By Lanre Oloyede
Chieftain of ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Jackson Lekan-Ojo, has urged the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesome Wike, to respect the fact that he no longer has the power to control the political structure in Rivers State.
Speaking on the ongoing political feud between the incumbent governor Simi Fubara and the former governor, the political analyst noted that Fubara being in possession of the executive powers is the authentic political leader in the State.
Chief Lekan-Ojo stated that the structure that Wike was laying claim to was never built by him but was rather built by former governor Peter Odili and inherited by successive governors including Wike.
Recall that while addressing a press conference last week after the intervention of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the imbroglio between both parties, Wike had said that what he was fighting to protect was his political structure and not money as alleged by Gov. Fubara.
Chief Lekan-Ojo in an interview with Nigerian Pilot had said Wike being a Minister no longer have the power to control the political structure in a State with a sitting governor.
” Despite the presidential intervention, Wike was still saying he was going to fight to finish because of his structure. Wike didn’t built this structure, this structure was built by former governor Peter Odili, inherited by Omehia, Amaechi and later Wike. That’s the same structure on ground till today, so the head of political structure in Rivers State is no longer Wike but the incumbent governor, he’s the leader of the party in the state. Why is Wike tryin to contest it. Wike should calm down because he doesn’t have immunity or the power of a governor again today.
“Let Wike know that noone can be a principal forever, so what you need to do is to advice them, if Fubara decided not to listen to the advice it is to his peril.
“You can’t be controlling a governor as a Minister. When he was governor he was ruling as an emperor. If nobody could control him as governor he shouldn’t try to control anybody,” he said.
Good governance advocate cauntions both the Minister and governor to consider the interest of the Rivers people in their quest for power maintaining that the State is currently battling with Insecuirity and poverty.
“I want to appeal to Gov Wike, if there’s anywhere this Gov has erred or offended him or the State, he has a right as a brother, as a leader as a father to caution or advice him. It is not impeachment that matters. If they impeach this man, who is the man that is coming there, the next man coming there might be worse. Are we going to impeach that person again? No matter what, somebody that can err and you can call to order and can listen to you is manageable. There are some persons, when they err, they take offence. To me, former Gov Wike should come in to Rivers State, call these people to a roundtable as a father and a leader, they will listen to him and there will be peace in Rivers State.”
On the planned impeachment, the public affairs analyst posited that the Rivers State assembly members must carry the people of Rivers State along with proven evidence of gross misconduct against the governor.
According to him, the process of impeachment is clearly enshrined in the constitution and Rivers assembly members must adhere to the constitution.
“You must allow the people to know what are those infractions the governor has committed that warrant impeachment. So, once the people aggreed like that then you go to the floor of the house and you need two-third majority to agree that the governor should be impeached. But in a situation where you wake up in the morning, because you don’t like the face of the governor, you want to impeach him, I think it is nosensical.”
He stressed that impeachment and counter-impeachment is not what the people of Rivers need now, while he called on the political leaders in the State to respect one another.
“I think this is a political crisis taken too far, lives have been lost, properties worth billions have been destroyed, set ablaze by hoodlums loyal to either of the parties. The money they will use to rebuild the State house of assembly burnt down will definitely be higher than the money used to built it in the first place. This is money that should have been used for another developmental project in Rivers. I called it an unecessary imbroglio because it shouldnt have happened at all. Because there’s no reason for a state assembly that is predominatly PDP to want to wake up one morning to want to impeach the governor because all of them have one principal in Wike.
“No matter what the Gov Fubara must have done to offend Wike, it is not suppossed to be a serious thing. If Gov. Fubara had offended the people of Rivers State that is when he has committed a serious offence. If he has politically offended Wike that is no offence at all because that is personal. Yes we know Gov Wike supported Fubara to be governor but that support alone couldn’t have taken him to the government house without the votes of the Rivers people. So, Wike did little while the Rivers people did a lot to make him governor. So if he has offended Wike, it is insignificant, if he has not offended the people of Rivers State, then he has not committed any impeachable offence. As at today, there’s no house of assembly in Rivers State because it is factionalized.
The political analyst urged the actors in the impasse not to introduce ethnic coloration in the crisis as this may spell doom for the stability of the State
“There should be no ethnic coloration to this, it is not a battle between the Ijaws and Ekwere people, it is a battle between wike and Fubara,” he averred.
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