the governor felt so strongly about the pardons, the right way was for him or his representative to sit through the meeting and assert views. This did not do. Issuing a press release after the meeting is ‘bolekaja‘ politics”.
