The feud between the governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, and his predecessor the current Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has dominated the headlines for months.

There seems to be no room for resolution of issues in the fight despite President Bola Tinubu's intervention and the call for truce.

Wike and Fubara are locked in a struggle for the control of Rivers’ political structure. dragged for too long, the fight has been dirty.

The political dogfight has led to the declaration of seats of 27 state assembly lawmakers vacant by the then Speaker of the State House of Assembly loyal to Governor Fubara on December 13th, 2023

This followed the decamping of 27 PDP members of the legislature to APC and an attempt to impeach Gov. Fubara.

The fierce battle to stop the attempt to impeach the governor also led to the demolition of part of the assembly complex.

However, there are fears that the Wike-Fubara fight has taken an ethnic dimension with Fubara's Ijaw ethnic group rising up against Wike an Ikwerre man.

The latest in the battle is the redeployment of two commissioners loyal to Wike by Governor Fubara in a minor shake-up of his cabinet.

The reshuffle saw Zacchaeus Adangor, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice from the Wike era, moved to the Ministry of Special Duties.

The governor also redeployed Isaac Kamalu, Commissioner for Finance, also from the Wike era, to the Ministry of Employment Generation and Economic Empowerment.

Both men rejected the redeployment and resigned membership of the Fubara Cabinet on the arguments that the action was punitive and a demotion.

Last December, the commissioners resigned from their positions following the political feud between their godfather and Gov. Fubara. They were, however, reinstated after President Tinubu’s intervention

One is not surprised with what has become of the relationship between Wike and his political godson, Fubara.

In fact, what is happening between Wike and Fubara seems to be part of the DNA of Rivers’ State politics, especially in the relationship between political godfathers and political godsons since 1999.

Political godsons in the state have always succeeded in running their erstwhile political godfathers out of town.

Like any business deal, political godfathers invest in their ‘godsons’, deliver their own part of the bargain (usually elective or appointive office), and expect returns on investment.

For instance, Dr. Peter Odili, the first civilian Governor of Rivers State in this current cycle of liberal democracy, managed to neutralize his erstwhile godfather, the late Harry Marshall just as he was driven out of town after his tenure by Rotimi Amaechi, who was his political godson.

Wike, an erstwhile Chief of Staff and political enforcer for Amaechi, also fought and neutralized Amaechi, his former political godfather, in a bitter feud that has lingered for several years.

Another seeming trait in the DNA of Rivers politics is that all the Governors of the State since 1999 (apart from Celestine Omehia who had a brief rule from 29 May 2007 to 25 October 2007) nursed the ambition of being President of the country and spent lavishly to achieve that ambition.

However, the winner of the current battle can not easily be pointed out though political godfather and the godson feud across the country hardly favours the godfather.

There are fears that the audacity with which Wike is going after Fubara so soon after the elections may be a signpost for a crude form of godfatherism, which characterized the early years of this cycle of liberal democracy in the country.

That form of godfatherism, which can best be described as ‘machine politics’, is a form of politics characterized by tight organization and a strong centralized leadership, typically in the form of a “boss”, with the organization/network dominating the landscape, mafia-style.


© IHIMHEKPEN OSCAR OGIEMHONYI