Fubara, Wike and the soul of Rivers 

Now, the minister of the federal capital territory, Nyesom Wike, and Rivers state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, appear to be at technical peace. 

After the madness that visited the state, where Wike was Governor until five months ago last week, tempers have calmed down, with everyone going about their regular business. The political gladiators are back on the grind, one grandstanding, the other genuflecting as ever; it is now business as usual. Although the sustainability of the current ceasefire following the alleged intervention of President Bola Tinubu is debatable, we can see that life is back to normal with everyone going about their venture without hindrance; isn’t that enviable?

But as the politicians have moved on, even if temporarily, some residents of Port Harcourt, where hoodlums and eventually agents of the state unleashed early morning violence last week, will live to remember the pains, disruption and destruction that descended on this otherwise combustible state. Mrs Callister Ugiri, a 47-year-old resident of the Borokiri area of Port Harcourt, is one of those people who will never forget this egoistic battle of Wike, the elephant and Fubara, the calf, which surprisingly transformed from innocence into experience ahead of its time! 

Ugiri, according to news reports, is asking police authorities in the state to release the corpse of her 27-year-old son, Onyekachi, who was allegedly shot dead during a protest by youths in the state. 

Rumours about the Rivers State House of Assembly’s plan to impeach the state governor precipitated this protest. The impeachment move was spearheaded by legislators loyal to Wike, led by Speaker Martin Amaewhule. Please note that Wike later subtly confirmed and justified the move.

It started with the removal of Majority Leader, Edison Ehie, apparently a Fubara loyalist. Within a few hours, the Governor mobilised a counter-offensive, which saw his loyalists “impeach” Amaewhule and replace him with Ehie, sacked by the Wike group a few hours earlier. Imagine the ridiculous trifling of legislative office and process, but that is Nigeria.

Hundreds of youths then matched on Amaewhule’s official residence in solidarity with the Governor. Their mission was to evict the ‘impeached” speaker and usher the new one into the building. But things went awry for them! Men of the Rivers State Police Command moved in at this stage and arrested over a hundred youths. The Commissioner of Police in the state confirmed this and warned youths not to lend themselves to political violence in a statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, Grace Ihunwo. However, some citizens, including youth leaders and Mrs Ugiri, claimed that police also fired shots at youths and that this resulted in the death of at least one person.

Although reports said that the police denied this allegation, Mrs Ugiri insisted last weekend that her son’s friend, who participated in the protest, said police officers killed Mr Ugiri. She told Vanguard the young man left home for the protest but never returned!

The bereaved mother said: “On Tuesday, I heard that Chiwedu, one of our neighbours, came to the house to carry my son, Onyekachi, to go protest in support of Governor Sim Fubara. At night, after I waited and did not see my son, I asked my daughter the whereabouts of her brother, and she told me that our neighbour, Chiwendu, had taken her brother to protest in support of the Governor. On Wednesday, Chiwendu came back again and told my daughter that during the protest, as police were shooting, a bullet caught Onyekachi, my son, on the head, and he ran into one building, where he died. Chiwendu ran away while others were arrested. This morning (Friday, November 3, 2023), I saw a video of my son’s dead body with blood all over him. I am begging the police to provide the corpse of my son, wherever it is. I’m also calling on the Governor to come to my aid.” A mother has not only lost her son to this political madness, but she cannot even find his corpse and possibly put closure to the matter!

But the Governor and his godfather have moved on! At least until Wike spring another scheme to get the Governor out of office, as one can very easily predict from his disposition and trends amongst Nigerian politicians. The two of them go on pretending to do public good, but we have not seen the end of it. 

From what we know of Nigerian politicians and their greed for power and control, in the unlikely event that Tinubu’s intervention keeps the peace for the next three and a half years, the scramble for the 2027 gubernatorial ticket is sure to send the erstwhile friends to war again. 

The logic is simple: trust is bruised and broken between this “father and son.” And while Fubara, having tasted power and the allure it bears in Nigeria, would want a second term, his erstwhile godfather, (who must have been shocked by the audacious and early rebellion of the political toddler whom he carried on his shoulders and installed as Governor, warts and all, and the support he garnered from citizens), will bay for blood as we move close to 2027. In the period of deceptive peace, the parties will muster their energies and play on ethnic sensibilities towards bracing up and assembling their arsenals for the epic battle ahead. 

But then, to what effect do these politicians scramble and contend for Nigeria’s political soul? It is all for the self-perpetuation and nothing else.

Wike, while addressing governors elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) last week, boasted about his determination to hold on to the party structure in the state. This means that he will do anything and everything to maintain his grip on the ability to continue to dictate the political direction of the state. He will do that because it is the oxygen for his political survival. It is the bargaining chip for whatever he gets at the federal level, where he is now dancing in the sun. In all his struggles and tantrums, he has no thoughts for the people; it is all about him and his. It is about remaining relevant and feeding fat off Nigeria’s already lean and starving cow.  But do the people who allow themselves to be used, bruised, dumped, and even killed by misled agents of the states know this?

Fubara is not better in any way. As Accountant-General of Rivers State, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) sought his attention to answer some questions on the state finances but failed. Wike protected him at the period and fought for him to be Governor, an office which now protects him from arrest or prosecution!  

Now that he is Governor, Fubara is protesting the overbearing influence of old mentor. But he dined with the devil with such proximity that extricating himself would take much more than the wisdom and evocation of primordial sentiment that he has been able to muster in the last six months. The Governor will have to show himself more worthy of his office than his predecessors by working selflessly for the people and winning their love. Otherwise, they would once again turn the state into a battlefield with innocent people at the receiving end.

Political power is to ensure the well-being and welfare of the citizenry. It is to assure the citizen’s security and protect their lives. But political leaders in Nigeria do not care about the lives of citizens. They put the people’s lives at risk, tinker with processes, and deploy public resources to sponsor the election of their proteges, who eventually turn against them. In their battle, they recruit hapless citizens and unleash terror on the populace. Sometimes, their self-interests will align again after the loss of lives, and as happened in Rivers State last week, state assets lie in ruins. But politicians will get back on their ambitious trail, at best dishing out tokens to bereaved families who would have lost their members for ever. It is evil that these leaders must repent from.

The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, told the US Congress in a July 4, 1861, address, inter alia, that “the ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets…” But Nigerian leaders abuse their powers and turn the bullets against the people in their bid to retain power. This is what politics has always been in Nigeria, but after another 23 years of all these shenanigans, Nigerians must begin to see through them.