Top leaders of the All Progressives Congress have declared support for the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, amid renewed hostilities between him and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
The National Secretary of the APC, Ajibola Basiru, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, said Fubara had the full support of the party for his re-election campaign.
“Nobody can frustrate any APC governor. Fubara, like other APC governors, is running the affairs of his state well,” he added.
Fubara defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the ruling APC on December 9, a move widely regarded as a political realignment for his second-term ambition.
His defection came shortly after 17 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly also joined the APC.
The National Chairman of the APC, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, had also declared Fubara as the leader of the party in the state.
Yilwatda, who spoke on Channels Television’s Hard Copy programme aired on Friday, said, “Governor Fubara is the leader of the APC in Rivers State, but he would need to coordinate with every other person in the state.”
The governor’s defection heightened the tension between him and Wike, as the FCT minister declared that Fubara’s second term was not guaranteed even under the APC.
The FCT minister had accused Fubara of breaching the peace agreement reached between them and warned against what he described as “opportunistic politics.”
Speaking during his monthly media chat, Wike had insisted that Fubara’s defection to the APC didn’t make the governor the party leader in the state.
He boasted that he remained the leader of politics in Rivers, adding that his supporters controlled the local governments and ward structures across the state.
Apparently responding to Wike’s criticism, Fubara, at a public function aired by Arise TV, said he was blackmailed in several places.
“The only reason the dog barks is when it doesn’t understand. We know where we are going and have set all the things that are needed to make the journey smooth,” he added.
However, a national official of the APC said the FCT minister could not determine the governor’s fate.
The top official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, maintained that Wike’s boast of having Rivers State in his pocket was not true.
“Wike is just unnecessarily agitating himself because ultimately, the decision on Rivers will be that of the President, not him. Wike is not as popular as he is claiming to be. He lost his polling unit in the last election; he lost to the Labour Party. He is just lucky that the President won and felt that he (Wike) was useful to tackle the opposition. It was a tough one winning Rivers State.
“Fubara is a governor of the APC, and the Governors’ Forum of the APC is always a major support for the party. By the rules of our party, we are going to respect the governors and give them the necessary support,” he said.
Speaking on whether the APC would give Fubara an automatic ticket for a second term, the official said the party would not impose candidates.
The national officer, however, explained that any governor seeking re-election would have a brighter chance than fresh contenders.
The dynamics are always in favour of a sitting governor who is contesting as an incumbent. It is an elementary political thing, unless maybe critical stakeholders at the national level feel otherwise. An incumbent governor stands a better chance than people who are just coming from outside to challenge.
“As far as Rivers is concerned, the state is more or less becoming a one-party state for APC. Even in Ekiti State, some people purchased forms to contest against the governor, but some of them did not scale through proper nomination. The others that scaled through stepped down, and the governor was adopted as a consensus candidate,” he added.
