Donu Kogbara, a renowned journalist and former BBC correspondent, has described Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara as a “very weak man” who allowed himself to be dominated by his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, and is now paying for it, news.ng reports.
This comes after Fubara announced his withdrawal from the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary in Rivers State.
Recall that yesterday, Kingsley Chinda, a strong ally of Wike, emerged as the APC candidate ahead of the 2027 gubernatorial poll in Rivers.
Meanwhile, Kogbara, in an interview on Arise Television on Thursday night, claimed that Wike had perfected his plan to pick a successor he could control or remove from office, and that Fubara fit perfectly into Wike’s playbook after political leaders in the state had been at loggerheads since late 2023.
She said, “It was the complete surrender of a very weak man. You know, Wike picked well when he chose Fubara in 2022 because it guaranteed one of two outcomes. Either he was going to be able to completely dominate Fubara throughout his tenure as governor and, you know, snap his fingers and get whatever he wanted, or he was going to be able to remove him if Fubara refused to play the slave.
“So, Wike wins in the sense that he judged Fubara’s character right, and I’m afraid Fubara has been completely humiliated in my opinion. He was never my choice for governor, but last year, when they foisted a state of emergency on us and did all kinds of disrespectful things to River’s people, I supported Fubara, thinking that, look, you know, we can’t allow this man to be completely disgraced. But I’m afraid he crept back to go and beg Wiki and Shinobu without even informing those of us who are trying to support him.”
According to her, she may have made a mistake in supporting Fubara during the peak of the political crisis in the state when Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared a state of emergency.
She noted, “And I suppose this outcome in a way is almost inevitable because if he had listened to people like me who said, ‘Look, River’s people on the whole are supporting you.'” Fight, and you’ll win. Because, I mean, Wike is not one person; he can’t dominate that many people if that many people say, No, we’re not slaves.”
On the role Wike played in successfully weakening the powers of Governor Fubara, the international multimedia journalist expressed disappointment in Wike, whom she claimed displayed a lack of integrity in the way the state capture was carried out.
She cited an example involving the president of the Nigerian Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and his successor, former Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel, explaining how the two leaders had disagreements that could have prompted Akpabio to destabilize the state. Kogbara, however, commended Akpabio for applying wisdom, unlike Wike, whom she said acted like an emperor and took things too far.
She added, “You don’t own this state. I absolutely reject the state capture and the lack of integrity that Wike has displayed. Even though I sympathized with him when he first complained to me that Fubara was not behaving himself, I just thought, well, this is somebody you plucked from nowhere.
“You made him governor. Can’t he show you some small, can’t he concede to you? But, you know, at the end of the day, I have made it very clear that I don’t think that a governor should be so trapped that he has to continuously concede to his godfather.”
“Let me just say, Wike is not the only godfather who has been disappointed by the person he installed as governor. I remember the current senate president, Akpabio, telling me some years ago what he went through after he installed Emmanuel Udom. He never told me the whole story, but I know he was not happy about some of the treatment that was dished out to him in the immediate aftermath of his departure from Government House in Uyo.
“But Akpabio has not gone back to Akwa Ibom to destabilise it viciously, mess everybody up, turn all the State House of Assembly people against the governor. He has not allowed his ego to control him. There are so many governors who have been through what Wiki has been through.
“It’s kind of normal in this country, but never before have I seen this level of megalomania and this refusal to accept that the state does not belong to you and your family and your cronies.”
Watch the clip
