APC chairman details reasons behind Rivers political crisis
Chief Tony Okocha, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Rivers Caretaker Committee, has pointed to the deteriorating relationship between the governor and members of the state assembly as a key factor contributing to the ongoing political crisis in Rivers State.
He emphasized that this unhealthy dynamic has created significant tension and discord within the political landscape, hindering effective governance and collaboration.
Okocha, while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja, also blamed the Rivers political crisis on the struggle for political structures by political big wigs in the state.
He said the seeming crisis in the state were centrifugal, noting that issues of internal wrangling came to a head in the state under its present Governor, Similaye Fubara.
According to Okocha, under Nyesom Wike, the state’s immediate past governor and now the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, the state was a construction site.
This, he said, was because Wike built working bridges and developed other infrastructure across the state and brought in laurels that were due to it.
“Unfortunately for him, he introduced to the political scene, somebody he felt was a confidant, who is, today, the state governor. He was not a politician.
“He was a civil servant all his life and Wike catapulted him from Deputy Director to Director Finance and Administration, and directed that he be posted to the Government House.
“He was later made Chief of Staff and was promoted few months after to Permanent Secretary Government House, in charge of finance and was later made the Accountant General.
“Fubara was never in politics, he was just a routine civil servant, but for whatever it is worth, Wike felt he should hand over to a confidant as is normal with Nigerian politicians,” Okocha said.
He added that Wike was able to sell Fubara to Rivers people and spoke for him all through the political campaigns, apparently because he didn’t know what to say before he was elected.
He said that Fubara had never been a Councillor or Local Government Chairman.
“His first stint in politics was the highest office in the state because Wike was there for him,” Okocha said.
The APC Rivers caretaker committee chairman added that ahead of his election, Fubura feigned loyalty and humility and submitted himself to Wike which turned out to be a decoy at the end of the day.
According to Okocha, three months after assuming office as governor, Fubara was convinced by some politicians opposed to Wike to build his own political structures out of their selfish reasons.
This, he said, brought the state to its current political crisis as Fubara, in a bid to build his own political structure, was destroying Wike’s already established structures.
He explained that while Wike could be linked to the political crisis in Rivers, the issue in the real sense, was the state governor versus the House of Assembly members and the struggle for political structures which was needed by every politician to succeed.
“What sustains every politician in the field is a potent structure and Wike could not sit and watch his political structures which raised Fubara and some members of the state assembly, destroyed.
“Fubara constituted a clog in the wheel of Wike’s political structures and was dismantling it which Wike couldn’t take.
“The reason we are having Rivers in the news for bad things is because the state governor is fighting himself,” he said.
Speaking on the Federal High Court’s dismissal of a suit seeking to replace the pro-Wike 27 lawmakers, Okocha said Fubara is the chief law officer of the state and and also “the chief law breaker”.
This, he said, was especially because he chooses the order to obey and the one not to obey.
“When you do that, it is an invitation to anarchy; he is the one that brought ant-infested firewood to his house, and now lizards are feasting,” Okocha said.
He added that Fubura remains Wike’s political investment in Rivers, saying that Wike is not likely to allow him to destroy the political structures he built over the years.