Daggers and Loggerheads in Rivers State -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

Rivers State, one of Nigeria’s most important, and frankly more iconic states, is in danger of being turned into a full-blown circus thanks to a puerile political crisis.
At the heart of the problem is a truly colossal fallout. In 2023, the constitutional transience of power caught up with Nyesom Wike, who had been governor for eight years. He needed a successor. Rivers State required a new governor. The constitution demanded it. To replace him, Wike installed Similanayi Fubara. He had worked closely with Fubara during his time in office and there was the unmistakable feeling that there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent Fubara from becoming governor.

Fubara duly ‘won’ the election and was sworn in, but as with many political alliances in Nigeria, it did not take long for it to emerge that all was not well. It began with a series of expensive rumors and explosive whispers before moving really fast into the complete degeneration of the relationship of two men who had called the shots in Rivers State.

Neutrals soon weighed in even with the supporters of both men breaking into camps. While Wike was blasted for attempting to govern the state by proxy, Fubara was commended for digging in his heels in a bid to protect the people of his state.

As the battle for supremacy between both men has heated up, so many things have happened in the state. The House of Assembly Complex was demolished with the lawmakers splitting into camps while controversial local government elections were conducted with some local government secretariats razed. Recently, following the judicial intervention of the supreme court which has upturned the local government elections as well as restored a camp of the lawmakers to the leadership of the State Assembly, things have become especially heated in the state. Yet, maximum caution must be exercised lest an uncontrollable conflagration is started. Fire usually starts small but can really spread quickly.

In case Wike and Fubara need to be reminded, they are only but two indigenes of a state which counts millions of others. Thus, the state cannot be allowed to burn because of them. Political differences are part of the game, but they must have the dignity and discretion not to let their political differences affect governance in Rivers State as it is currently doing.

It is also important for the loyalists of both men to understand that their loyalty is owed first to the constitution and then the good people of the state. This must not be lost especially on the legislators in the state house of Assembly who are showing that they are ready to go all the way to serve their political interests.

It is because of feuds like these that many people in Nigeria consider politics to be a dirty game. It looks after all that those Nigerians who thought that the days when godfathers held the reins in Nigerian politics, muddying the water as they went now belonged to the past were partially wrong.
Whatever it is, it makes only rotten sense clandestine arrangements reached in self-interest and nothing more are allowed to disrupt governance, especially the delivery of the dividends of democracy to those who need them most.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com