One of the elders in Rivers State, Amabipi Martins has said President Bola Tinubu is only trying to be a good political mentor to ex-governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike.
Martins, while condemning the agreement signed by Governor Fubara, in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, also said the FCT minister is only trying to replicate the total power control that the president has on Lagos, in Rivers State.
“Everything about that meeting with the president, the conclusions are unacceptable, vexatious and one sided. Like someone said, the president is just trying to be a good mentor to Wike because what the president has been for Lagos in terms of control and power, that’s what Wike wants to do in Rivers State. He wants to appropriate political and economic power to himself and of course the facts are very obvious.
“Wike should be told that the state does not belong to him. It belongs to the whole collective of over five million people and he cannot decide on how governance should be and how the government should run. He was a governor and of course the rule is that once you are done, you should pack and go. People that are seen on the political scene should object to that and I object as an individual.
“The conclusions are all one-sided. For instance, what is the status of the former legislators? They have left their party and have gone to a party that has not one single representation in the house of assembly. Can they still come and make laws? Can they look at the budget?
“They are not in a position to do that because the directive of the president and of course the collection of people there, says the governor should re-present his budget raises a question. Who is he going to represent the budget to? To the twenty-five former legislators who have defected from their party and now has no status as legislators?”
Martins further stated that Wike is taking advantage of governor Fubara, knowing that he is a newbie in politics who is still learning the ropes.
“Honestly, it appears that even the governor is completely new in politics and political theatrics. He is learning his ropes. He may not be aware of the implication. He too needs to be tutored on the fact that even as a governor, the state doesn’t belong to him.
“There are stakeholders, the citizens and of course, he has a wide support. He should be able to have consulted them on these conclusions before signing an agreement. That was supposed to be a peace meeting but lawyers have said that it has no legal or constitutional impact on the outcome of the meeting.
“Wike possibly recruited Fubara to agree to contest, promising to make it possible for him to be the governor of the state. Of Course, he succeeded in accomplishing that aim. Rivers people did not know at that time that that was the agreement between the two of them. But at this point in time, what Is showing up is that Wike is not satisfied with the response of Fubara to his demands as his mentor, sponsor and that having become a governor, he would pay back.
“But these are not normal considerations for a good polity. The generality of the people cannot accept whatever the two of them agreed for selfish reasons. Now that we have known, we would not say that only Wike was culpable; Fubara too. But one thing that is obvious is that Fubara is new in politics and so Wike has the advantage of manipulating him to agree to whatever.
He stated that all that the people of Rivers State are asking is for the governor to stand on his constitutional rights and do his constitutional duties for the state.
“What Rivers people want to do is to see that a normal political atmosphere exists, in which we are not going to have a relationship of father and Son in sharing the resources of the state. We want the governor to stand on his constitutional rights and do the job the constitution allows him to do, no matter whatever means he became governor.”
Chioma Kalu
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