Opunabo Inko-Tariah is a civil rights advocate and former special Aadviser on Media and Publicity to FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike while he was governor of Rivers State. In this interview with Samuel Ese, he shared his opinion on the APC leadership question, the ambiguity of the provision of the constitution on the grounds for impeachment and the constitutional power of the House of Assembly on the impeachment process. Excerpts:
The Presidency recently restated the position of Governor Sim Fubara as the leader of the APC in Rivers State. How does this impact the party’s leadership question?
Well, that Fubara is the leader of APC in Rivers State is irrefutable. When I say irrefutable, it means indisputable. You cannot dispute that because it is the tradition that the governors, I’m talking of from 1999. In 1979, the reverse was the case. The chairmen of the parties were the leaders of the parties; I’m talking of the time of Shehu Shagari. But, from 1999, the governors and the presidents are now leaders of the parties, heads of the parties in their various states. So, that should not be in contention. But right now, because of some selfish interest and because of the political saga in Rivers State, they want to argue that Fubara, the governor is not the leader of APC in Rivers State. But that is completely infamy, nonsensical.
The leader of a party in a state is the governor and the national leader is the president. Some will argue, why did they refer to Tinubu as the leader of APC when Buhari was the president. But that’s a different scenario to start with.
Number one, the APC was more or less formed by a coalition with Tinubu, practically as the head. Number two, it also depends on the president. Probably, he was not even interested in being the leader of the party and was more concerned with being the president of the country. So, the president never argued that with him. There was no contention when Tinubu was referred to as the leader of APC in the country. Probably, Mr. President was at that time, I’m talking of Buhari of blessed memory, if Mr. President had said at that time, no, I don’t think Tinubu would have dragged with him. But it is natural right from 1999 to date. The governors are leaders of their parties in their states. And in the absence of a governor from a political party, the chairman becomes the leader of the party.
As a lawyer and concerned indigene of Rivers State, what is your opinion on the House of Assembly impeachment threat against Governor Fubara?
Let us not trivialise the power of the Rivers State House of Assembly or any House of Assembly for that matter. It is within the vires of the House of Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against a governor and in the place of the National Assembly, it is also within their rights to so do.
But as a right, it is expected to be exercised to do prudently and not recklessly. And that is why the issue of gross misconduct flawed in the interpretation of the laws because it is believed that you have responsible and not irresponsible men as members of the House of Assembly, or let me just say, as legislators because we have fellows of both state and federal as legislators. But unfortunately, in the case of Rivers State, the issue of gross misconduct as expounded by the House of Assembly Speaker does not really amount to gross misconduct. Why am I saying that?
Now, first and foremost, I quarrelled with this ambiguous term of gross misconduct. The drafters of the constitution would have spelt out the grounds for gross misconduct, but they left it to the interpretation of the legislature. So, if a governor gets up in the morning and doesn’t say good morning to a legislator it becomes gross misconduct. If the governor is not on terms with the legislative arm, it becomes gross misconduct like what is going on in Rivers State.
What has the governor done? In fact, those whose membership should be withdrawn are the legislators. Since they got into office, they’ve been fighting the governor. They should mention one constituency project they have done; they should mention one law passed in the interest of Rivers persons.
They’ve even collected N350 million for constituency projects no one executed, they’ve been given brand new SUVs, they are living in luxury. What of their constituents?
So, what is that gross conduct allegation levelled against the governor? Simply because you wanted one billion Naira and he refused to give you one billion Naira when you could not even account for the N350 million you have collected.
If you want a supplementary budget, is it not the governor’s prerogative to decide if he wants a supplementary budget? But you need that supplementary budget so you will get the extra N650 million.
And, why do they need this money? Because the elections are fast approaching, that is why they need this money so that they will have enough financial war chest to fight re-election of Governor Sim Fubara. This one is not about Rivers persons; they do everything to stymie the governor in the delivery of the dividends of democracy.
But you see, Rivers people cannot be deluded because proceeding the suspense of the declaration of the state of emergency, we saw what the governor was doing. He was in a construction frenzy, working at frenetic pace. The state of emergency suspended that – these six months of hiatus – and nothing really happened; Rivers State retrogressed within that six months.
