Beware the Ides of March has been an unceasing admonition to politicians since the brutal assassination of Julius Caesar on 15 March, 44BC when events move in a certain troubling trajectory. In the case of Caesar, he was warned by a soothsayer and the wife Calpurnia as is usual with women was ill at ease. What with their intuition which is superior to any debate.
Didn’t Chief Obafemi Awolowo say to the world that his wife was a jewel of inestimable value who was usually Divinely guided? And didn’t the wife of Pontius Pilate say to her husband that she was troubled in her dream all night and her husband should “have thou nothing to do with the death of that man because He is innocent?” The innocent Man was no other than the Lord Christ. This is because women have abundance of richer spiritual content in their make-up that enables them to easily tell right from wrong than men. And so exultantly and confidently the wife of Charles de Gaulle one-time President of France: “Charles, you govern France, but I rule this house including you!”
Feeling confident, Caesar heads to the Senate meeting.
“I could be well moved. If I were you.
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me.
But I am constant as the Northern Star.
Of whose true fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks;
They are all fire, and everyone doth shine.
But there’s but one in all doth hold his place.”
Julius Caesar was felled, stabbed by his traducers.
The struggle in River State has been long coming. It began as soon as Siminalayi Fubara took up the mantle of office as governor, but he did not have enough experience to deal with people who are adept in the power game and watch his back. As I said last week, the crisis in the oil-blessed River State as unremitted struggle for political and economic control. Nyesom Wike is undoubtedly driving at enthronement of godfatherism worship to replicate the Lagos doctrine. Governor Fubara had wondered that since Wike governed Rivers State permitting no interference from any quarters why should he not be allowed to serve with the same free hands and latitude.
The relationship between Wike and Fubara was chummy in the early stages of the latter’s Administration. It was such that when Wike was appointed Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. Governor Fubara led some members of his cabinet, elders and stakeholders of the state to Abuja on a congratulatory celebration. There was hardly any visit to Port Harcourt by Wike that Fubara did not lead his officials to receive him at the airport.
Many of Wike’s commissioners when he was governor were inherited by Fubara. Unknown to Fubara there were undertows charging in the mass of waters that is Rivers State and abutting Government House. A secret plan had reached an advanced stage to impeach him. This was in October, 2023, when he was barely six months in office.
That was when things began to fall apart. Reports said he had to move fast to avert the harm to his rulership and political career so early. But some occurrence came to his rescue. A wing of the State Assembly building caught fire. The coincidence was too much not to insinuate that it was the handiwork of arsonists known to people in the executive. The Assembly members read into the incident a deliberate effort to stall the impeachment. They removed the Majority Leader of the House, Edison Ehie. The legislators were determined to still forge ahead with their impeachment resolve to a logical conclusion. However, they were disbanded by security operatives who drove them away. The governor himself came out. He addressed them describing the attempt to impeach him a nullity.
The House was broken with four going on the side of Governor Fubara and 27 for FCT Minister Nyesom Wike. The governor moved the Assembly to Government House ostensibly to rebuild or renovate the building damaged by fire. The governor said later that the building had suffered from integrity deficiency and had largely to be pulled down. The larger faction led by Speaker Martin Amaewhule refused to move the Assembly to Government House. On December 11, 2023, at a reception held in honour of Tony Okocha, chairman of APC chapter in River State, they announced their defection to APC. They were shown on video standing with Okocha raising hands and brandishing broom the symbol of APC.
Edison Ehie who had become the Speaker on the side of Fubara headed for the state High Court to obtain order recognising the four members as constituting the authentic Rivers State House of Assembly. He made efforts to declare the seat of the 27 group vacant since they had changed party and gone away with the APC. Based on that recognition the 2024 budget was presented to the four-man legislators. They passed it and Governor Fubara signed it into an appropriation law on the same day. Lawyers say that there had been a similar case of thin legislature strength in Plateau State before they could cite.The budget in Port Harcourt, anyway, covered the renovation of the Assembly building damaged.
On December 18, President Bola Tinubu waded into the crisis, asking the parties in the rift to sheathe their swords and embrace peace. Fubara was asked to re- absorb the pro-Wike commissioners who had left the administration of their own free will. He was asked to re-present the 2025 budget as well. He re-absorbed the commissioners but he declined to re-present the appropriation bill which those to him said had been overtaken. This lead to renewed stand-off.
Wike said the only path to peace in the state is in Fubara re-presenting the 2025 budget and tabling his list of commissioners before the expanded legislative house. As the crisis situation was deteriorating President Tinubu came in with a big stick! He declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, March 18, exactly two years Fubara had his electoral victory at the polls. It is not the state of emergency that is so much of a problem, but the attendant sacking of the governor, his deputy, Professor (Mrs.) Ngozi Odu; their Executive Council; and Members of the State Assembly. Lawyers argue that by so doing the President has exceeded his brief spelt out in the constitution.
It is reassuring that lawyers have been churning out quite some literature on this such that everything, the hastiness of action by the Federal Authority has sounded more like working to the answer. Many analysists say the gaze is on 2027 and Rivers State is crucial in the electoral calculation. What with Wike conducting himself with his accustomed lack of refinement and with a certain sense of entitlement to Rivers State beyond a call to serve for which we all must bow our spirit in humility for the Grace. What with the pro-Wike State House of Assembly members not making themselves available for Governor Fubara to present his budget and list of commissioners in line with the ruling of the Supreme Court! To frustrate him the Assembly adjourned indefinitely without any thought about his finding the resources to run and meet the obligations of the state.
The governor, addressing the people of River State before vacating Government House on Wednesday, said: “Even in the face of the political impasse, we have remained committed to constitutional order and the rule of law, putting the interest of our people above all else. This was why immediately after Mr. President’s intervention to broker peace, we did not hesitate to implement the agreed terms in good faith, including welcoming back commissioners who had previously resigned on their own volition.
‘‘Furthermore, we moved swiftly to comply with the Supreme Court’s judgment immediately we received the certified true copy of the judgment to return the state to normalcy…. Unfortunately, at every turn, members of the Rivers State House of Assembly frustrated our efforts, thus making genuine peace and progress difficult.”
The craving for power and influence by man is an age-long intoxication. It was for fear of losing power and influence that the political and priestly establishments in Israel conspired to get rid of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And they executed Him, who brought the Holy Word of Salvation. The end to the intoxication is not in sight and will not be until mankind have the knowledge of the consequences of the burden in every wrongdoing which are awaiting them in life hereafter! They are severe; they are relentless. The entire Creation is governed by immutable, living and self-acting Laws.
Fubara and his government should be immediately recalled. State of Emergency may be retained to curb lawlessness such as emerging oil pipeline vandalisation which President Tinubu accused Fubara of not censoring. Options to return the state to normalcy can be exhausted in the arbitration of the courts. States are coordinate entities with the Centre; that is why we are a federation.
