In the ongoing drive to bring everybody into one fold for possible victory in the 2027 general. elections, the Minister of the federal capital territory, FCT, Barr Nyesom Wike, and members of the Rainbow Coalition on Tuesday night met with the Rivers state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, in his private residence in Port Harcourt, the state capital, to mend fences for the electoral battle ahead.
Wike has been embarking on tours of some local government areas in the state recently to reconcile with aggrieved politicians selling the candidature of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Hon. Kingsley Chinda as the next governor of the state on the APC platform.
Sources in the meeting disclosed that Fubara’s henchmen, like Dr Edison Ehie, former chief of staff; Amb Chijioke Ihunwo, former Obio/Akpo council chairman; Ezebunwo Ichemati, former mayor of Port Harcourt; and a host of others, were in the reconciliatory meeting.
Though both Wike and Fubara opted not to speak to the press after the meeting, it was, however, revealed that the whole essence of the parley was to foster a common front for the forthcoming general elections in the state by ensuring that Chinda is voted in as governor while Tinubu is returned for a second term in 2027.
The meeting, which also has in attendance staunch Wike’s diehards like Senator Magnus Abe, chairman of the Rainbow Coalition Reconciliation Committee, and Senator George Sekibo, among others, didn’t go without objections from some stakeholders.
Observers believe that “there is nothing to reconcile. Wike should have known that some time would come when he will need Fubara’s support to make his candidate win the next election.”
The aggrieved Fubara ally who will not want to be mentioned fumed that the minister “controls the 23 council chairmen, he controls the state budget and its resources, he gags Fubara, who cannot go anywhere or visit anybody except with Wike’s permits, he controls the Assembly, Wike nominated the senators, rep members and the assembly members, and he controls federal appointments which he gives to his close allies.”
“Today, there is no full executive council in the state because Wike has not given the governor a free hand to make appointments. What about the state of emergency that he orchestrated? “What then is the reconciliation about? What are they reconciling?” he queried.
Another observer opined that for the reconciliation to have a full. meaning, “Wike must also reach out to the former governors like Chief Rufus Ada George, Dr Peter Odili and Rt Hon Rotimi Amaechi. It is only when he does this that we will know the seriousness of the matter,” the source noted.
—By Daniel Abia, P/Harcourt
