National Coordinator, South-South Leadership Forum, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe has said that Rivers governor, Siminalayi Fubara contemplated resigning to avoid a confrontation with his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, but was talked out of it by leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to Sara-Igbe, Fubara did all he could to avoid a headlong confrontation with his godfather.
The former spokesperson for the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) stated this as a guest on Channels Television on Saturday.
Sara-Igbe said the governor was tired of Wike’s overbearing control of his cabinet and affairs of the state, which turned him (Fubara) into a bystander in managing the state’s funds and running of government.
“Fubara opted to resign because apart from the way forces above him prevented him from asserting his independence, he didn’t have enough control over the state’s funds and had difficulty running his government. It took the intervention of some PDP leaders in the state before he reconsidered his position.
“What is the problem? Wike has come to tell the world that he was fighting Sim because Sim wanted to take his structure. What is the structure six months after elections; we are not close to elections, so what has structure got to do?
“Let me tell you about the structure; before Wike left the government, the state was making over N10bn internally generated revenue (monthly). When he left, the IGR came down to N6bn. The governor, a former Accountant General of the state, asked questions, and in the process, he engaged somebody to look at the books, and the commissioner of finance reported to Wike, and the former governor got angry. That is the structure.
“Secondly, the money coming from the federation account, Wike tied the money to one project or the other. So, when the money comes, it goes to the banks, and they collect theirs from it and pay the contractors.
“Of course, we didn’t even know the cost of the contracts, so when this governor felt, ‘how will I run a government when I don’t have the resources’, the minister became hostile to the governor, and the governor said, ‘Okay, let me resign if that is the case’. The PDP elders prevailed on him not to resign, thinking it would be messy,” Sara-Igbe, a one-time Security Adviser to former governor Peter Odili, said.
He added, “As soon as that ended, I came on air and advised Nyesom Wike to leave this man alone to govern, allow him, even if he’s your son’. I even went as far as giving him references like the Sarakis. Dr Olusola Saraki brought the son, Bukola, to that seat but when their ideologies did not agree, the son told him to go and rest.
“You cannot make somebody a governor; a very important seat in Nigeria – that was the seat Odili sat and he almost became the president; that was the seat (former governor Rotimi) Amaechi sat and he connived with others to remove a sitting president; that is the seat Wike himself sat and became a superman – and you are asking somebody who is on that seat to be subservient. But the governor is still loyal.”
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