The political structure of former governor of Rivers State, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, is being destroyed by his successor, Siminalayi Fubara, leaving Wike a political orphan in the state. The same treatment Wike meted out to his own predecessor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi
By Jude Nzennaya, Port Harcourt
The current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, was alleged to be a special hit man of the government of Rivers State throughout the days he served in the administration of Rotimi Amaechi
Amaechi oversaw the affairs of Rivers State as governor for eight years between 2007 and 2015, having battled Celestine Omehia to the Supreme Court where the latter was deposed.
Wike who served as the Chief of Staff to Amaechi was alleged to be the unseen hand in most of the alleged dirty jobs and outings of Amaechi government, including those that had to do with alleged looting, mismanagement and misappropriation of Rivers State funds, as well as alleged phony contracts.
Those were the years of yore in the relationship between Wike and Amaechi when both men remained each other’s Man Friday. Armed with the knowledge that his CoS had known so much about the shenanigans and sheer brigandage which characterized his government, Amaechi became vehemently opposed to Wike succeeding him as the governor of Rivers State. Thus, when the snippets of Wike’s governorship ambition leaked out to the public at the twilight of Amaechi government, they gnawed Amaechi’s intestines making him become sorely irritated by such ambition. Both men were on the verge of ending a relationship that had become frosty.
Then President Goodluck Jonathan had found a true ally in Wike whose political career had begun to witness some turmoil in his home state as the latter shifted his political allegiance to Abuja. Jonathan appointed Wike a Minister of State (MoS) Education which brought him to Abuja where he was helped to consolidate his political ambition. Amaechi had lost favour with Jonathan and the presidency under his watch when he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014 to help Muhammadu Buhari contest and win the 2015 presidential election against Jonathan. Buhari defeated Jonathan in that election.
But Jonathan had not lost all. He promptly deployed the federal might to ensure that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which Amaechi dumped to join the APC, won the governorship contest in Rivers State in 2015.
The governorship election of 2015 in Rivers State between Amaechi’s protege, Dakuku Peterside and Wike became the hottest and the deadliest governorship election in the history of the oil-rich state. Both contestants-Wike of the PDP and Peterside of the APC-were not the real gladiators in the ring for the election. The main gladiators were Amaechi and Jonathan. Whereas Amaechi allegedly deployed the state’s resources with reckless abandon to ditch his sworn enemies-Jonathan and Wike-in the contest, Jonathan who was still a lame duck president and possessed the federal might albeit feebly, unleashed same in Rivers State to turn the table against Amaechi and his political godson, Peterside.
During that year’s governorship election in Rivers State, scores of lives were lost in the supremacy war between the two gladiators as all kinds of deadly strategies were deployed by both camps to undo the opponent. Wike, by hook or crook, won the election. His victory became the beginning of Amaechi’s political travail in the state. Luckily for Amaechi, he was made Minister of Transportation in the Buhari government as a payback for his efforts in allegedly financing Buhari presidential election. Otherwise, Wike was ready to cut a pound of flesh from Amaechi. Through the eighth years Wike ruled Rivers State, Amaechi was made a political orphan in the state. All Amaechi’s political structures in the state were destroyed before his very eyes by the man he trusted as his CoS, Wike. Under Wike government, Amaechi was flagrantly persecuted in the state by Wike who incited citizens of the state against him. Wike made sure he destroyed all the legacies of the Amaechi administration, and even abandoned all the unfinished projects he inherited from his predecessor where billions of naira belonging to the state had been sunk. Amaechi’s saving grace from Wike’s attacks was the Federal Government backing he enjoyed from Buhari who allowed him to be a minister for almost eight years.
When Amaechi was the governor of Rivers State, he did all within his power to suppress the political relevance of Dr. Peter Odili who handed over to him. Odili, the political godfather of Amaechi, had turned his archenemy after Amaechi wrestled power from Omehia using the Supreme Court. Odili ensured that Amaechi, his Personal Assistant (PA), remained the Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly through the eight years he (Odili) ruled the state as governor.
But then President Olusegun Obasanjo was opposed to Odili’s PA, Amaechi, succeeding his boss. After the PDP governorship primary election of 2006 which Amaechi contested and won, Obasanjo had flown into Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State on a state visit to declare that Amaechi’s governorship candidacy had “k-leg”. By that declaration, the former president had disqualified Amaechi from contesting the governorship poll of 2007 under the PDP platform.
