It began as a roaring rumor. In no time, the real fire began to blaze and raze. What has followed ever since is a near conflagration. Two people started it all – a godfather and his godson. A Wike and a certain Fubara. Rivers state’s government house is the battleground. A fight for political supremacy and influence. Who will emerge triumphant from this slugout – Wike who, last May, completed his two terms as governor and is a minister in Abuja or Siminalayi Fubara, who now holds the office Wike only recently vacated? Methinks the rivers may yet take Fubara. He is fighting an experienced trencher, who has fought many fights and survived them all.
The heart of the matter is an attempt by some lawmakers (24 of them) in the Rivers House of Assembly to impeach Fubara, a governor who is barely six months in office. He suspects Wike has a hand in it. He hasn’t said it openly but his allies in the House believe so. Why? Because Wike demanded for money in cash and contracts which Fubara wouldn’t give. Wike, on his own part, hasn’t admitted he instigated the impeachment plot. But you can tell the truth from his remarks. “Impeachment isn’t a military coup,” he told some governors of his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who visited him last Monday in Abuja. “It(impeachment ) is provided for in the constitution.” The governors, led by Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state, wanted to meditate the conflict between minister and governor Fubara. But Wike told them pointedly that they couldn’t intimidate him, if that was their mission. “Nobody can intimidate me. If I want to do something, I’ll do it,” he said.
However, their meeting provided the former governor an opportunity to say what his problem with his successor was. He considered Fubara an ingrate, turning against the man (Wike) that helped put him in office in the first place. “You cannot work and people will begin to bring enemies, those who fought you when you were struggling for the person to be in office. Nobody does that. I’m not a political ingrate, but don’t touch the political structures of the state. I will not shut my eyes. All of us want to be politically relevant; all of us want to maintain our political structure. Is it not your political structure? Will you allow anybody to just cut you out immediately? Everybody has a base. If you take my base , am I not politically irrelevant?” This is a very angry man, who feels badly betrayed by a political godson.
Now speaking about godfather, allegiance and betrayal sends my mind back to Mario Puzo’s epic crime fiction, “The Godfather”, who “never sleeps.” Particularly this quote from the main character Vito Corleone: “Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.” The pain of Fubara’s betrayal of his godfather is like stabbing him in the heart. “Will you allow anybody to just cut you off immediately?” Wike asked his governor visitors. “Everybody has a base. If you take my base, am I not politically irrelevant?” Of course, Wike isn’t one that wants to stay out of relevance. Either he is in or nobody is.
If Wike appears power drunk, insisting on being “relevant”, Fubara is naive or simply not ‘seeing’, to think he could “immediately” dispense with the man, who literally put him in the government house in Port Harcourt. In politics, as in everything else, you don’t just walk away from the Don. You do so only when you’re the one holding the knife and the meat. Fubara, you’ve become governor but the one person who made it possible for you also has the power to show you the door, usually in an charitable manner. What you should do is play the loyal godson for the next 4 years. Use the opportunity to build for yourself a formidable political machine, what Wike calls “structure”, that will enable you fight re-election on your own. It’s in your second term, supposing that you do win, that you can say “good riddance of bad rubbish”. Not before then. Blind loyalty is the price you pay for needing someone else’s money and influence to run for an elective office in Nigeria. You cannot, as they say, eat your cake and have it too. Ask Chris Ngige what happened to him in 2003 in Anambra state or Akinwunmi Ambode in 2019 in Lagos. They thought they could fight off their political godfathers’s meddlesomeness. But they lost.
PS
As I was putting the final touches to this piece, Saturday afternoon, word came that governor Fubara had “apologized” to Rivers people for the political disquiet in the state. He described himself as “a man of peace”, promising to work with Wike to reverse the situation. Below is the rest of statement the governor gave on Saturday: “I am a man of peace and as governor, the advancement of our state is my primary concern. Consequently, no sacrifice is too much for me to make to achieve this objective. Furthermore, it is the collective responsibility of the immediate past governor and minister of the Federal Capital Territory, His excellency, Chief Barrister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, GSSRS, life bencher and my humble self, to leverage on our positions and influences within and outside the state to advance the progress, security and well-being of our people.
“We must, therefore, not allow circumstances that could retard all efforts at achieving greatness for our people to prevail. On my part, I am always willing and ready to embrace the path to lasting peace and tranquility with a commitment to consummating all efforts and initiatives by Mr. President and other well-meaning Nigerians, including my brother governors and the elders.”
