Wike and Fubara Signs Truce by Tinubu, Live to Fight Another Day
President Bola Tinubu, at a meeting with critical stakeholders from Rivers State yesterday, pushed through an eight-point peace plan to end the feud between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his godfather, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
But Tinubu’s intervention raised questions. Will it end the crisis? Will it bring about peace? And what manner of peace will it bring? Genuine peace or peace of the graveyard? Time will tell.
By the presidential diplomacy, many believed both camps in the Rivers impasse might have chosen to live to fight another day.
The president, who apparently bow to pressure from across the country, stepped into the Rivers crisis, and held a closed-door meeting with the stakeholders in the state, including former Governor Peter Odili, at State House, Abuja, where an eight-point peace deal was drafted.
Elders and leaders in the state had also appealed to Tinubu to consolidate his earlier intervention in the rift between Fubara and Wike, warning that the consequences of inaction may not only affect Rivers State, but the entire Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large.
A non-profit organisation, One Love Foundation (OLF), also expressed concern and called on Tinubu to wade in to prevent further deterioration of the situation.
But the state chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) expressed the determination to defend the 27 lawmakers, whose seats were declared vacant following their defection from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC, until they were able to properly commence their legislative duties.
Meanwhile, contrary to public belief, the order of a Federal High Court halting the removal of the 27 lawmakers of Rivers State House of Assembly, which surfaced on the social a day before it was, allegedly, scheduled to be delivered, had actually been issued two days before it came into the public space.
However, the Rivers peace meeting was at the instance of the president and had in attendance Vice President Kashim Shettima, Fubara, Wike, Odili, Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. The meeting lasted over two hours, before ending at 8.17pm.
At the end of the meeting, an eight-point communique, titled, “Directives for the resolution of the political impasse in Rivers State,” was jointly signed by all the stakeholders in attendance.
The signatories included Fubara; Wike; Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Professor Ngozi Odu; Ribadu; Speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Martin Amaewhule; PDP chairman in Rivers State, Aaron Chukwuemeka; and Rivers State APC chairman, Tony Okocha.
The communique directed that all matters instituted in the courts by Fubara and his team in respect of the political crisis be withdrawn immediately. It also directed that all impeachment proceedings initiated against the governor by the Assembly should be dropped immediately.
The communique stated that the leadership of the Rivers State House of Assembly under Amaewhule should be recognised alongside the 27 members, who had left PDP for APC.
Other resolutions of the meeting included that the remunerations and benefits of all members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and their staff must be reinstated immediately and the governor should no longer interfere with the full funding of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