Then incumbent governor, Odili, was helpless in challenging Obasanjo because he had numerous allegations of graft hanging on his neck and those of his government officials for which Obasanjo was ready to unleash his attack dog, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on them. Omehia was drafted in to contest the governorship election using the PDP platform. And the PDP coasted home to victory. Thus Omehia ruled.
But Amaechi pursued his stolen mandate to the Supreme Court where the apex court ruled that in Nigeria voters do vote for political parties, not individuals. Amaechi was sworn in as the governor. Both Odili and Amaechi parted ways politically because Amaechi had accused Odili of connivance with Obasanjo to stop him from ruling the state. For that reason, Odili became politically irrelevance in Rivers State throughout Amaechi’s tenure as governor.
What Amaechi did to Odili and his political structures in Rivers State, Wike meted out same to Amaechi as his (Amaechi) nemesis. Since 2007, the retributive law has been haunting immediate past governors of Rivers State through their successors. But Wike was oblivious of this law of karma when he admonished Rivers State indigenes, last year during a campaign tour for the governorship election, to be respectful of his successor, Simi Fubara as their governor if he was elected. But Wike, himself, has violated his own admonition when he has chosen to rule the state by proxy from Abuja where he is serving as the FCT Minister, an action that has begun to tear his jealously guarded political structures in the state to shreds.
It was alleged that Wike desires to be the unseen man in charge of affairs at the state Government House where Fubara is the sitting governor. Wike is alleged to have donated all the Commissioners in Fubara’s government, appointed the CoS to Fubara as well as the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the incumbent governor, thereby ensuring that the sitting governor would remain a rubber-stamp ruler of the state. More nauseating is the allegation that Wike also demands Fubara to be allocating a sizeable chunk of the state’s monthly revenue to his (Wike) private bank account as the reward accrued to him for helping Fubara win the election.
Fubara would not accept to be a weakling in the state he governs, having realized that he has a responsibility to deliver dividends of democracy to the people of his state. Consequently, Fubara has been battling to extricate himself and the state’s resources from the dangerous claws of Wike. And such move is not without dire consequences, mostly on the side of Wike.
To effectively destabilize and weaken Wike’s influence in the state, Fubara had on Monday, May 13, 2024, declared that he would set up a panel of inquiry to probe the eight years that Wike ruled the state. If Fubara should follow through with the threat, it means that Wike may be called upon by the EFCC to render account of his stewardship for the eight years, especially as it relates to how he spent the funds that accrued to the state within the period under review.
Recall that Fubara was once the Accountant General of Rivers in Wike’s administration under whose watch the EFCC started investigation into an alleged missing N432 billion belonging to the state. Fubara was still being investigated by the EFCC at the time he contested and won the governorship election. Tongues have already begun to wag as to what would be the outcome of the Fubara panel when it begins to look into the financial books of Rivers State under Wike. Many believe that Fubara would have a lot to indict Wike because the sitting governor knew most of the transactions Wike’s administration carried out.
Fubara declared his government’s intention to probe Wike during the swearing in of the new Rivers State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Dagogo Iboroma, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) at the Government House in Port Harcourt. Earlier, the three-man members of the House of Assembly had screened Iboroma and given him a clean bill of health, an action that legal experts insist contravenes the Constitution because in the House of Assembly made up of 31 members, only three members cannot form a quorum.
Fubara had said, “So, my brother, Dagogo Iboroma, you are going to be the brand new Attorney General of our dear state. SSG (Secretary to the State Government), give him his letter, he is the Attorney General.
“Why are we bringing you in at this critical time? We have a lot of issues around us. We believe that you are not going to be the one that when they send service to you, you go and file “Nolle Prosequi” or you go and file one thing that will kill us here.
“Let me also say this, you have a big task. We will be setting up a Judicial Panel of Inquiry to investigate the affairs of governance. So, brace up, I am not going back on it
“I am happy that this is happening today to mark the beginning of a new era in our administration.
“When I said that I had a reason for being patient, it is because I know that we are all from one family. And if we have a disagreement, no matter how bad it is, it should be resolved amicably.
“But it has become very clear that this disagreement, there is no way to resolve it amicably. And for a lot of reasons, there are visible evidences that there is sabotage, deliberate attempt to sabotage this administration.
“For that reason, we have to move forward. And, moving forward, if it means taking decisions that are going to hurt anybody, we are not going back on the protection of the interest of Rivers people”.
