DENNIS ESSANG in Port Harcourt writes about Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s failed attempt to make new friends with a view to dismantling the structures put in place by his predecessor and godfather Nyesom Wike
Barely one hundred and fifty-four days he took the oath of office as governor of Rivers state, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has come face to face with what could be regarded as the litmus test of stewardship as the State House of Assembly opened an impeachment proceedings against him, Monday, 30th October.
Nothing remarkable
Ahead of the imbroglio that ensued, nothing betrayed the spectacle that unfolded in the state capital, Port Harcourt, given that Fubara’s one
hundred days in office was ordinary.
Perhaps, in the history of Rivers state, the regime of Siminalayi Fubara, recent as it may be, is considered the most lackluster of all governors elected into office since 1999 with the annulment of government of Sir, Celestine Omega coming close at heel.
With regards to Fubara and Omehia, both were unprepared for office and so, did not have a roadmap to navigate the murky waters of Rivers state politics.
Both were invited to be governor, one by Dr. Peter Odili and the other by Chief Nyesom Wike. Both men acted as godfathers to the two gadflies of Rivers politics. In terms of god-fatherism, Odili and Wike differed in operationalisation.
Wike as a non-sleeping godfather
Odili is a godfather who sleeps after the job is done. Wike is a godfather who never sleeps. He keeps taps on everything that happens in his domain and holds accountable any for perceived malfeasance and if the opened tirades
from acolytes are to be believed, extracted fear as retribution.
In what Odili lacks, Wike propped himself as the kingmaker in Rivers state having successfully demonstrated the feat twice with the installation of
the regime of Chibuike Amaechi 2007-2015 and Sir Fubara 2023 to date.
Rightly or inadvertently, power mongers in the state conceded to him the
right to write his own cheque as seen in the appointment of the incumbent’s
cabinet, the composition of the Rivers State House of Assembly and the
twenty-three local government councils of the state.
Perhaps, what the former governor, now minister of the Federal Territory did not foreclose in his stride as kingmaker is that Rivers state has a soul of its own.
Perhaps too, the godfather forgot too soon that the Rivers state’s soul when it chooses to act, would exert its full weight on both the kingmaker and acolytes alike.
The coming of Wike
In 2007 when similar circumstances presented itself following the K-leg
that saw Chibuike Amaechi substituted by Sir Celestine Omehia, the soul
of Rivers state raised its head in open confrontation as militants do battle on the streets rendering the state ungovernable.
A state of emergency was
declared by the Yar’Adua administration to bring order back but the
militarisation of the state reduced Omehia to a sitting duck in office.
Things returned to normal with the annulment of the Omehia election as governor later that year.
In 2014, the soul of Rivers state was tasked upon following the face-off
between the government of Goodluck Jonathan and Chibuike Amaechi, at
the center of which was Chief Nyesom Wike.
Then, the Rivers State House
of Assembly was the epicenter of the politicisation, the end of which was
the fragmentation of the legislature into two.
The streets of Port Harcourt
were made inaccessible because of protests and governance became a ding dong affairs, with matters coming to a halt with the election of Chief Nyesom Wike in 2015.
Role of state assembly
It appears that the Rivers State House of Assembly is the soul of Rivers state as every godfather that emerges wants to control and dominate it. The Odili’s administration began the tradition by hand picking a nominee in 2003, Chibuike Amaechi followed suit in 2011 with Chief Wike’s audacious plan in 2023 to cage Sir Siminalayi by hand picking all members of government functionaries.
It was, therefore, not surprising that October 30th became the defining moment of the Fubara’s government with improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in the hallow Chambers of the State House of Assembly.
The peculiarities of the unfolding saga in Fubara’s government began on his first day in office when he realized that even as a member of the Wike’s hegemony, he has no friends to confide in as his thoughts were already known by his godfather.
Fubara moved to rejig Wike’s structure
To survive, Sim Fubara made new friends that he could rob minds with unhindered. Sources close to the governor revealed that it was his new friends that laid bare the snare he has fallen into if he remains in the shadow of his predecessor.
In the assessment of his one hundred days in office, his new friends returned a verdict of doom if he failed to take his fate in his hands and become the governor he was elected to be.
To become the governor he was elected to be, Fubara was advised by his new friends to discard with, the structure of Wike, which cast oversight on all the activities of the governor for onwards transmission to Wike for approval.
Sim Fubara accepted his new friends advice.
The structure which Wike set on leaving office took care of power sharing in the state between the three senatorial districts. The setting has the governor from Rivers East, the Deputy governor, Ngozi Ordu from Rivers West and the Speaker of the House, Martins Amaewhule From Rivers South
East.
To rejig the structure to protect himself, Sim Fubara would have to tinker with the setting in the State House of Assembly and here was a problem with setting anew structure if Fubara must do away with the shadow of Wike.
Moving against Martins Amaewhule, a former majority leader of the house
during Wike’s eight years in office was like moving against Wike himself.
Again, the condition for making a speaker required that a member must be in his third term in the House. From Rivers South East, most members are
in their first term with a few in their second term.
Shopping for a speaker from other senatorial districts with members suitable to fill the speaker
slot will tumble the power structure and so with the soul of the state.
Other sources spoken to on the plan to rejig Wike’s structure said the State
House of Assembly was a step one, which success would see a move against political appointees and then the local government councils and the state
chapter of the Peoples democratic party, PDP which it is said was already
penciled for dissolution by the national working committee of the party.
Be that as it may, the plan of the governor to rejig the state House of
Assembly leaked and the interregnum that ensued.
PDP’s role in the saga
Critical in the unfolding saga in Rivers state is the wind of reconciliation
going on in the PDP both at the national and in the state.
There are alleged mending of fences between Sir Celestine Omehia with his brother, Chibuike Amaechi as he was seen gracing the wedding of Omehia’s daughter.
At the wedding also were Wike’s rivals some of who, it was alleged to be among the new friends of Sim Fubara. Our source stated that when these
developments are taken in context, little should be given to chance in explaining the hell that let lose in the state house of Assembly.
The source maintained that the device which exploded at the hallow chamber of the Rivers State House of Assembly was nothing short of panic measures taken to create a rouse where one was likely not to emerge.
So too was the impeachment notice to the governor who in the faceoff was lost in the euphoria of father and son’s blood ties.
Our source dismissed the multiple sacking of government functionaries in
the likes of the State Chief Judge, who’s sacking had the nod of the National
Judicial Council, the state executive committee, which without a credibly
constituted House of Assembly, the governor can’t act and the elected local
government councils.
These were panic measures and the absence of the knowledge of statecraft by the governor who self severed the umbilical cord holding him and his godfather.
It is not uncharacteristic in Rivers state to see split in the State House of
Assembly in conflict situation headed by two speakers as a feature of the conflict. It also happened during the regime of Chibuike Amaechi and now, Sim Fubara.
What is characteristic is the deliberate ploy to create a quagmire that
would make government stalemated. To what end? Only the godfather and
godson have the answers.
