Rivers Political Crisis: Fubara Goes For Broke

The crisis in the politics of Rivers State reached a crescendo during the week when Governor Siminalayi Fubara declared that he would throw in everything to save his government from detractors.
Fubara’s declaration followed a confession by his estranged political godfather and immediate-past Governor of the state, Chief Nyesom Wike, that his installation of Fubara was a mistake, which he would soon correct.
The governor further declared that he would set up a panel of inquiry to probe governance in the state and charged the new attorney general of the state, Mr. Dagogo Iboroma, to brace up for action as he would lead the soon to start legal battle.
While addressing elder statesmen from Bayelsa State earlier in the week, the governor said those who had cocked their gun and shot at their target but failed because the gun had a safety catch had already killed their target and deserved to be buried.
Also addressing the leadership and members of Ijaw Youth Congress that visited him at Government House, Port Harcourt, Governor Fubara said he was now more determined than ever to liberate the state from people that had held it down for a long time, in an apparent reference to his political opponents.
“By the grace of God, what they thought they would have done to us as we celebrate our one year in office has failed. They are now the restless ones having sleepless night,” he said.
He has also sent warning signals to local government chairmen whose privileges he has tried to circumvent by getting to pay local government workers’ salaries through the respective heads of local government administration in the state as against the previous system of letting the chairmen handle the salary payments.
The tone for the week was set when Justice Charles Wali of the Rivers State High Court gave an order of interim injunction declaring that the 27 pro-Wike members of the House of Assembly led by Martin Amaewhule should stop parading themselves as lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The order also invalidated all the laws made by the 27 legislators.
The court order further threw a spanner in the machinery of the Wike-led structure by declaring also that the remaining three members of the House of Assembly under the speakership of Victor Oko-Jumbo constituted the legitimate legislature of the state.
Fubara declared that the eight-point peace proclamation he signed with Wike at the instance of President Bola Tinubu late last year was an attempt to find a political resolution to the crisis and had no legal binding effect. The eight-point proclamation had among others barred the house of assembly members from impeaching the governor, and for the governor to recognise the 27 House of Assembly members, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that sponsored their election into the Assembly. It also asked the governor to re-present the 2024 budget to the Amaewhule-led house of assembly.
However since the proclamation, the Amaewhule-led legislators had been at daggers drawn with the governor. They have vetoed his assent to several bills while the governor had refused to re-present the budget to them.
The legislators had also made amendment to the local government bill to extend the tenures of the current local government chairmen and councillors, who are also loyal to Wike.
Rivers State was not only on the horns of a dilemma but was heading for a date with anarchy. Shortly after Justice Wali invalidated the membership of the 27 pro-Wike legislators, Governor Fubara took a visit to the legislators’ quarters where he said he went to inspect the integrity of the buildings.
The propriety of Fubara’s unscheduled visit to the legislative quarters is till generating a lot of reactions from different quarters. Hon. Evans Bipi, a former Rivers State House of Assembly member, insists that Governor Fubara is the landlord of the government quarters and does not need to give any prior notice to the lawmakers of his visit to the legislative quarters.
While the lawmakers loyal to the FCT Minister are strategizing on their next line of action, Rt. Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo in tandem with the lawmakers loyal to Governor Fubara have started exercising their legislative functions by screening a commissioner nominee.