As a key stakeholder in Rivers APC, what is the fate of the party and how has the party been faring since President Bola Tinubu appointed former Governor Nyesom Wike as minister?
As a matter of fact, it is unfortunate to say that the party in Rivers State has grown increasingly disconsolate and exhausted after the elections. This is so because the President and the cabal are hell-bent in ensuring that the party structure in the state is totally diffused from those who pioneered, nurtured, tended and pruned it from scratch. They want to hand it over to strangers and stack adversaries, who played very significant roles in destabilizing the efficacy and waning of the electoral value of the party in the state.
That is a bad precedent of a reward system. Members of the party fought tirelessly to ensure that the President emerges but today, all appointments due the state are channeled to members of the opposition. Members of the party have been schemed out of the structure; they have been lobbied out of the system. That is what the President and his team wants and they are playing the game exactly how they want it. But we patiently wait for what will be the end result.

There seems to be an unfinished business among the major stakeholders of the party in Rivers over its leadership. We hear of factions and divisions; what is the true picture?
What happened here was that former Governor Nyesom Wike, made attempts through some strangers led by one Tony Okocha to cause crisis by laying claim to the leadership of the party even when they were not members. So, we fought them off and maintained our grip of the leadership and other sub-structures. Little did we know that Wike, a member of PDP, had made inroads, lobbied President Bola Tinubu and those around him to deliver the structure of the Rivers APC to him.
That agreement was sealed before the elections with a promise from Wike to deploy state resources to sabotage the presidential candidate of his own party, Atiku Abubakar, in order for Tinubu to gain electoral advantage over his PDP rival. It was the vote of APC members that gave Tinubu victory in Rivers State. Wike sabotaged Atiku with Rivers money but Tinubu would not have won if APC members did not vote. Unfortunately, those who did the work have been pushed aside and Wike has been made the sole beneficiary of the collective efforts of foundation members and stakeholders of the APC in Rivers State.

There are reports that the PDP will expel Wike from the party. If that happens, he will surely join the APC, considering that he is currently serving in Tinubu’s government. Is the party gearing up for such eventuality?
I cannot categorically say what is happening in the party at the moment. We have been shut out and that is the reality. The National Working Committee of the party just dissolved the State Executive Council of the party in Rivers and constituted a seven-man caretaker committee led by Tony Okocha, a political merchant, who has been sabotaging the party for long. Okocha is Wike’s lobbyist. He lobbied for Wike’s appointment and now that he has been made chairman, they can run the party anyhow to please Tinubu and Wike. They can organizse a cocktail party to formerly welcome Wike into the party; there’s no problem about that. So, I think Tony Okocha is now better placed to answer this question.

There is an ongoing battle between Governor Simi Fubara and Wike for the sole of Rivers State. How do you see what is currently unfolding?
To me, it’s a divine orchestration, I must restate. The state has suffered so much under Wike. Rivers State got over N4 trillion for the eight years of Wike’s administration, yet he could only boast of 12 overhead bridges as legacy projects and Nigerians clapped for him. Where do you think he was getting the monies he was distributing to different states? Where do you think he got the money to fight Atiku, bribe delegates at presidential primaries?
If Wike had used at least 30 per cent of the monies that came to Rivers during the period he held sway as governor, the state would have definitely turned around. But he used less than 20 per cent, yet no one said a word. Anti-graft agencies are romancing with him as minister; it’s unfortunate. The current governor, Fubara, is one of the closest persons to Wike. He knows his antecedents. Fubara knows Wike was a failure as governor, so the fear of failing made him to detach himself from Wike.
How can Wike be asking for 25 per cent of the state’s monthly allocation? This is after he recommended all political appointees for the governor. He was so overbearing, aside being a failure. He is not the only former governor that produced a successor; Udom Emmanuel did it in Akwa-Ibom, Engr. Dave Unahi did in Ebonyi, Ifeanyi Okowa did in Delta, but he’s the only one fighting his successor, lobbying state Assembly members to impeach the governor even when he had not committed any gross misconduct to warrant the commencement of impeachment proceedings. Wike is simply selfish and that’s why everybody in Rivers is backing Fubara.
Rivers people heaved a sigh of relief on May 29, 2023 when Wike left office. I commend Edison Ehie and other Assembly members for standing by the governor and I urge other members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who are serving Wike to return and serve the interest of their constituents who elected them.

Recently, you condemned the position of Rivers elders over their open support for Wike. Why are you supporting Fubara instead of Wike given that both men are in PDP?
The liberation of Rivers State from the claws of Wike is paramount to me. So, throwing my weight behind Fubara is in the best interest of the state. As governor, Wike killed all state-owned investments – Songhai Farm, Banana plantation, Buguma Fish Farm, RSSDA, Rivers State Transport Company and others. That is the penchant of a man who has no knowledge in public investment.
He rendered thousands jobless. He ran the state aground. He repatriated Rivers sons and daughters on overseas scholarship on the flimsy excuse that the state had no money yet he was gifting hundreds of millions to other states and his personal friends and cohorts but Hypercity is expanding its business base in Port Harcourt with new multi-billion naira outlets opening everywhere in Port Harcourt. Wike owns over 100 per cent share in the company. Just last week he commissioned a new outlet in Port Harcourt in company of Governor Seyi Makinde.
Everything he does is for himself. If he lobbies you, it is because he wants to use you to achieve an end. Some of us cannot be bought with money and that’s why we act according to the dictates of our consciences, not Wike’s brown envelopes. People of goodwill and conscience will continue to support Fubara, so that Rivers State can be free.

Some were surprised that former Governor Rotimi Amaechi has been sidelined by Tinubu. Is that a signal to the end of the APC in Rivers?
Amaechi understands the feelings of Nigerians. He knows Nigerians are not happy and he wants to be on the side of Nigerians because he has always been on the side of the people. Amaechi doesn’t want to align with a system that runs directly opposite of what Nigerians yearn. Rivers APC has been hijacked, the state exco has been dissolved, a caretaker committee has been constituted. We wish them well. But that is not the end of the road. It’s the beginning of a new journey.

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