Rivers State: Coup against Fubara and the Constitution

Even as the dust seems to settle over the recent sordid drama in Rivers State, which featured disturbing stories of attempted regime change, there are signs that sustainable peace still has a long wait to its return. This is because of the now disturbing intervention by the Rivers State PDP Elders Forum, who issued a communique which literally rekindled the flames of crisis, by taking sides in a matter that required the most transparent steps towards neutrality and balanced judgment.

In a latter development as well, some members of the Rivers State caucus in the National Assembly also threw their weight behind the position of the Rivers State PDP Elders Forum, and by implication also assumed in error, the unfortunate role of insensitive traducers of peace in Rivers State.

The matter under consideration is the recent proxy fight between the serving governor of Rivers State Siminialayi Fubara and his immediate predecessor in office – Nyesom Wike, who is also now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Unfortunately, much of the circumstances of the matter have been twisted out of context to the extent that truth has also been sacrificed on the altar of political considerations bordering on the hedonistic calculus of who gets what, when and how, even as the very tenet of democracy being constitutionalism is being eroded to give way to crass opportunism by whoever finds his or her way into the corridors of power.

Nigerians woke up last Monday to the news of a fire incident at the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA), and while pondering over the development, they were inundated with additionally bizarre angles to it. In one dimension was the story of a pre-existing in fighting among the members of the assembly over loyalty to either Fubara or Wike.

That incident led to blame trading at the instance of the fire incident, where upon different principal officers were indicted, removed and as at now have their statuses remaining swinging before the public. The drama even proceeded to the parade of stories of an impeachment move to remove Fubara from office.

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Then emerged another angle of Fubara going to the RSHA premises accompanied by a crowd at a time the assembly was reportedly embroiled in the process of spirited infighting. Then comes the angle of the Police trying to manage the crowd with water cannon, tear gas and sporadic gun shots. And by this development spawning the circumstance of Fubara’s complaint of being shot at by the officers.

At the last count, several moves by sundry stake holders are ongoing to broker sustainable peace between the Fubara and Wike camps in order for the Rivers State to go back to the task of routine   governance. That is where wise counsel needs to be followed by all parties to the fracas, namely Fubara, Wike, and as many other stakeholders as possible in this matter. This position tallies with the reported intervention by President Bola Tinubu, to restore peace between the warring factions.

However, this is where the prospects for peace in this situation remain anchored on the respect for constitutionalism and due process by all parties involved, given that Nigeria is evolving into a democracy with a Constitution to serve as the grundnorm and hence direct the process of governance. It is by the same fact that all statutory elective and appointive offices from the President to the lowest level officials of the local government system, are filled in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.  Hence in any situation of disharmony in the polity or instance of deviation, sustainable restoration has to be anchored on the provisions of that Constitution, before any other consideration. And it is in that context that a sustainable position for the crisis in Rivers State has prospects of resolution.

Much as a powerful convergence of interests, including the Rivers State PDP Elders Forum, the Wike loyalists among the Rivers caucus in the National Assembly and any other factor may still be fixated on a trumped up messianic status of the former governor of the state, such need to smell the coffee at this stage and embrace the incontrovertible fact that a new reality for the Rivers State emerged from May 29th 2023. And that is the cessation of Nyesom Wike as the governor of Rivers State and the enthronement of Siminialayi Fubara as the replacement of the former. And by such circumstance Fubara remains the new ‘Lord of the Manor’, whose administration needs to be accorded deference by all concerned, including Wike himself. Fubara is also by the same fact, the new ‘de jure’ leader of the PDP political family in the Rivers State including the Elders Forum which even failed to resolve the rift when they should have done the needful, and allowed it to escalate to its new disturbing dimension.

Perhaps the need exists for Fubara to spare a glance at the classic book by British politician and scholar, Michael Stewart – ‘The British Approach Politics’, where he averred that the primary mission of any administration is to assert its authority throughout its domain. This is the factor that raises the question “If a government fails to make the governed obey its legitimate laws, rules and regulations, why then is it in office?’

Interestingly, in his capacity as the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike is asserting himself with utmost alacrity, ostensibly without encumbrance even from his new boss President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. How and why he indulges in his reported meddlesomeness in Rivers State—so long after his exit as governor on May 29th 2023—is due to the concession granted him by Fubara, no more no less. And like the Holy Bible with which Fubara was sworn into office says in Ecclesiastes 10:8, “… he that breaks the hedge, shall be bitten by a snake.”

If Fubara’s plight is because he has broken a hedge and is under attack, he owes himself and the people of Rivers State the duty to divest himself of the siege mentality under which he may be operating and launch out, to be reckoned with, as a man of his own in the governance of the Rivers State.