Fubara: A misunderstood patriot

BY RANDY IGALI 

The word patriot is derived from the Greek word “patriots”, which simply means “of one’s father”. According to Merriam-Webster, the word entered the English lexicon through the French word “patrite,” which means “fellow countryman”.

In 1912, J. R. Miller aptly described the situation when patriots are made. According to Miller, times of peace and prosperity are not the best times to make patriots. Patriots are made when a nation is in peril; at such a time, love for country is developed because it is at such times that there is a call to arms to defend home, altar, and flag.

True patriots are actually few today, but Amaopusenibo Siminalayi Fubara, the governor of Rivers state, is one of them.

Although greatly misunderstood and his intentions misinterpreted and misconceived, for Siminalayi Fubara, there is an inner awakening and a strong, true heart of loyalty, the type that at each point compensates for national danger and adversity. This is probably a result of his strong Christian convictions and his professional calling as an accountant. These two vocations prepared him to be transparent and accountable, demonstrating uncompromising integrity.

To Fubara, patriotism is loyalty, and each is another. He has always lived the life of a patriot. It was this unwavering, unflinching life of loyalty, support, and service, this subservience, that endeared him to Nyesom Wike in the first place and made him the first choice of nomination for the position of the governor of Rivers state immediately after him.

Surely, if Wike did not believe in him and trust his intrinsic moral qualities and statesmanship, he would not have committed himself to him and would not have supported him to be the governor of River states just after him.

Although later events might seem to have contradicted such perception for those who are unwilling to study him, Fubara has consistently remained unfazed and true to himself in conducting himself as a patriot even at the risk of being misunderstood, maligned, and misjudged.

His several decisions have been motivated basically by a true love for his people and the need to pursue that which will bring the greatest good to the greatest numbers of the citizens of River state.

Born on January 28, 1975, Sir Siminalayi saw the deprivations of his people. He was with them when they were hungry and had no one to turn to. He saw the lack of infrastructure. He witnessed the abject poverty and the death of his kinsmen and women who could not access medical care because those cares were not there or the hospitals lacked the basic facilities. Fubara was part of them when they had no roads, when militants bombed the commonwealth with impunity and disregard for the laws of the land. He actually prayed and waited for the time when he could just be the solution instead of just being part of the solution. And just when destiny and providence beckoned, he was shut out.

At the heart of Fubara is that essential element and cardinal virtue of manliness, a distinguishing true-heartedness; the love for country and his people, a desire to bring prosperity to his people. He desired to see a people who are truly emancipated, and as if assailed by armed enemies. He sees every hindrance to the achievement of his goal as a call to battle, although he realised that this battle can no longer be fought with bullets but with ballots to be settled on election days. And so, at each moment, his strongest desire is to reach the people so as to alleviate their negative plights and be a succor to their restlessness.

Fubara believes in the combination of brain and conscience because he knows that a country without good morals and godliness is a country doomed. To him, no democratic nation can truly be great when the politicians are not strong in character and faithful to duty at whatsoever cost. He is, therefore, a man who can never deny any agreement with anyone. But he will as well not enter into any agreement to the detriment of his own people.

Fubara is willing to give splendid service, strength, security, and stability to the people of Rivers state on his personal honour.

He was unwilling to build a bird’s nest, which would be swept away by the flood of time. He was willing to walk deftly upon that slim line of political conspirational framework to a potent revolution and transformation of his people and the state.

Indeed, Fubara explored and achieved such a uniquely superlative high plateau of self-identification with a history of patriotism and identity. He intelligently guided his ideology of the Rivers state he wants, built by himself after his own heart and for the socio-economic benefits of her own people. This is because he loves to support his people. He is proud to do so; it brings him at par with the founders of Rivers state, bringing to him that sense of unification and joy. This is the clime of exclusivity, the difference that Fubara wanted to make.

Fubara’s patriotism is not that of a nativist or merely nationalist who perceives every other person outside the proclivity of his tribe as an enemy, but he was willing to associate with the consequences of his identification with his people.

Indeed, Amaopusenibo Siminalayi Fubara is a misunderstood patriot whose real intention is the good of his people of Rivers state, and he is willing to pay any price, even the supreme price, to redeem and emancipate the people of Rivers state.