Prince Favour Reuben is the National Deputy Organising Secretary of the Labour Party and a close political ally of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike. He spoke to Weekend Trust on the political tension in Rivers State, Wike’s political influence and Governor Fubara’s handling of the political situation, saying joining APC was not the best option for the governor.
Now that Governor Fubara has defected to the APC, does it affect the influence of the FCT Minister in the politics of Rivers State?
When people say the influence of the FCT Minister is dwindling in Rivers state, I laugh, because people do not understand what is politics. Politics is not social media, politics is not what people say or make noise about, when you talk of somebody who has all the political structures of the state under him and you say his influence is dwindling, I don’t understand. The whole councilors in the local government are with him, the whole chairmen are with him, the structures of PDP from LGAs to state are with him, state and national assembly members are with him, so what dwindles his powers? When the governor defected, how many people did you see the governor carry along? You have seen other governors of different states when they defected, how the carried the assembly, the national assembly, their structures, everything to defect, our governor was the first governor to defect and received his own letter in his government and two ministers or three ministers came to visit him, it has never been done, why?
So if you are telling me that the influence of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike has dwindled, I will never agree or accept that, because as far as I’m concerned, the whole APC structures are still under him, the whole PDP structures are there, local government, assembly, everybody are working with him. You could see when he is doing his ‘thank you visit’ in every local government he goes to, you could see the crowd. Somebody whose influence has dwindled, will you see that kind of a thing? So when people talk about politics, I laugh, is not the crowd that people will begin to go to social media and be abusing and be talking. I am not a member of PDP neither APC, but in this state, we know who has the influence, and we know who is just talking, so that insinuation is completely rubbish, for anybody to say that the Minister’s influence has dwindled, it’s not true.
Is Wike in both PDP and APC?
The Minister has a mandate, you should remember, that even before other governors defected to the APC, the Minister when it was very rough, declared that he is going to support President Bola Tinubu. He was not hiding it and today, who is the Renewed Hope coordinator in Rivers State, he is Desmond Akawo; is he a member of APC? No Sir, he is still a member of PDP, but the President appointed him as a renewed hope coordinator, and the Minister is also doing renewed hope, and what they are doing today is ‘APC-PDP’ renewed hope, and it’s not APC, it’s not PDP. There is renewed hope where everybody that believe Tinubu will come for second tenure are part of that.
The Minister has no business with APC or whatever, the governor will struggle himself in APC, but it is not the ticket you get that gives you automatic victory to become governor, when you get the ticket from anywhere, then politics will start, by campaigning and by voting. I don’t know why people are talking about the Minister, whether he is a member of APC or not, he is not doing APC, but anywhere you see him, he will not shout APC, he is the renewed hope that they are operating with, according to the Minister, it’s a ‘rainbow’ coalition, so nobody should talk about APC or no APC. If the president will appoint somebody who is a PDP man to coordinate the renewed hope, why are people now attacking the Minister?
It appears the minister is fighting several fights ahead the 2027 polls, people are not very comfortable with his brand of politics…
Have you ever seen a tree that have very ripe fruits? Do you know that everybody stones that tree? if you have a good fruit, everybody that come will want to eat that fruit. Wike is that tree in Nigeria, that is becoming a challenge to people and that is why the attack is on him. Jesus Christ came to this world, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were attacking him, because they saw him as the light for liberation, people attacking Wike are afraid that the influence of the man is growing too high and the only thing to do is to look for ways to be attacking him, remember in PDP, he singlehandedly sponsored them, he was the only one who was footing the bills of PDP, and said this is what we agree, let’s abide by that, and once you disobey what he says you should do, you will have problem with him. He is a man who says we are going straight, follow me straight, don’t bend, and when you try to do that, that is the problem they have in PDP. All those governors that were fighting him, have they not ran away to APC, where are they today? They have all ran away, the only people remaining there, maybe Makinde and Bala Mohammed because of their presidential ambition, but I believe tomorrow, they will also move out because they have seen that their fight is useless, they are not fighting any legitimate fight or any fight that is backed by law.
The Minister is the one doing everything, like I’m telling you today, most of those governors were even accusing Wike when he said that he will support the President, they were afraid to say it, and they have ran away to APC today. They defected because most of these governors do not have influence in their states, they cannot win elections in their states, remember, Wike stood here for eight years fighting federal government and nobody can remove him because he has influence, he was a power house, all these governors defecting have discovered that they cannot influence their states if they don’t join federal government. If you know you can win your state comfortably, why are you defecting? You are leaving your own house to become a slave in another man’s house, is it not stupidity that a governor, even second term governor that won his re-election is defecting? Fear of EFCC, some of them have been so corrupt, they have stolen so much money because APC said once you come to their party, your sins will be forgiven, so all of them who have stolen enough money felt that the only place to go is the APC, remember we have a governor of Labour Party, and he is standing alone in Abia state, and he said I’m not moving. Why? He knows he has done something great and that nobody can challenge him, APC cannot defeat him, he will defeat them because he is doing something better, all the governors running are people who have failed their people, they don’t have anything to offer, and the only thing to do is to go under the covering of APC to hide, but let me tell you, we are going to shock them because, at the end of the day, those governors cannot influence the voting power of any state. So, Wike is the man that is holding the PDP today.
As the National Deputy Organizing Secretary of Labour Party, are you also aligning with the renewed hope?
Know that Labour Party is a brand of politics in Nigeria, it’s only in Labour Party that you have professionals in politics, in other parties, you have politicians who are political professionals, so they cannot move out of their party, so the Labour Party is the only thing that Nigerians have hope on. I can align with renewed hope if Labour Party does not have a candidate, but by the grace of God, somebody has already declared, and other people are declaring, so, why would I leave Labour Party that I feel that Nigerians believe in?
But if Labour Party presents a governorship candidate for 2027 election, would you align with him or the candidate from Wike’s party?
It depends on the candidate that Labour Party presents. If we have a strong candidate that I’m sure he is going to win election, what would make me not to align with such a candidate? I will align with my candidate, unless the candidate have some characters that we discover that he is not even ready to win election.
Like I said, Fubara make a very big mistake by joining APC, the best party he would have joined is Labour Party, and he would have had a seamless success, thinking he is going to the APC for protection is a most useless mistake he has ever made, and that is why what is going on is going on today.
The said agreement between Wike and Fubara on second term issue, do you think such agreement can stand?
Is there any document in Nigeria that says eight years for the north and eight years for the south, so if there was a gentleman agreement, abide by that agreement, show your integrity. If there was agreement, I was not there, I don’t know, because they governor has not even spoken, to say yes this is the agreement I entered with them, and now I don’t want to fulfill it again, we also entered into agreement to work with him as Labour Party, immediately he became governor, he abandoned us, Fubara is a man who doesn’t stick to agreements.
Daily Trust
