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“I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.” —Martin Luther King
By Cosmas Omegoh
Governance may be becoming a nightmare for Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara. And that is his biggest challenge at the moment.
Fubara sits on edge at Rivers State Brick House, hamstrung at every turn. He feels helmed in by forces eager to take wind off his sail. Thus, he is not having the full latitude to carry out the duties for which he was elected.
On that note, those who believe that Fubara currently loses sleep are not mistaken. To them, his life in government is one week, one trouble.
Not long after he took his oath of office on May 29, 2023, things began to fall apart. And since then, his lines have not ceased to fall in the wrong places, with things seemingly getting worse as he inches towards marking one turbulence year in office.
Some people in some quarters hold that Fubara is the architect of his current problems. That he needlessly invited trouble to himself when he stirred the wasps’ nest. And now the vicious insects are stinging him with fury.
Over the past months, everyone will recall, Fubara has sustained a running battle with his political godfather and predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who railroaded him to power.
Some analysts think that the crux of the matter was Wike’s earlier resolve to maintain a stranglehold on the office he recently vacated months ago through a proxy – Fubara.
By bringing Fubara, he believed he could act the role scripted for him to the letter. But things turned south, and Fubara is rebelling against the decision – doing so too early in the day, many said. And ever since the formidable Wike factor has been unchained against Fubara. A war of attrition is being waged to chase away the rebel and regain the lost crown.
Last Wednesday, the Fubara government witnessed yet another characteristic blow, considered another Wike joker to continue to make Fubara edgy.
In quick successions, two of Wike’s henchmen in the Fubara cabinet announced their decision to resign, thus bringing the number of commissioners who had left in recent times to four.
Earlier, for instance, Fubara’s Commissioner for Work, George Kelly, and Commissioner for Power, Henry Ogiri, both Wike’s allies, had left to take up appointment at the federal level.
However, some persons close to Fubura are unfazed about the latest wave of resignations. Rather, they are applauding the development as a blessing in disguise, describing it as gradual riddance of Wike’s henchmen who currently populate the Fubara administration as moles.
That was the feeling when the duo of Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor, and Commissioner for Finance, Hon. Isaac Kamalu handed in their resignation letters. They signaled that henceforth, they didn’t want to be part of the government they earlier swore to serve.
The exit of the duo was triggered by Fubara’s decision to reassign them to seemingly inconsequential portfolios, ostensibly to keep them at arm’s length. That thus set the stage for them to either quit or remain quiet.
Whereas Adangor was redeployed to the Ministry of Special Duties, Kamalu was reassigned to the Ministry of Employment Generation.
Those close to Fubara lauded the move as a tactical one by the governor to cleanse the Augean stable.
But a moving statement inked by Kamalu stoutly suggests that he probably left because he was no longer at ease with the needless fight going on in the state.
Kamalu with peace in his heart said: “I have reiterated on the need for this peace and the fact (that) we all are willing and determined to work for this.
“It is very difficult to deliver good governance where there is acrimony and discord. It is not the point of service that is important, but the climate.
“Our present circumstance makes service delivery extremely challenging. I still hold the belief that it is never too late for peace.
“In view of the above, I find it difficult to accept the redeployment. I do not accept it. I reject it and convey to you my immediate resignation as Commissioner and Member of the Rivers State Executive Council with effect from the date of this letter.”
Also waxing spiritual he noted: “While praying that the good Lord grants us peace, I thank you for the opportunity and assure you the assurances of my esteemed
regards.”
Indeed, Kamalu’s peace wish in Rivers State resonates. That, indeed, is every-man-of goodwill’s desire for the state and nothing less. Nothing can be achieved in an atmosphere of rancour. That is the message Kamalu succinctly put across to his belligerent leaders.
However, it is the belief of the Fubara camp that the governor hit the bull’s eye in his power play with Minister Wike.
The camp members also believe that the redeployment and subsequent exit of Adangnor and Kamalu were part of Fubara’s joker to whittle down Wike’s overbearing influence in his government and further slow down his aggression at pulling the rug off his feet.
Meanwhile, pundits will have to resolve the puzzle around the latest resignations of the two commissioners. They have been left to unravel the real reason both Adangor and Kamalu left. Could that be out of genuine concern that the Wike-Fubara feud is taking a huge toll on Rivers State? And now they have to put the interest of the state first by leaving the Fubara cabinet with their integrity as straight as an arrow? Or could they have left to rejoin Wike their principal to re-launch fresh bid for soul of the beleaguered Rivers State? Indeed, the long days ahead will tell and reveal both men’s latest stand on the Rivers’ impasse.
In the meantime, most people in Rivers State and elsewhere now find themselves either drawn into Wike or Fubara camps, depending on the lens or scale with which they see or weigh the issues before them.
Nevertheless, there is no one forgetting that Fubara, 49, born in the creeks of Opobo Town, was foisted on Rivers people by Wike.
The Minister of Federal Capital (FCT) had the final say in the Rivers State governorship election held on March 18, 2023 which Fubara is a beneficiary. Wike it is believed, single handedly brought and sold Fubara – both of them hands in gloves – to the people as the right man for the job. Now, what went wrong so soon remains everybody’s guess.
But certainly, the very day Wike and Fubara will tell their stories of what went wrong between them, the watching world will surely convulse. For now, everything about that remains a conjecture.
But until the Wike-Fubara judgment day comes, the reality now is that Rivers State is suffering gravely and grievously in the hands of both men. As it is said in the local parlance, “when the elephants fight, the grass suffers.”
Each passing day Wike squares off with his godson, Fubara, the peace of Rivers State is threatened.
Sadly, the Rivers State House of Assembly with the said backing of Wike has found itself drawn sucked into the feud. Each day, they are up against the governor, and undermining his office, and thus portraying him as unfit to govern. Some other state actors are also doing the same, despite the peace accord entered into by Fubara and Wike and the decision of Rivers’ elders to bring peace to the state.
Sadly still, Governor Fubara is spending a good chunk of his time fighting for survival, fighting to assert himself while the storm rages. Head or tail, Rivers State loses. And so the questions now are: for how long will this intolerable power play continue? How much of this crossfire should be considered enough before Rivers State comes to ruin? Are the answers blowing in the wind?
