Political observers are unsure what to make of Governor Siminalyi Fubara’s words last Tuesday as he unveiled the state’s Rainbow Coalition candidates in Port Harcourt. They are unsure whether he was speaking tongue-in-cheek or whether he meant his words. They will find out in the coming months. But here is what he said in front of thousands of party supporters in the stadium that Tuesday: “Let me say something here so that it will always help us while we move forward. I’m aware there are some issues where some persons who followed me when we had the crisis, when you’re at your meeting, you say, ‘my leader, my leader.’ We are now in one house. And because we have one house, there is no issue about who is the leader. I might be your oga (governor), but we have a common leader now. So, please, going forward, this issue of my leader, my leader, my leader, I want it resolved here and now.”
He did not stop at that unusually self-abnegating rhetoric. He left everyone astonished as he dug deeper into crow meat. Hear him: “So, no matter what has happened, I’m very grateful today that one way or the other, we are back together for a better cause and for the good of our dear state. I want to say that I’m here with all my heart, my soul and my body, and I will do everything within my power to ensure that we have victory not just for Mr. President, who has stood by me in my most difficult time, but also to ensure that this power remains in our own bloc. That it (power) doesn’t go to any other place apart from where it is still standing, which is under the leadership of His Excellency Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.”
This is fulsome. Really, and stupendously so. Barely six months after he was sworn in, he had taken on his ‘leader’ whom he described as overbearing. Now, all anyone hears from him is a panegyric on the combative Mr. Wike. Does Mr. Wike himself feel any pianissimo doubt? Or do the Rivers electorate sense any foreboding? Whatever happens hereafter, one thing is not in doubt: Mr Fubara appears to have a great deal of respect for the president. As for what he really thinks of Mr. Wike or the Rainbow, well, who can tell?
