By Wilson Yafugborhi
This reflection was provoked by a probing question a leading Nigerian newspaper asked on the current situation in Rivers state. The news medium had gone out, seeking informed opinions as to what the dirty war between Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister and Governor Siminalayi Fubara portends for Nigeria’s democracy.
And my first response was it portends nothing to the extent that it is nothing strange. It’s just history repeating self. It’s not the first time it is happening in the Nigerian political space.
We have experienced it before, of an incumbent governor deploying extremes measures to break loose of the stranglehold of a power drunk godfather predecessor bent on removing the godson he imposed as successor, using a rubber-stamp state assembly as chief weapon.
The current Rivers situation is an unmistakeable replay of the celebrated episodes in the epic battle between former of Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole and incumbent Godwin Obaseki.
Barring the President Bola Tinubu’s warped intervention, I am beginning to feel from the scenes enacted in Rivers so far, that by the manner of tactical moves he is making, Governor Fubara may have drawn strength, behind the scenes, from Obaseki’s mentorship and proven lessons on how to tame a political demigod and shame overbearing godfatherism.
In the striking similarities with the Edo situation, Rivers’ Wike, like Oshiomhole is being garrulous, boastful and consequently very predictable in his moves. Fubara, like Obaseki is taciturn, easily taken for granted, but deadly unpredictable in fighting back.
Recall Oshiomhole attempted, whether through impunity or due process (courts), to use majority loyal Edo state assembly members to remove Obaseki on personal interests (you can’t take my structure according to Wike in the Rivers situation).
The majority opposition Edo Assembly lawmakers paid with their seats, lost all entitlements while Obaseki worked with the few lawmakers loyal to him for rest of that tenure as Obaseki fought back, declaring end to godfatherism in Edo and going on to win a second tenure with all the antagonism from Oshiomhole.
Obaseki within the period also ripped off the roof of the Edo state assembly, tipped sand to block the gates, for a reconstruction that was never completed through that tenure. No one was oblivious of the intention to prevent sittings by the opposition lawmakers while he provided alternative legislative chambers for his loyal lawmakers.
Before Tinubu waded in, Governor Sim Fubara had been applying all the tactics deployed by Obaseki in the fight with godfather Oshiomhole then. He (Sim) had recognised four lawmakers against opposition house members whose seats were declared vacant for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the platform that got them elected to federal ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
And it was game on. And if former Governor Wike felt accomplished and has nothing to lose in this fight, he couldn’t have lost sight of the collateral damage? Wike as Governor professed loving Rivers people so much. “Their interest come first”, he had declared repeatedly.
Now under a successor he imposed, it is Wike’s political ‘structure’ that must take precedence over the people’s interest. “Taa, that will never happen”, I can hear Sim Fubara, mimicking his estranged godfather.
In the escalating tension, it has been a case of when two elephants fights, it is the grass that will suffer. Wike’s super commissioners, including those occupying works, finance and justice ministries which he imposed on Fubara to retain resigned under pressure.
Whether the resignation was in solidarity with the imperious godfather or in sheer fear of being shamed out by the governor, the situation the displaced commissioners are at the moment is not where they would have wished to be. They must thank their stars for the second chance Tinubu has provided for them to swallow their vomit to return to the office they vacated.
And learning from the Obaseki, Oshiomhole experience, the majority displaced Assembly members were yet to feel the height of the backlash. The governor and loyal four man Assembly were bent on starving them of their entitlements, even evict them from their official quarters in the extreme. Thanks to Tinubu, they can now benefit their entitlement again.
“You can’t take my structure, never”, and Fubara presented his 2024 budget estimates to a four man Assembly who immediately rubber stamped same and the governor signing the budget into law in less than 72 hours.
Nothing is certain in politics, obviously, but except he found an alternative magic wand to wave in displacing Fubara, I bet the option of using gullible house of assembly members to remove a sitting governor would not have worked for Wike, just as it didn’t work for Oshiomhole over Obaseki.
The impeachment process against Fubara could not have flown, even as some of the ‘follow follow’ lawmakers are making U-turn already, others facing threats of recall by their constituents.
If there is any lesson from this Rivers saga, it is that there is sure limit to absolutism. Some persons, assuming Wike is trying to copy or imitate President Bola Tinubu’s stranglehold on Lagos, have been chanting ‘Rivers is not Lagos’, to which I differ.
The case of Rivers is not same as the case in Lagos years back. Tinubu wouldn’t be as naïve as Wike. The President acknowledges there is limit to absolutism, so much when he got disappointed in former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, he didn’t compel his Lagos State Assembly men to impeach his estranged godson.
He allowed Ambode to finish his single tenure successfully before displacing him in the race for the succeeding tenure. That is someone who understands there is limit to absolutism.
On Fubara Vs Wike, the FCT minister should know he has more to lose than a calm, cool and calculated Fubara who wasn’t desperate to be governor. Above all, Rivers people are the real losers of this needless war.
Wilson Yafugborhi, public affairs commentator, writes from Otughievwen, Delta state
