Isaac Samuel
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has confirmed reports that suspended Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara recently visited him in the company of two governors and an elder statesman, all from the All Progressives Congress (APC), as part of efforts to broker peace in the lingering political crisis rocking the state.
Speaking during his monthly press conference in Abuja on Monday, Wike confirmed that the visit was a response to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s consistent calls for reconciliation between the warring factions in Rivers.
Wike, who has been locked in a protracted political tussle with his successor, noted that he gave Fubara advice as a younger politician, but the governor reportedly chose to ignore it under pressure from external influences.
The minister warned that without reconciliation with the state House of Assembly and party leaders, the crisis would persist.
His words: “The President has said severally that he wants peace so I cannot sit down and say I don’t want peace. Yes, he visited with two Governors and an elder statesman, unfortunately they are from the APC and he said he wants peace, I will not pursue him, I also want peace. I told him as a young man, I said go this way, go this way, you will not have problems. People came to him, don’t listen to him, assert yourself as Governor, you have accepted nah, trouble has come.
“People push you, they declare State of Emergency, who wears the shoe? It is you. Who will suffer? Ok, assuming now you don’t settle this problem and the State of Emergency is called off, has the problem ended? No.
“Assembly will still be the same as they have been, so the crisis will still be there. They will not pass your budget, you won’t get Federal Allocation.
“If he wants peace, there are people he should meet. Has he met the Assembly members, has he met our leaders? If you want peace, it must show, in your speech, in your conduct, and in your action. When you hurt people, it’s not a one-day thing.
“If I don’t want to encourage him, why will I say no problem. Why will I even open my gate for him to come in. Seeing him talking, I am human, I felt for him. He was saying yesterday that his spirit has left there. How will I know his spirit has left there? I am not carried away by public sympathy but by reality. After all we see some preachers say they are led by the spirit, we later find out there is no spirit.”