The governor came back: just recently, he commenced and finished the commissioning of projects again. Go to the Secretariat, workers are happy. They have the Christmas bonus, there is promotion. For eight years, it was a march of terror, conquest and subjugation under Nyesom Wike as governor of Rivers State. There was no promotion.
Everything was based on mediocrity and not meritocracy. If you are close to him, yes, he gives you a bit of it, the crumbs from the table.
But this man, there’s no way that the governor is stingy, stingy how? Because he does not dole out money? Rather than giving – you know they say teach a man to fish and not to give him fish – he’s creating an enabling environment for everybody to thrive, for everybody to succeed, and not just his cronies. He’s not giving you money like other governors did. He’s not saying come and take one million naira, come and take one billion Nnaira. No; rather he creates that environment for you to make your own money if you’re intelligent enough and if you’re useful to yourself and to the society.
That’s why now people say he’s stingy and that’s why the assembly is angry with him because he doesn’t dole money.
And I can tell you that the assembly is acting at the behest of the FCT Minister. They’re not doing it on their own because their loyalty, their fidelity is to the FCT Minister. And the FCT Minister has himself has said this, that the re-election of Governor Sim Fubara will be tantamount to his political nadiral. He said so publicly that if the governor is re-elected …, so the fight is about you. That alone vitiates any further proof that the fight is personal, it’s egocentric that the re-election of a governor is tantamount to your political death. What are you talking about? Are you the owner of Rivers State? Look at all the PDP national chairmen that he produced, from Uche Secondus, all of them. He fell out with them. It’s unprincipled. So, if you marry a wife for a man, are you going to sleep with the wife?
I don’t understand. Once he disagrees with you, he reasons and targets you, you can go, you’re a thief. You’re calling everybody thief.
In 1999/2000 that was when you became local government chairman and from then you’ve been in government till today. How did you get money to buy Rolls Royce? You said this, at least on air, that you bought Rolls Royce, and Seun Okinbaloye asked you, with your money? You said yes! Where did he get the money to buy the Rolls Royce from, but you call everybody a thief?
Now, recently we heard he just bought a private jet. Where is the money coming from? Because even if you add all your salaries from local government chairman to date, you know the salaries of those days, how will you get the money to buy Rolls Royce?
The properties you have scattered all over Nigeria and all over the world, we are talking of the USA own that is still under probe, how did you get money to buy that? You said your wife’s father. You should say that to the birds and not to those who know him in Rivers State.
We know the wife very well. Very respectable lady, judge, from a very decent home. Let’s not go into those things. So, how did you get the money? But every other person is a thief, but you are the saint, you are Jesus.
Somebody is angry that his wristwatch is missing and he finds it in your house, and you say no, I’m not a thief. How did the wristwatch move to your house? I’m using that as an analogy, I’m not saying that happened.
You are saying you are not a thief, but how did you get all that wealth you got? How come you are drinking 40 years whiskey but you are not a thief? I mean, who are you talking to?
So, it’s an egocentric battle and Rivers people are solidly behind the governor. Look, let me be honest with you, not withstanding the attacks that the governor is accused of being stingy, yet he has the organic support.
What does that tell you? It’s a referendum of the people’s disapproval of eight years of dictatorship and bad governance. You claim you built bridges, why did you not invest in human capital development?
You know why you built bridges – even in Abuja you saw the riot, the protest – why are you building roads and bridges? That’s where money comes from.
Who are you deceiving? That’s where the money will come from. So, you build bridges, you build this, what of human capital development? You brought back students who were on scholarship under Amaechi that you cannot send students abroad to study Law, it’s a waste of resources, but you sent your son. Some of them committed suicide out of frustration, but you sent your son to study Law and Economics abroad. Is that not duplicity? So, I’m not bothered about – like I said – it’s the right of the legislature, but I’m not really bothered about what I see as rhetoric by the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule’s sanctimonious frivolity, absolute rubbish.
