* L-R: Fubara; Wike
By Yinka Olopade
Thursday March 13, 2025
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Nyensom Wike, the Federal Capital Territory Minister and estranged political godfather of Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has replied to the threat by some Ijaw-linked militant groups which vowed to blow up crude oil pipelines and hold the nation to ransom should Fubara be impeached.
Wike told the Ijaw militants who are supporting the embattled governor that heaven will not fall should Fubara be impeached for constitutional infractions.
The minister spoke during a live interview with some television reporters, monitored in Abuja on Wednesday.
The Ijaw National Congress, INC, once again reiterated its earlier position that if Fubara (an Ijaw man) was impeached for any reason, the consequences would be too heavy for the country to bear economically
Describing the lawmakers’ action as reckless, the INC said Wike cannot drag the Ikwerre and Ijaw Nations into a tribal war.
The minister tongue-lashed the INC and said every ethnic group in the Niger Delta could do whatever others were doing, warning that no one should arrogate to himself the monopoly of violence.
He said: “Who has called for his impeachment? Who? If he has committed an infraction to be impeached, what is wrong? Is impeachment a criminal offense? Is it not provided for in the Constitution? Am I a member of the Assembly?
‘’The point I am making is, if he has committed an infraction on the constitution and the Assembly deems it fit to say he should be impeached, then fine. Is he the first person that would be threatened with impeachment? Don’t you know what to do? What’s all this hullabaloo about impeachment?
“I have heard people say if they impeach him, there will be a breakdown of law and order. Rubbish. Tell me who are the militants? Who was born a militant? Tell me. Who is a militant? Who cannot blow the pipelines? Why do you arrogate this power to a certain group of people? ‘’Are Ijaw people the only ones who can blow up pipelines? What nonsense is that? Who told you that Ogoni, Ikwerre, and others cannot blow up pipelines? Why do you arrogate powers to people?
‘’Who is the one doing the contract of the pipeline surveillance? Is he not an Ijaw son? Is it not Tompolo? Tantita? They gave you the contract. You are Ijaw, and somebody will say Ijaw people will go and blow pipelines, and somebody will listen to that?
‘’How dare you threaten a country? Which threat? It does not exist. These are political thugs planted by some people in government.
We know ourselves. You make an appointment as MD of NDDC, they threaten that they will blow pipelines. You make an appointment, they threaten again to blow pipelines.
“I have told people, when the law speaks, all these ‘Asawana’ (an Ijaw spiritual chant) will die. Let me tell you, Ijaw does not constitute the majority of the Niger Delta. People must speak the truth. Heavens will not fall. You only die once, not two times.
“What nonsense, every day you wake up, Ijaw will do this, Ijaw will do that! In Akwa Ibom, Ijaw cannot be governor. In Delta, Ijaw is a minority. With all due respect to our late elder statesman, Edwin Clark, he is from Delta.
“He never produced an Ijaw man to be governor of Delta. The only place Ijaw can be governor solely is in Bayelsa, not in Edo, not in Rivers. It was out of our benevolence, the idea of life and let’s live, that I said, look, we are working as a team. We are members of the same political family. Let us allow this to go to this area.
‘’If it is by strength, they cannot beat the Ogonis, they cannot beat the Ekpeyes, and they cannot beat the Ikwerres.
“When people do something to bring people together, you appreciate it. When I brought this governor, they said’ no,’ that he is not a real Ijaw man.
‘’If you are talking about the Ijaw, the ticket should go to the Kalabaris; how can you say if they want to give governorship to the Ijaw, that it should be the Opobos? And you closed your eyes and did it. All those who fought me are the ones now parading themselves and deceiving him.”
The Pan Niger-Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF) described the legislators’ action as provocative and an insult to Rivers people, as oil communities warned the lawmakers against igniting fire in the Niger Delta.
But Wike described PANDEF as the worst organization for anyone to rely on and accused the organization of corruption and also taking sides in the matter.
Wike said: “Yesterday (Tuesday), I heard that some people (PANDEF) went to see Mr. President. It is the worst organization anybody can rely on. I used to tell my father, Daddy, I am disappointed in this.
‘’If you continue, I am not going to be a party to it. If you have a father who is always interested in money, he can sell his children.
“These leaders, look at the comments they made. Mr. President intervened in this matter.
The vice president was there, the National Security Adviser was there. This same PANDEF came out and said Mr. President had no right.
‘’They took Mr. President to court. People like Chief Sara-Igbe, even Diette-Spiff who I respected, went to Rivers Government House. Look at the statement he made. ‘I am an Ijaw man. You are an Ijaw man. Call us, we will be with you.
‘’An elder statesman will go and make such a statement. Now you are the same person coming again to meet Mr. President to intervene. Intervene how? The Mr. President you said had no right? Mr. President that you took to court that he had no power to intervene?
‘’They took Mr. President to court. From the state High Court in Rivers State and at the Court of Appeal, they lost up to the Supreme Court. Now you are going to tell the president to do what, that the Supreme Court judgment should not be obeyed?”
