Wike Versus Fubara: A Fight We Will Surely Lose

The past couple of weeks have seen twists and turns in the drama ongoing in Rivers State where Governor Siminalayi Fubara is squaring up with his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, in what is turning out to be a battle for control of the soul of the oil-rich state. We are used to fights between incumbent chief executives and their predecessors, most times, the latter having been the godfather who facilitated the entry of the former into power. However, that of Rivers has unsurprisingly come with some amplified drama, not least because of the maverick approach of one of the dramatis personae, Wike.

As the drama unfolds over the past weeks and months, many Nigerians have taken sides in the conflict. The popular sentiment, apparently, is that Wike is the troublemaker while Fubara is the hero to be supported against the devil. I must confess that my sympathy also lies with Fubara in this inglorious gladiatorial show, and I wish that Wike will end up roundly defeated.

History, they say, always has a way of repeating itself. In this case, history has repeated itself uncountable times. We have seen Ladoja and Adedibu in Oyo State, Nnamani and Nwobodo in Enugu, Ngige and Uba in Anambra, Yerima and Shinkafi in Zamfara and so on and so forth. The list is indeed endless. In each of these episodes, the pattern has been perfectly the same; a godfather begins to harass a godson and the populace soon begin to queue behind the godson to support him to rout the godfather. Unfailingly, the godson and his media handlers must have started demonizing the godfather as a rapacious vulture aiming to swallow the state and its resources, and for which reason every patriotic citizen must join forces with the governor to crush the malevolent common enemy.

It has all set up exactly the same way between Wike and Fubara. Sadly, we all that are standing with Fubara are no longer interested in the reality that Fubara must have acceded to some terms proposed by Wike before becoming his preferred candidate to succeed him, and that his current patriotic posturing is an afterthought, after all. Just like we all stood behind Ngige who went to a shrine at Okija to swear allegiance to one man over the rest of Anambra populace, we are now standing firm behind Fubara when we do not know exactly whatever transactions, holy or unholy, that transpired between him and Wike.

As an accountant-general under Wike, Fubara was a key part of his government. Whatever financial evil Wike is being accused of as governor cannot be strange to Fubara. The fact that he cooperated then and all through until Wike became irritatingly overbearing says a lot about the real reason for the fight. It’s a fight for power and not for principles, a struggle for control and not for service. It’s a political conflict and not a disagreement over governance.

Thus, while politicians are fighting their political cause, we the rest of the citizens are taking sides, perhaps believing that the fight is ours. However, in every of such fights, no matter who prevails between the two warring camps, the citizenry will ultimately see nothing to cheer about. In fact, the two warring politicians may even end up in one camp in future. We have seen it again and again. In politics there is no permanent friend or enemy but only permanent interest.

One thing that such godfather versus godson fight always makes clear is that we are living in a lawless enclave; ours is still far from a civilised democratic set-up where everyone is accountable to the law. It is common to see such two political gladiators becoming law unto themselves. In Anambra, we saw a police AIG, obviously acting for one of the gladiators, travel all the way from Umuahia, Abia State, to arrest a governor despite his constitutional immunity. That was in July 2003. In November 2004, we saw mobs, in broad daylight, run amok in different parts of the state setting fire on public buildings. They were acting out the script of the supposed godfather who was bent on making the state ungovernable with the aim of attracting a declaration of a state of emergency.

In Rivers state, we have seen the Assembly building on fire. We have seen the governor wake up to pull down the legislative building for no apparent justifiable reason. We have also been served the drama of two different sets of lawmakers legislating – or purporting to legislate – for the state. One is 25 and the other has four members! The law is clear as to how the membership of the state legislature is constituted and what happens when a member defects to another party, yet the whims of the godfathers are replacing the law. This is unsurprising as the lawmakers on both sides do not have their loyalty to the law but to either Wike or Fubara.

In line with this prevailing anarchy, on Monday, June 17, we witnessed a mockery of the law as what ordinarily should be a legal termination of tenures of local government chairmen turned into a battle over who occupies the 23 local government secretariats – the Fubara or Wike army? Many happenings in our supposed modern democratic state are indeed recrudescence of ancient feudalism and its rule of might.

Here lies the paradox in supporting either Wike or Fubara – no matter who is right between the two, supporting any of them inevitably amounts to supporting lawlessness. The rule of law is so essential for progress of any nation. John Adams, former US president, had this truth in mind when he sublimely stated, “ours is a government of laws and not of men.” In other words, he meant that his nation was such where the rule of law as against the whims of men like Wike and Fubara prevails. This is the difference between feudalism of old and democracy of today..

Thus, while Fubara rallies everyone to join him in his fight to “liberate” Rivers State just as Ngige summoned us all to join his fight to “emmancipate” Anambra, truth is that the only genuine fight of liberation will be such that will liberate our land from the rule of men in order to give way to rule of law. In that case, neither the godfather nor the godson will claim victory because the victory will belong to the Nigerian people. Hence, the final point is this: in whosoever favour this atavistic conflict between Wike and Fubara ends, the people of Rivers State and indeed the entire citizens of Nigeria must have lost. And the decades-long quest for the real victory of the people continues.

Henry Chigozie Duru, PhD, teaches journalism and mass communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria.