“I Will Never Work With Fubara, Will Never Support Him” – Wike

By Gideon Njoku

The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, a Lawyer, has said he would never work with his successor in office, Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

Wike said this when he spoke Friday night on Channel Television’s live program, “Politics Today”, anchored by Seun Okinbaloye.

Governor Fubara, Rivers State’s Accountant General during Wike’s tenure as Governor, was hand-picked by Wike, above all others, to succeed him in office as Governor.

However, barely three months  later, their relationship broke down so badly that majority of the House of Assembly Members, loyal to Wike, made an aborted attempt to impeach Fubara. It led to the torching and vandalization of the Assembly Complex.

Since the impeachment move which exposed the irretrievably broken down relationship, nothing has been the same again in Rivers State, politically. The House of Assembly is divided into two with two separate Speakers, presumably.

At a point, President Bola Tinubu, in whose  whose All Progressives Congress, APC, Government, Wike, a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, member, serves as a Minister, intervened to broker peace in an arrangement not a few people felt was condescending to Governor Fubara.

For instance, President Tinubu asked Fubara to reappoint his Commissioners, Wike’s loyalists, appointed for Fubara by Wike, who voluntarily resigned from Fubara’s Cabinet over the Governor’s problems with Wike. He also asked Fubara not to appoint any Local Government  Caretaker Committee, something other Governors, including APC Governors, did. In addition, he asked Fubara to represent the State Budget, already passed by the Members of the House of Assembly loyal to the Governor, already signed into Law by Fubara, and already being implemented.

While Fubara quickly adhered to the first two, Court cases stopped him, till date, from representing the 2024 budget.

The two men – political godfather and political godson – as well as their vociferous loyalists have been at one another’s throat since. No intervention has worked. Peace is far.

What is surprising is that neither Wike nor Fubara has had the courage to make public what came between them. Even during the interview with ChannelsTV, the usually blunt Wike avoided answering  directly when he was asked the question. He took refuge in emphasizing that after making  Fubara Governor, it now boils down to “he refused to give me billions of Naira”. However, at the beginning of the crisis, Wike had said that Fubara wanted to interfere with his “political structure”, while Fubara hints at  Wike’s dictatorship.

Sources, not independently confirmed by this magazine, insist that both men fell out because Fubara dared appoint the Commissioner for Information without referring and/or clearing with Wike. Said one of the sources: “No, money was not the problem. They agreed on N2.5b per month. The Governor kept to it. The problem was because the Governor dared appoint a Commissioner without clearing with Wike.”

Asked by Okinbaloye if he would support Fubara for a second term, given that as a sitting Governor  Fubara has the first choice of refusal, Wike’s blunt answer was an emphatic no.

He said he would never work with Fubara, and dismissed him as ungrateful. He also said there was no law that gives anybody the first choice of refusal.

And asked if he would ever make peace with the Governor, his answer, again, was no.

He accused Governor Fubara of taking advantage of President Tinubu’s intervention to insult him. He hinted that Fubara disrespected the President by not adhering to the terms of settlement as advised by the President.

For instance, he said that Fubara refused to represent the budget and instead, triggered  Court cases against it using some people.

“I am not stupid. I respected the President and agreed to everything, but what did he ( Fubara) do? He reneged. All those running around him now were against my making him Governor. Now, they remember they are Ijaw. They are Rivers Elders.

He, specifically, took on a former Governor of the State, Chief Rufus Ada George, Chairman of Rivers Elders Forum, and said he was earlier having meetings with APC people. “Is he a member if PDP? He should go and ask God for forgiveness over the activities of the ‘Bush Boys’ when he was Governor.

Instructively, for now, Wike does not have a good relationship with any of his Governor-predecessors.  Chief Rufus Ada George. Dr. Peter Odili. Chibuike Amaechi. And now, his successor, Fubara.