Action Peoples Party, Sim Fubara’s proxy party, the special purpose vehicle through which he is establishing his own hegemony, is certainly full of action, having made a near clean-sweep of the available seats in the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State. Twenty two of these seats are now under the control of the APP, an unknown quantity of a political party that has suddenly emerged and taken over control of the LGAs in that state in the last couple of weeks.
It’s the same story from Akwa Ibom State to Benue State- elections conducted by State Independent Electoral Commissions are a charade. They are nothing if not the kind of political magic that only a Nigerian politician is capable of. Siminalayi Fubara, the Rivers State governor, appears to be learning the wrong lessons fast. With this, he must fancy himself as a godfather even if he would like to pretend he is not. In his book, only Nyesom Wike can be a godfather.
For many of his supporters in the Peoples Democratic Party, especially the do-gooders within and outside the state, the so-called elders and leaders that have been fanning the embers of division and fishing in troubled waters while posturing as impartial arbiters, Sim Fubara is the new power house of Rivers State politics. He has had to do this standing over the carcass of the party that brought him to power, and some in that party seem to be happy or, at least, satisfied with it.
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has praised Fubara for standing up for the people and putting an end to political godfatherism in Rivers. Has he not called the bluff of “federal might” epitomised in his sharp criticism of Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police, and the entire Police establishment that stayed away from the venues of the election in a feigned and selective obedience of a court ruling?
Others in his camp have spoken in a similar vein of praising him for securing his freedom from an overbearing benefactor and godfather. Fubara is himself savouring the praises and swelling with pride. His natural stoop and slightly raised shoulders seem to be rising some inches more and he is surely getting more confident in his utterances. But is he really free or has he simply exchanged one godfather for several others?
No doubt, he is the godfather of the winners of the chairs across the local councils in the state. Those discerning enough would have seen and heard this in his words to his new followers during the swearing-in ceremony that held, unprecedentedly, on a Sunday, a day after the election, of all the possible days that the new chairpersons could have been sworn-in. Fubara was in a hurry to beat the October 31 Supreme Court deadline for the conduct of all local government elections or there would be no allocation to the local governments still under any form of interim arrangement.
Fubara told the chairmen in very clear terms that none of them under normal circumstances, by which he meant the dispensation he had supposedly just terminated, the “ancien regime” of godfathers symbolised by Wike- none of them he said could have emerged as chair of their LGA under normal circumstances. In his own words: “Na who dash monkey…?” Sim Fubara should have completed that folk sarcasm: “Na who dash monkey banana?” by going ahead to tell the world that he was, indeed, the one, the new godfather, that dashed monkey banana in this case. To go by his metaphor, these monkeys (read chairmen), now created or re-created in his image, must, like true monkeys, simulate his every move and act in his image. They must anticipate his command and do his bidding. He has paid the piper and must now call the tune to which the men must dance.
But he didn’t complete his statement and left his concluding words hanging in the air for the wise among his listeners, especially the chairs, to fill. There might not have been any menace in his voice but only a fool would fail to get the import of his words, a veiled warning to these beneficiaries of his generousity to know where their bread was/is buttered and never forget their benefactor. The governor may have won this battle but has he won the war? The war is still raging with the violence now erupting in the different local government council headquarters which the police vacated upon the emergence of the new council heads.
What Governor Fubara has not been able to say is that he is also the product of a godfather and that without that godfather: Na who dash monkey. Fubara could not have emerged the governor of Rivers but for Wike who also rose through a process of godfatherism. In an old footage that was exhumed by his opponents shortly before the latest election, Wike in condemnation of godfatherism can be heard saying Rivers is not Lagos just as Godwin Obaseki has been saying since 2019.
We don’t know if Obaseki still believes his own words in the wake of the defeat of his candidate three weeks ago. The remark by Wike was made against Bola Tinubu in the heat of his campaign to unseat Akinwumi Ambode as governor. Every governor who rose through the instrumentality of a godfather has gone ahead to castigate the process while erecting their own fiefdom. That was what recently played out in the governorship election in Edo State.
An emerging godfather rails against their benefactor and, sometimes, a so-called federal might. While some succeed in that struggle, others fail. It’s all a matter of strategy. Sim Fubara’s problem is that he was too quick to claim freedom. The patience that helped him to deceive Wike into seeing him as pliant enough to be chosen as governor should have guided him to wait at least two years (time enough to register his presence with the people of Rivers, govern a bit to take over the structures of governance) before showing his hand. But he couldn’t just wait to be his own man.
The consequence is that he has spent at least 12 of the last 18 months he has been in office fighting fire and trying to keep Wike at bay. The PDP structure in that state is firmly under the control of Wike just as a part of the APC bows to him. What happened in Rivers last week could not have been an election. It was a selection and a challenge of its outcome in court might reveal a can of worms. Does a voters’ register of these APP members exist and are these winners in them? Can Fubara stay the course and win re-election on the platform of APP?
