It was “Hardball”, The Nation’s unsigned back-page column, that first flagged the new Fubara, in “Fubara comes of age” (May 16).
Far from the threaten-first, think-later cruise of his pre-suspension days, embattled Rivers Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, was sounding radically different: more conciliatory, less combative.
He warned his supporters, who even at the event, had their victimhood orchestra blaring at its loudest decibel to, for once, swallow the chill pill. “Oshobay” — no-retreat-no-surrender — he warned, could be counter-productive.
He told them to bawl less and think more. Between tactical din and strategic quiet, Fubara just voted the loud quiet — and he picked no bones about it!
Lest anyone, he further warned, goes blabbing after the event that wily Fubara begs in the day but plots in the night! Enough of “Oshobay”!
Now, is this a born-again Fubara?
No insulting of judges in hallowed courts of justices? No traducement of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and his troopers, over a local government poll, later declared null and void? No colourful signals to “youths” — with raucous cheers — to await instructions at the right time, even as Rivers was about to go up in smoke?
Indeed, is this Fubara born-again?
“Hardball” really played hard ball with devastating lexis, over the collapse of that rash tactic: “Fubara has eaten crow. Clark is gone to meet his maker. ‘Oshobay’ is in the morgue”! A stinging satire never sounded more biting!
The irony though was that old man Edwin Clark, in whose sweet memory that occasion was forged, was the unfazed champion of “Oshobay”.
The radical old man, even at his “departure lounge”, never tired of pushing hot Ijaw nationalism and frothy Fubara exceptionalism: nativist twin-pillars to propel the governor to victory, despite his clear lack of “structure” — beyond cunning conflict entrepreneurs edging him on for own hot bucks; and sundry hustlers goading the governor to buck the Wike boat, for own sinecures!
The thunder from Delta barked and quaked: the presidential peace papers were infra dig for the Rivers governor. By virtue of his all-mighty office, he must hold all of the aces!
But now? The rage is gone. Clark is dead. All is quiet on the Delta front. And Fubara, on the Rivers front, finds himself holding the short end of the political stick!
A power tale is never more sobering! The surrender, never more craven and shattering — in any case, to Fubara’s gung-ho supporters! Still, a retreat, in the face of cold reality, would appear harsh common sense.
That harsh reality comes clearly across as Fubara marks his “second year” in office, though in exile! A four-year term could now be short by six months. Still, half-bread is better than none!
That’s the clear message from the Fubara camp, with the governor himself playing the loud messenger-in-chief. And NBA, that hitherto played to the gallery on the emergency question, is funereally mum!
Unlike the dead Clark thunder that blasted the Abuja peace accord and torched the Rivers emergency declaration papers, the living but wiser Fubara is praising the president to high heavens, as his second-year message.
The governor’s chief of staff, who hitherto had threatened a fight-to-finish with the Wike camp, is content with happy ads about the “old” times of halcyon power, set to return in less than six months!
It’s another cruel reality check, that further decries the old tactics, without necessarily saying so. Between the Wike and Fubara camps, it’s fresh clamour for presidential adoration!
Still, both sights are set on different spots: Fubara, to at least regain lost diadem. Wike, to fully control the 2027 Rivers sweepstakes. President Bola Tinubu appears in the roaring vortex of both.
Common sense demands that he be courted — and so be it, from both camps!
So, if Fubara, who virtually declared, at the Clark tribute, that his “soul” had departed the Rivers State House, now says he wants new peace and amity with his “Oga” — read Nyesom Wike — then you know why!
Both may yet get what they crave in the very short term: Fubara’s return to office after six months, or even less, if the armistice and peace terms are fast firmed up.
As Fubara is pushing new conciliation — and Wike too, claiming he never fought his “boy”: only the crass opportunists that led him astray — Fubara could return to office under a tight Wike leash.
It’s left to the President: to whom both camps swear fealty; and other chefs in the peace kitchen — blessed are the peace makers! — to cook honourable and non-humiliating peace.
Good luck on that though, for Wike never resists a canter and gallop of triumph, though that might bury the vanquished in the dust! But who cares?
Yet, honourable peace is imperative.
Let it not be the Rivers equivalent of Germany’s Weimar Republic (1918-1933), chafing from the harsh terms of the Treaty of Varsailles, only to breed Hitler. Hitler and killer gang seized a craven German surrender in War War 1 (1914-1918), to lunch a worse Armageddon in World War 2 (1939-1945)!
It now might appear all quiet on the Rivers front. But there is enough tinder lying around, like dry thatch in the harmattan, to convulse the place, with any careless move!
Which makes this counsel to bear repeating: as Fubara re-shapes self as peacenik, gentle as a dove, Wike too should learn to be less abrasive and belligerent.
But even with both coming to party with their best behaviour, the crunch will come with second-term sweepstakes. Fubara should not kid himself: the Wike “structure” can’t trust him with power again.
Neither should Wike too suffer any illusion: Fubara would grab a possible second term, within or without Wike’s structure — not after losing six months from his first.
Everyone waits — holding their breaths — as the two friends-turned-fiends, navigate this testy juncture. Will fiends yet turn friends again? Or would it be “To your tent, o Rivers”? Time will tell!
But the auguries are hardly good. As President Bola Tinubu works hard at changing the conventional path to the presidency, amid a ferocious gang-up by Atiku-led “me-too” ensemble, Rivers could well become a veritable battle ground.
The old fiefdom of Peter Odili is carved into three: under Wike, Fubara and Rotimi Amaechi, with General Peter himself all but a bemused spectator! He backed a wrong horse in Fubara!
Who carries the day? Will Fubara, junked by the Wike camp, team up with the Atiku/ Amaechi forces, to grit out who owns the land? We wait!
