Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, has again urged President Bola Tinubu to call the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to order.
In an open letter to the President on Monday, the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) said Wike is just one of the 48 ministers in the President’s cabinet and he should be called to face his job as FCT minister and not insist on controlling the political structure in his home state, Rivers State.
He said, “As a member of your cabinet, you may need to call this minister to order to face the work in the quietness which is demanded of him.
“He should focus on his office and know that he is just one among a cabinet of 48 persons, besides the Vice President and yourself.
“The country has enough problems which your government must sit down to solve. The FCT itself is full of challenges all over and he has more than he can chew and therefore avoid these distractions.”
Clark said if all former governors insist on controlling their successors, there will be chaos in the country.
The PANDEF leader was reacting to a fresh political crisis in the oil-rich South-South state as 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly on Monday defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The 27 members were said to be loyal to Martins Amaewhule, who is an ally of Wike, a former governor of the state till May 29, 2023.
For weeks, Amaewhule and another member, Edison Ehie, have been embroiled in a Speakership tussle. Ehie is known to be in the camp of Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
The Assembly under Amaewhule had in October served an impeachment notice on the governor and removed Ehie as the House leader. However, some members of the Assembly loyal to Fubara immediately impeached Amaewhule and made Ehie the new Speaker.
The crisis in the 32-member Assembly had begun as a result of a rift between Fubara and his predecessor, Wike.
The President had in October met with both Wike and Fubara to resolve the crisis. Though the two politicians have both attended same public events in the last few weeks and all seemed to have been settled but with Monday’s defection of 27 lawmakers from the PDP to the APC, more drama might unfold in the state’s political arena.
The PANDEF leader, in his letter to the President said the situation was not yet over and things seem to be degenerating by the day.
He said Rivers State is very important to the stability of the Niger Delta and the overall national economy and any breakdown of law and order will not be in the overall interest of all.
The elder statesman said he is surprised at Wike’s public utterances despite that Fubara had apologised to him.
Clark said, “On one occasion, he stated that ‘impeachment is not a military coup”, ‘a total outrage when all hands are on deck to consolidate this democracy under your leadership.
“In fact, in his recent interview held on Friday, 24th November, 2023, the Minister charged to one of his group of guests that the Governor is ungrateful, concluding that ‘I cannot stand ingrates’.
“He continued stating how he had helped the Governor to become what he had become today and threatening publicly that he would continue the fight if the Governor ‘changes the structures which I left in the state’.”
The nonagenarian wondered why is the FCT minister is keeping structures and for what purpose. He recalled that Wike had attacked the concept of godfatherism as totally unacceptable and this made him to fall out with his predecessor, RotimiAmaechi.
“So, what purpose are the structures supposed to serve when there is a governor in place? This is a question that he owes you and all Nigerians.
“If all governors who as a matter of right, insist on allowing their favoured candidates as successor, insist on controlling them, insist on controlling the State Assemblies, insist on controlling the structure which they left behind, what manner of confusion will we have in Nigeria?” he queried.