…Shadows of losers, winners come into view
There is State of Emergency (SOE) in Rivers State at the moment, and this is no news. Many Nigerians seem to have gone to bed waiting for the six months to elapse and the suspended persons bounce back.
Many have, however, become either apprehensive that what is on stage is the upstaging of the apple carte while others seem glad that what is on stage is target achieved.
Something is seen as the crux of the matter and at the centre of the crisis and fierce dispute between Gov Sim Fubara, a political son and beneficiary of the guber stool, versus Nyesom Wike, FCT Minister who is seen as godfather and benefactor of the man on seat. It is control of the treasury of the oil rich state and the structure that controls the treasury. To what use the treasury is put may not be the question.
The declaration of the State of Emergency came with a bigger stick, the suspension (removal) of one of the combatants in the battle, Gov Fubara. His opponent, Wike, was not suspended. Observation number, according analysists, is that one is tied up while his opponents runs free. The suspension of the 27 defected lawmakers is seen as not enough balance of the scale.
This is because the lawmakers had been put out of relevance effectively in the battle. So, suspending them did not seem to tip any scale. Loser: The Fubara camp.
The next is knowing where the Sole Administrator would tilt. Ibok Ekwe Ibas, the retired vice admiral, had made it clear when he arrived that he was neutral. Thise seemed taken with wait-and-see approach but many immediately floated photos of where he had hobnobbed with one of the combatants (FCT minister). They tried to sow doubts of his neutrality. They thus waited for his actions and appointments to know better.
Feelings went panicky in the Fubara camp when the Solad wiped off the structure of the state, all commissioners, boards, managements. Some said they expected the structure to remain while the suspended ones stayed away. Ugly signals emerged.
The sack of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) sent stronger signals because the Wike camp had fought hard to remove the leadership of the Commission. In fact, the martin Amaewhule-led House of Assembly backed by Wike had issued a warrant of arrest to the chairman of RSIEC.
Read also: ‘Fundamentally flawed decision,’ poll respondents clapback at Rivers’ state of emergency
The first shot came when he appointed the secretary to the state government and he was said to be a man who had organized a reception for the FCT. The fears increased.
Next, George Nweke, the Head of Service (HoS), resigned. Many said he was pressured. Soon, Nweke released a bombshell of a video clip levying huge allegation against Fubara and Edison Ehie, his chief of staff, saying they both planned and burnt the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Many said they concluded that the battleline was drawn and that the state of emergency was declared against one camp, not on all the warring parties. This came as the 27 lawmakers released happy moods in the UK where they said they were performing parliamentary functions of official vacation and study. It was confusing whether they were on suspension or on vacation.
Next, the Solad removed the local council heads permitted by Fubara to hold power till elections. He appointed caretaker committees, same thing the Supreme court had decreed against.
At this point, those that were still undecided concluded that the state of emergency was a ploy to snatch power from one camp to hand to the other.
Some have gone to court, some have begun protests, saying the mission of the Solad had emerged and that it is to dismantle the Fubara camp and return the structure of power to Wike. They gave the evidence to the fact that every single move by the Solad is hailed by the Wike camp and condemned by the Fubara camp.
They also pointed at two areas that they said the FCT Minister told anybody who cared to listen that the only condition for peace was an undertaking to hand the LGA structure (chairman) back to him to pick and signed undertaking by Fubara not to recontest in 2027. The Fubara camp has not confirmed this.
The observers thus pointed to the actions of the Solad to show how they move straight in the trajectory of fulfilling the two conditions. The strategy of removing the RSIEC from the present to a new team to organize the LGA elections at Fubara’s back would mean that the LGA structure which is powerful in any governorship and presidential elections would be back to the FCT Minister who is being relied upon to deliver both the FCT that President Tinubu lost badly and Rivers State that the people was an issue too. So, many say what the Solad is doing looks easy to see that it favours both the FCT and the President.
The funds of the sate that were denied Fubara through what the Fubara camp sees as questionable court order which has at last given the CBN power to stop the allocation of a state, something previously undoable by law. Now, the funds are in the hands of the Solad. It is also being suspected that the video by Nweke is to start a disqualification of Fubara or elongation of the state of emergency so that he would not ‘smell’ power again.
He was advised to resign by the very powerful Tony Okocha, the FCT Man Friday in Rivers State who is the factional chairman of the APC in the state, a man many often ignore to their own peril.
The way it is going, Okocha’s advice may be seen as a signal. Even if Fubara returns just for public’s sake, he may have been so declawed that he would hardly function till 2027 when he would be finished by making it impossible for him to find a party platform to recontest. His foot soldiers in the APP have been cleared out; the LGAs are going to be recaptured to the grandmaster, and the finances of the state would be outside his control. The lawmakers would fix everything and he may just float or quit.
Finally, the appointment of new sole administrators in the 23 LGAs is being touted as takeover of the Wike men. Some have been openly congratulated by Wike men, a signal that the appointees are their men and an indication that the game is over. All the boards sacked have been repopulated. Hints are also emerging that the names are from one side, but details are not out yet.
Conclusion:
There may be state of emergency or ceasefire in the state but many say what they see is state of recapture of the state for one side of the conflict. Has the structure returned to the owner?
