In the last few days, the rumour making the rounds has been that the suspended governor of Rivers State, Sim Fubara, recently travelled to London to beg President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to forgive him and return him to his beat.
It was also rumoured that he was in Nyesom Wike’s house in Abuja to tender an apology to his godfather, calling him “my Oga”.
If this is true, it would mean that those who have been taking pain-relieving tablets for his migraine have suffered in vain.
In the open, he behaves as if he is on the side of the people while secretly trying to behold the faces of the president and Wike.
While he is doing the “kurukere” moves, the women are protesting and calling for his reinstatement. Last weekend, the women had to walk out on the wife of the sole administrator. A few weeks ago, a large group of women had protested unclad, calling for the cancellation of the emergency rule.
Some youth organisations have also staged a number of protests on the same issue.
What the Rivers people should be doing is the same thing that Abia people did in 2023 by abandoning a party that had ruined the state.
The same thing that Anambra people did in 2003 when they rejected the then governor, Chinwoke Mbadinuju, who messed up the state.
The losers in all of this are the people.
At the end of this brouhaha, Wike and Fubara will come back to dine at the same table. They are playing with the lives of the people.
Many Nigerians are aghast that despite the public sentiment that has been in favour of Fubara, his seeming desperation to return to power by going to beg the president and Wike appears a mindless betrayal.
While he is allegedly pushing for a return to office, what happens to the indigenes of the state who have been tear-gassed, harassed or even arrested for protesting the imposition of emergency rule in Rivers?
Those who have critically studied the Wike-Fubara face-off have said that the suspended governor is worthy of many stripes, as he had been used in the past by his estranged godfather to warehouse public funds for other uses.
While Wike was in power in Rivers, he hid Fubara inside the Government House, Port Harcourt, to shield him from arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives over allegations of financial malfeasance.
Both of them could be said to be working in cahoots to hide something from the people of Rivers State. It is not for the sake of the good of the people that the two men are fighting; it is more about the control of the resources of the state for personal good.
The Wike-Fubara imbroglio has sharply divided the state. Poverty has been weaponised in the process, as it has been openly shown that money is being moved to hire or organise rallies and protest marches for and against one group or another.
These monies being moved about belong to the people, and instead of using the monies for the good of the people, they are warehoused by a few privileged individuals who use the monies to create chaos and division in the state.
Many observers argue that Fubara cannot be said to be innocent in the crisis that is rocking Rivers State today. He welcomed all the shenanigans that passed off as elections in the state in 2023 in his favour. In order to install him as governor by all means, Wike threatened fire and brimstone against anyone that dared to vote against his choice.
While it lasted, Fubara was a poster boy and felt on top of the world when the announcement came from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that he won the election.
Like the principle of sowing and reaping always gets fulfilled in human endeavours, what is happening in Rivers State is a direct consequence of sowing the wind.
Now that the whirlwind has descended, those who consciously sowed the wind are running “kiti kata”, or is the aphorism ‘he that brings home an ant-infested faggot contending with the visit of lizards’ no longer real?
Wike is simply contending that he invested heavily in Fubara to bring him from being a political neophyte to a political superstar, and that as such, he deserves to call the tune, having paid the piper upfront, handsomely.
If indeed Fubara has gone back to Wike in a Nicodemus manner, that would be tantamount to treachery against the people of Rivers State who have stood with him since his battle against Wike began.
Defectors are not good students of Tinubu
The big story today in Nigeria’s political arena is defection. It is the rave of the moment. The sing-song now is that, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is “ebe ano”. Governors are falling upon one another to behold the face of President Bola Tinubu. Whosoever is captured is led to Aso Rock Villa to do obeisance or pay homage to the President.
Those who are dumping their parties and emptying themselves into the APC are not learning from Tinubu.
Politicians who move up and down across parties end up as rolling stones that gather no moss. They lose their worth with the passage of time.
The decampee governors have not taken the time to understudy the person of President Tinubu and his political trajectory.
Tinubu became governor of Lagos State on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD). It was a time when almost all the 36 states were under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Even when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo withheld the local government funds for Lagos State, Tinubu never considered joining the PDP to possibly curry the favour of the then sitting president.
The AD became Action Congress (AC), then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) was born from the merger of a faction of Alliance for Democracy, the Justice Party, the Advance Congress of Democrats, and several other minor political parties in September 2006.
Tinubu led the ACN to form an alliance with Muhammad Buhari’s Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) and splinter groups of other parties to form the APC. Today, Tinubu is the president without jumping from one party to another. He was in opposition from 1999 to 2023. That is what is called political stamina and wisdom.
If he were a rolling stone like those jumping from pillar to post, the APC would not have been born in the first place.
The summary of the charade we see today is that the defectors should not even be in leadership positions as they lack the patience it takes to stay through the gestation period of whatever project they embark upon. They are simply moving out for their own pocket and not for the good of their people.
Why Zulum is a sad man
If not for the allure of political office being like opium in Nigeria, the likes of Professor Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno State, would not have sought re-election in 2023.
Zulum has seen 99 when it comes to the menace of raw insecurity in the state.
Since he assumed office in 2019, he has been crying over the activities of Boko Haram insurgents.
On many occasions during the Muhammadu Buhari administration, Zulum visited the Aso Rock Villa visibly weeping over the brutal attacks of the insurgents. Each time he visited, he got an empty promise of what the government was going to do differently to rein in the monsters, but none ever happened.
Since he won re-election in 2023, the menace has continued. Although there was a short period of interregnum, Borno has gone back as a theatre of war.
Before the resurgence a few weeks ago, Zulum had begun to resettle the displaced indigenes who had been in various internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps back to their native communities.
Reports said that about 6,000 people have since been resettled. But the renewed attacks on some communities now appear to have buccaneered the efforts.
The other day, Zulum cried out over the renewed activities of Boko Haram insurgents and some other allied groups. He even accused federal government officials of downplaying the magnitude of the problem of insecurity in the state and in the North East geopolitical zone.
But for how long will Zulum’s tears continue to flow? Over to you, Abuja!
