Political observers in Rivers State are worried as the political battle between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike and his political godson, the Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, takes a toll on governance in the state.
It did not take long after the 2023 governorship election in Rivers State and the swearing in before Governor Fubara fell out with his benefactor and the immediate past governor, Wike.
While some Nigerians and political observers see Wike as overbearing, others feel the governor’s refusal to remain loyal to the political structure and leadership through which power was entrusted to him, is already a betrayal of trust, as according to them, loyalty remains one of the clearest tests of character.
“Politics is not charity. Power is not a gift that arrives from heaven without human instruments. In Nigerian politics, loyalty is not abstract morality; it is political capital.
“Every serious aspirant knows that the open backing of a sitting governor or dominant political leader is an enormous advantage,” a chieftain of the APC in Delta State, Chief Chukwuma Ugbah said.
Keen observers believe that it is not unusual for a predecessor and successor to disagree. However, according to them, such differences should not be allowed to escalate without restraint and degenerate into a dirty public fight.
While many would have thought that a lasting peace had returned through the intervention of President Bola Tinubu, the crisis appears to have taken a different dimension.
Fubara, who was saved from impeachment at the last minute by the president’s declaration of state of emergency, was again served notice of impeachment last week by the State Assembly, with all fingers pointing at the FCT Minister.
The earlier move to impeach Governor Fubara was rooted on the allegations that he bombed the assembly complex, conducted Local Government election in defiance of court order and presentation of budget to a three-man assembly while he side-lined 27 elected members of the state assembly.
No matter who is right or wrong in this political battle between Wike and Fubara, the concerns of Nigerians are that it is creating significant political instability in Rivers State, leading to tensions within the government and potential disruptions in governance.
The political fight could be more deadly and could undermine public trust and provoke further political crises as Wike and Fubara struggle for the control of Rivers State ahead of the 2027 elections.
There is also this view that the oil rich state is not falling apart by happenstance but that both Wike and Fubara are struggling for who hands it to President Tinubu as a political offering.
As a former presidential candidate, Chief Peter Ameh puts it, “the two prominent figures, tormented by the shadow of irrelevance and consumed by the need for powerful patronage, have traded the mantle of responsible leadership for grand gestures of submission, willingly torching the collective destiny of millions [of Rivers people] in a shameful rivalry over who can bow lowest before the throne of Tinubu’s authority.”
