Emeka Obasi
Those who dread tidal wave should avoid Rivers State where from obscurity, Governor Simi Fubara, recently gained popularity as a Sea Lord. It will take more than the experience of Admiral Chester Nimitz to bring him down.
Fubara kept his cool after godfather Nyesom Wike tried to reduce him to an all-correct – sir yardman. Apparently, the former only lay low to study the dynamics of power and keep the peace. The latter could not read the handwriting on the wall.
And now the tide has turned in favour of the new man. In the last one month, the Rivers State helmsman has gained tremendous advantage over the opposition, from the high sea to rural areas. The whole environment is a massive defection site.
When you have Evans Bipi leading the Simplified Movement, it portends danger for the rival camp. Bipi represented Ogu/ Bolo Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly for twelve consecutive years. He is best remembered as one of those Wike used to rattle his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi.
As governor, Amaechi was reprimanded publicly by Mrs Patience Jonathan over matters affecting Okrika. It was during the Dr. Goodluck presidency. Bipi and Wike were handy tools in that political battle to push the incumbent governor out of relevance.
Today Bipi has openly confessed that Peter Obi’s Labour Party won the elections in Rivers State. The import is that Wike cannot continue to brag about a larger-than-life control of the grassroots. Those who made Wike are coming out boldly to denounce him.
The endorsement of Fubara by Dr. Peter Odili came like a tsunami. The grand godfather of Rivers politics used the inauguration of a Primary Health Care Centre in Ogba/Egbema/ Ndoni Local Government Area to speak out, loud and clear.
Odili’s successor, Celestine Omehia, is for Fubara as well. Although Amaechi has not come out openly to give Fubara a hug, it is certain that the former Transportation minister will continue to stay away from his Ikwerre brother.
Dr. Abiye Sekibo is leading People’s Democratic Party ( PDP ) elders, against Wike. In this group are prominent politicians like Austin Opara, a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tele Ikuru who served Omehia and Amaechi as Deputy Governor, Senator Lee Maeba and Uche Secondus.
Although Wike dismissed these men as expired politicians who have nothing to offer, it is difficult to ignore a former minister and Secretary to the State government, like Sekibo or a man who once presided over the PDP. These people wined and dined with the FCT minister in the past.
Fubara has penetrated Ikwerre, Wike’s base. Allies like Ken Amadi, Acho Nna and Collins Onunwo are Simplified. Nna is the strongman of Wike’s Rumueprikom/Etioparanwa Ward 9, in Obio/Akpor. Onunwo played a huge part in the Grassroots Development Initiative ( GDI ), Wike’s political stormtroopers.
Questions are flying in the air as Fubara continues to wax stronger. Tammy Danagogo served as a minister in the Jonathan cabinet. He joined as a Two-star appointee. Wike made it as a Junior Minister. Promotion came when his boss, a woman, exited.
Danagogo was Secretary to the Rivers State government under Wike. Fubara retained him and the man remains cool in the new dispensation. Gradually, the governor of Abuja may find loneliness as a stubborn companion, in a House of Exile.
The Rivers State governor is enjoying home support. Opobo elders, led by Alabo Edwin Cockeye Brown, would not close their eyes and watch their son humiliated. They are battle-tested. This is the home of King Jaja, Col. Joshua John ( J.J. ) Brown and Gen. Kenneth Minimah.
Jaja was opposed to Imperial control of trade in the Niger Delta and stood firm. He was tricked into exile. Fubara is watchful. Col. Brown was the soldier’s soldier. Some of his boys later became generals. One of them, Ibrahim Haruna, preferred the initials, IBM. Minimah, a Three-Star general, earned wings as a paratrooper.
Cockeye Brown’s wife, Ebizi, is the daughter of Gen. Charles Ndiomu, the first Izon Major General. Her brother, Gen. Barry Ndiomu, recently stepped down after his one-year tenure as Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme elapsed. Abuja politics could have prevented an extension.
Fubara knows the power of the sea. Federal troops were able to win the Civil War after taking over Rivers State through landings in Bonny and Port Harcourt. The Biafrans did not have enough to navigate the terrain. Isaac Boro helped the Federal cause. He died around Ogu, Bipi’s Constituency.
Fubara has taken over the sea. Bipi and his Simplified Movement are creating Squadrons around the waterside. From there, they will grow to Flotilla and advance to a Fleet.
The battle is set. I would not know if the opposition can unearth the Battle of Midway notes of Nimitz who led America to stem Japan in the Pacific during World War Two.
And the governor is barking. Chairman of the Ogba/ Egbema/ Ndoni area will take a message back to his colleagues. “You have already dug your pit, you will fall inside”.
While war rages, peace is necessary for development to take place. Fubara should bring everyone together. How about reconciling Amaechi and Odili? That will be a masterstroke.