…..The Rumblings In Rivers
The Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, for now, cannot afford to sleep with his two eyes closed. Although President Bola Tinubu, PDP governors and the court have given him a temporary reprieve, he cannot be complacent or he would kiss his job goodbye. He has stepped on the tail of a cobra and it is either he fights and kill the snake or he will himself become food.
Siminalayi, an indigene of Opobo Town in Opobo Local Government of Rivers State became the Governor just five months ago, but the man whom he took over from, and who ensured that he got the seat is not happy with him and is ready to teach him one or two political lessons.
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I like the rhyme of his first name, Siminalayi. It sounds interesting to me. When I enquired about the meaning, I was told that it translates to ‘the poor may beget the rich’ in Opobo dialect. In actual fact, is that not the prayerof all parents; that their children turn out better than them in life? His father, a retired soldier, is late, while his mother is a retired civil servant. In choosing that name for their first son, his parents must have had a dream that the little boy would one day dine with Kings and Queens and became a big man in life.
Humble and somewhat shy, Fubara became a Secondary School teacher after his university education. However, he soon found his way into the Rivers State Civil Service where he was posted to the Ministry of Finance as a Senior Accountant in 2007. His rise was rapid, and he soon became the Accountant General of the State. That was where he came in contact with former Governor Nysom Wike, who took him under his wings. When Wike’s tenure was winding down andhe embarked on a search for a successor, Fubara became the anointed candidate.
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Fubara did little or nothing before his emergence as the Governor of the state. Even during the campaign, it was Wike that mostly took to the podium to canvass for votes for his godson. And when he was sworn-in, he was seen more like a stooge, holding the reign of governance for his pay master. No major decisions were taken without the inputs of the godfatherWike.
However, just few months down the line, the young man, who is beginning to find his voice, had started questioning some of the orders coming from Wike. But he realizes, and quickly too, that he cannot be his own man without a strong political base, and in creating his own power enclave, he has to poach from his godfather’s camp. That signaled the beginning of the crisis in the state.
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As stated in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer again; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”. This time around, the anarchy loosed on Rivers State. Many Nigerians got a whiff that something may be brewing in the state when the Rivers State House of Assembly complex went up in smoke upper Sunday. Being a non-working day, many were shocked as to what could have caused the edifice to go up in smoke. News