Wike said, but for the elderly counsel of Chief Ferdinand Alabraba, Fubara would not have been a governor as consensus was already building in favor of having a governor of Ogoni extraction.
According to Wike, before the elections, the consensus was to have a governor of Ogoni extraction but Chief Alabraba begged that the ticket should be given to the Ijaw to give them a sense of belonging. He noted that today, Fubara has used all manner of degrading adjectives against the elder.
He also took a swipe at Bauchi State governor, Senator Bala Muhammed, who he accused of using him to settle scores with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
“How did Bala Muhammed use us? Bala Muhammed was having problems with Atiku and others. He came to me. That day, I was going to commission the lounge at the airport. When he landed, I said there was no need to come to town since I was coming to the airport. “Bello Adoke, the former Attorney-General was there. Bala said Atiku would kill him if Atiku won and that we must support Asiwaju. I laughed. I said okay. We now organized G-5 to go and pay Bala a visit in Bauchi, not knowing he was using us to settle with Atiku.
‘’So, when we went there, he was happy. The next day, Tambuwal, Sule Lamido, all of them led a team to see Bala, and Bala abandoned us and now reconciled with Atiku,” he stated.
Wike, who single-handedly gave the governorship ticket to Fubara, then chided his estranged political son for writing a letter to the Rivers State House of Assembly of his intention to have a meeting with the legislators at the Government House and also coming to the Assembly.
Wike said: “If you write a letter to the Assembly, won’t you wait for a response? He is playing to the gallery. He brought the Assembly Complex down. Assembly now sits in their residence. If you are coming, they have children; they will say the governor is coming today, so they have to prepare themselves.
“You cannot just go and open the gate and say ‘I’m coming to present budget.”
He described the letter as very useless and Fubara as an insincere politician.
Wike wondered how three lawmakers would sit and make laws for a state. He said: ‘’We are talking about the Supreme Court. Do we need to go to the Supreme Court? In your conscience, are you telling me three members will constitute a parliament?”
Asked to explain what happened during his tenure when, at a point, he worked with five lawmakers, the minister said: “That is not correct. You see, people should stop all this.
“Even when they say so, why not do your research? Remember, the assembly was inaugurated, remember there was a tribunal.
‘’The Court of Appeal nullified some seats. Before that time, the budget had been done. And then we did a rerun and the assembly was full. If anybody tells you that I, as governor, presented a budget to a number that is not what is required by the constitution, it is a blatant lie. Prove it. Prove with empirical evidence.
Faulting Fubara’s budget presentation move, Wike said: “You have had a frosty relationship with an arm of government. If you are a good politician, will you go and write letters?
“If you are a good politician, you have had a frosty relationship with me for many years. I have never sat down with you, I have never spoken with you, you seized my salary. They could not pay their children’s school fees.
Now you went to the Court of Appeal. It didn’t even occur to you that even though I won at the Court of Appeal, I still want peace.
“The matter went to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court now gave it to me. Then the next thing you do is to write a letter and who signed the letter? A bloody SSG would sign a letter to the head of an arm of government? What an insult!
‘’You are telling me here that the SGF will sign a letter to the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives and say Mr. President is coming to do so and so. Is that how it is done?
“First, assuming you want to go that route, you call the leadership and say, listen, this is where we are. I want to present this budget tomorrow. They will say okay, let’s look at it.
You are not the one to tell them you are coming to present a budget tomorrow. Who does that? ‘’You want to play to the gallery. I have been in government, I don’t just write letters to Mr. Speaker to say I am coming to present a budget tomorrow morning. Are they your children? Do you know their engagements?
‘’If you are sincere, you will call first and say ‘Mr. Speaker, where are you? Are you home? Can we talk? Can you come? Or can I come?’ And they agree on something and then Mr.
The speaker will go back and call his colleagues and say, listen, ‘Mr. Governor called me, and I met with him, and he wants to present the budget on so, so date.’
‘’Then, they will look at their schedule and say okay, let us shift it or let us accommodate him on that day. That is how it is done.
“All these letters you (Fubara) are writing are useless. You are playing to the gallery. Everybody knows you are not sincere. A true politician will not behave that way. Let me tell you, Mr President was to present a budget to the National Assembly and the Assembly people were not happy for one thing or the other.
‘’We met at Exco and they said they had shifted it. Why? He had to meet with the leadership to agree on some grey areas. He didn’t need to write a letter. A man who does not want peace is the man who is playing to the gallery, saying I have written a letter, written letter to your son?
“The governor is not sincere. I never knew he is this kind of character. The Supreme Court said there is no way three members can sit and legislate for a state. You took your commissioners, Attorney-General for these three members to screen.
‘’The court said it is not possible and the Assembly people said submit the list of members of your cabinet, we are willing to screen them. Instead of us to applaud them, you are saying why should they give a time limit? When the Assembly asked him to submit a list, he now told his commissioners to go to court, after the Supreme Court had given judgment on this matter.”
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