Chief Edwin Clark, an ageing statesman, has urged President Bola Tinubu once more to summon Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike to order.
The head of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) wrote an open letter to the president on Monday, stating that Wike is only one of the 48 ministers in the president’s cabinet and that he ought to be called to accept his role as minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) rather than continuing to demand control over the political system in his home state of Rivers State.
As a member of your cabinet, you could have to summon this minister to order him to do the work in the silence that is required of him, he remarked.
“Apart from you and the vice president, he is simply one of 48 members of the cabinet; he should concentrate on his job.
“The administration needs to take a seat and handle the numerous issues facing the nation. He has more than he can handle in the FCT itself, therefore he should stay away from these diversions.
According to Clark, there will be anarchy throughout the nation if all of the outgoing governors insist on ruling over their successors.
In response to a new political upheaval in the oil-rich South-South state, the leader of PANDEF was responding after 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly switched parties on Monday from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to reports, the 27 members will remain devoted to Wike, the former governor of the state,’s supporter Martins Amaewhule through May 29, 2023.
Amaewhule and another member, Edison Ehie, have been locked in a Speakership power struggle for weeks. It is known that Ehie is in Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s camp.
In October, the Assembly led by Amaewhule ousted Ehie from his position as House leader and presented the governor with an impeachment notice. But other Assembly members who supported Fubara promptly impeached Amaewhule and installed Ehie as Speaker.
There was a disagreement between Fubara and Wike, his predecessor, which led to the start of the crisis in the 32-member Assembly.
To address the situation, the President met with both Wike and Fubara in October. Even though both politicians had been to the same public events in recent weeks, and everything appeared to be resolved, there may be more drama in the state’s political scene now that 27 PDP lawmakers have defected to the APC on Monday.
“Nigeria Will Be Chaos If Former Governors Govern Successors”
In his letter to the President, the PANDEF leader stated that the situation was far from ended and that things were getting worse every day.
According to him, Rivers State is critical to the stability of the Niger Delta and the US economy as a whole, and any collapse of law and order would not be in everyone’s best interests.
The veteran politician acknowledged that Fubara had apologised to him, but he is still shocked by Wike’s public statements.
“Impeachment is not a military coup,” he once declared, “a total outrage when all hands are on deck to consolidate this democracy under your leadership,” according to Clark.
“In fact, the Minister accused one of his guests in a recent interview that took place on Friday, November 24, 2023, that the Governor is ungrateful, saying, ‘I cannot stand ingrates.'”
He went on to say that he had assisted the governor in becoming who he was and to openly threaten to carry on the battle if the governor “changes the structures which I left in the state.”
The non-gendered person questioned the FCT minister’s motivation for maintaining the existing institutions. He recalled that Wike had criticised godfatherism as being wholly inappropriate, which caused him to have a falling out with Rotimi Amaechi, his predecessor.
What function, then, are the structures meant to fulfil in the presence of a governor? He owes you and all Nigerians this question.
“What kind of confusion will we have in Nigeria if all governors who, legally speaking, insist on allowing their preferred candidates to succeed them, insist on controlling them, insist on controlling the State Assemblies, and insist on controlling the structure which they left behind?” he asked.
