I’m Not Ready To Mend Fences With Fubara – Wike Speaks On Rivers Crisis
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says the possibility of mending fences with his erstwhile political godson and Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara is quite remote.
Dismissing the likelihood of reconciliation in their on-going rofo-rofo fight, Wike slammed Fubara and his allies for ignoring and trashing directives issued at the peace meeting convened by President Bola Tinubu.
The FCT Minister was making reference to the 2023 political arrangement, where his group and that of Governor Fubara endorsed an eight-point peace deal initiated by President Tinubu and other stakeholders at a crucial meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Unfortunately, the peace accord collapsed unceremoniously with claims from the Rivers State Governor of being coerced into signing the pact which many political watchers observed was tilted overwhelmingly in favour of the FCT Minister’s camp.
However, offering his thoughts on the festering crisis within the Oil-rich State at a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, Wike took a swipe at his successor and his associates for not only being deceitful but also disrespectful to the President.
He insisted that rather than being discourteous and cheeky, Governor Fubara and his new-found friends should have gone back to President Tinubu to brief him and state their reasons for being unable to implement the terms of the peace deal.
According to the Minister; “I’m wondering, what conflict to resolve? Mr President, in his wisdom, called all parties. He said, ‘This is the problem, and I want this problem to be resolved. Withdraw the impeachment notice. You go and do this; you go and do that. and everybody agreed with it.”
“The Assembly withdrew the impeachment notice; you did one and two, and then you sent people to go to court. Elder, have you gone back to Mr President to tell him this assignment you gave us? We’ve done one and two, but we can’t do three and four.
“Mr President, can you call us back to see whether we can find a solution to three and four since one and two have been executed?
“I have never seen this in my life—for a President to call parties, and one party goes back and says it’s political, not binding and unconstitutional. Who does that?”
The current face-off between the Governor and the Minister started just few months into the Fubara’s administration with the once closely-knitted political family being torn-apart by the struggle for the ‘soul’ of the oil-rich Niger Delta state.
And despite spirited denials from the FCT Minister and his allies, many stakeholders and political commentators have maintained that the battle to control Rivers State’s resources is majorly the reason behind the seemingly intractable conflict between the former Governor and his successor, Fubara since the inauguration of the new administration on May 29, 2023.
