A Peoples Democratic Party group, PDP Frontliners has called on the Rivers state Governor Siminalayi Fubara to implement the President Bola Tinubu brokered peace between him and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike.
The group advised the Rivers State Governor not to join the league of those that bite the hands that fed them, but should do everything possible to resolve the impasse between him and his godfather.
The PDP Frontliners in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja said political events and developments in the past few months have affirmed the significant presence of FCT Minister as one of the prime movers of Nigerian politics.
They said despite the claim by Wike’s critics in Rivers State and elsewhere, his “pivotal role in weakening the PDP’s support base, along with defections of key figures like Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, arguably contributed to All Progressives Congress (APC’s) electoral success in 2023”.
The statement signed by the Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jonah G. Sylbriks also said any objective review of Nigeria’s political power dynamics in 2023 will highlight the Wike factor and that has made it imperative for Governo Fubara to sustain the deference and respect for his predecessor as well as the accord brokered by President Ahmed Tinubu.
The group asked Fubara to avoid politicians’ working towards putting him in conflict against his long-term mentor, asserting that inasmuch “as a river that forgets its source runs the risk of drying up, Governor Fubara should not toe the line of another former Rivers state governor who repaid Dr. Peter Odili with ingratitude and ran into political oblivion even after becoming a Minister.
“In 1998, Wike, then Local Government Chairman of Obia Akpor Local Government, had Sim Fubara, a twenty-three (23) year old as his accountant/cashier, became a governor and made Fubara the accountant/cashier in Government House before making him a director and later, the state Accountant-General; at 46, Fubara as one of Nigeria’s youngest governors, has spent half of his years on earth working for or under Wike.
“Now that they have signed a peace accord, it behooves on the Governor and not Wike, to ensure a restoration to normalcy because the likely end loser of a prolonged fight is Fubara – who will spend the next few years watching his front and back instead of working to beat the record of his “father” and in any case, turbulence in Rivers State now will, in the long term, be blamed on the Governor, and not Wike, whose tenure turned Rivers into a mini political capital of Nigeria, saw rapid urban renewal and brought an end to the regular bouts of violence in the State.”
