Pro-Wike lawmakers in “11th-hour” lobby as Fubara bolts the door
Pro-Wike lawmakers in “11th-hour” lobby as Fubara bolts the door
In a political twist that mirrors the classic Greek tragedies of Hubris and Nemesis, the once-unyielding pro-Nyesom Wike lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly find themselves in a desperate scramble for relevance.
An informed source within the powerplay currently ongoing told The Neighbourhood Newspaper on Saturday that a delegation of the embattled legislators has begun making surreptitious overtures to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, seeking a truce as the 2027 general elections loom like a darkening cloud.
The catalyst for this sudden change of heart is not a newfound love for the Governor’s “Rivers First” agenda, but a cold, hard political reality: the All Progressives Congress, APC, has signaled a preference for a consensus candidacy system for the 2027 cycle.
Between the devil and the deep blue sea
For the lawmakers who famously defected and swore fealty to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, treating him as the alpha and omega of Rivers politics, the APC’s shift to consensus is a death knell.
Under a consensus arrangement, the party hierarchy, often in consultation with the sitting Governor, who recently integrated into the APC fold, determines who flies the party’s flag. For those who spent the better part of two years attempting to dismantle Fubara’s administration, the math is simple but devastating: No peace with the Governor means no ticket in 2027.
”They are trapped,” says a high-ranking party strategist who requested anonymity. “They cannot go back to the PDP, which they abandoned, and the APC they joined is now preparing to hand the keys of the 2027 machinery to the very man they tried to impeach.”
A legacy of subversion
The irony of this lobbying effort is not lost on the residents of Rivers State. It was not long ago that these same lawmakers:
Sealed the Assembly Complex: Attempting to paralyse the state’s legislative arm to frustrate the executive.
Sabotaged the budget: Holding the state’s fiscal progress hostage in a bid to prove who held the true power.
The infamous lockout: Who can forget the imagery of Governor Fubara being met with locked gates at the Assembly Quarters, an indignity that many believed would be the final word in the supremacy battle.
In those days, the lawmakers operated with a swagger that suggested their godfather was untouchable. They viewed the Governor as a temporary occupant of the Brick House, a placeholder to be bypassed at will.
The locked door: Fubara’s cold resolve
Despite the back-channel messages and the desperate pleas for an audience, the response from the Governor’s camp has been a resounding silence. The locked door the lawmakers once used as a weapon against the Governor has now become his greatest shield.
Reports suggest that Governor Fubara has maintained a business-as-usual approach, focusing on infrastructure and civil service reforms while ignoring the frantic knocking of his erstwhile detractors.
”The Governor is a student of quiet power,” a close aide told this publication. “He remembers the rain that beat him yesterday. While he is a man of peace, he is not a man of amnesia. If they want to talk about 2027, they might find that the calendar has already moved on without them.”
The 2027 gamble
As APC stakeholders in the state recently demonstrated their hand by purchasing nomination forms for Fubara, the pro-Wike camp’s leverage is evaporating. The Minister’s influence, while still formidable in Abuja, is facing a grassroots resistance in Rivers that is increasingly consolidating around the sitting Governor.
For the lawmakers, the choice is now existential:
Surrender: Publicly recant their opposition and hope for a mercy that may never come.
Political oblivion: Remain loyal to a waning structure and face a 2027 where they are neither candidates nor kingmakers.
The alpha and omega era appears to be giving way to a new testament in Rivers politics – one where the locked door is no longer an entrance to the Assembly, but an exit from political relevance.
