Wike Must Live With Consequences Of Making Fubura His Successor – Lukman

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, must live with the consequences of supporting Siminalayi Fubara to become the Governor of Rivers State.

A former National Working Committee (NWC) member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, stated this in a chat with reporters in Abuja on Sunday.

Lukman said Wike must take responsibility for making Fubara his successor and stop his power tussle with the governor in the interest of the state’s people.

The APC chieftain stated that the state is no longer about governance but individual interest and called all lovers of democracy to appeal to Wike to allow Fubara to work.

He said: “We must appeal to Wike if, for whatever reason, he makes the choice he made to support Siminalayi Fubara as the Governor. He must take responsibility and live with the consequences and find a way to swallow the bitter pills because we are not talking about governance now.

“The more he mismanaged his relationship with Fubara, the more those who will be receiving the short end of the stick are the people of Rivers State. This is not going to happen at the expense of governance. You can see based on the street fight you can see an “arrangement” has been made. Fubara presented a budget in less than 24 hours, and the Assembly passed it. This is not democracy anymore.

“Leadership is about taking full responsibility, sometimes denying yourself. It is like, as a father, not every day I sit down here and watch things happening and say I am happy. Sometimes, I have to swallow things so that other people in the family remain happy even when I am not happy myself. That is what I expect from Fubara and Wike and even from our party so that the people of Rivers State will be happy. Sadly, this is happening at the beginning of a tenure.

“If this democracy is to move this country forward, we need leaders who will make the needed sacrifices so that citizens can be happy. Not to go on street fighting simply because you disagree with yourselves.”

The former Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) said the party’s decision to dissolve all the APC’s structures in the state indulged Wike in the fight against Fubara.

Lukman said the appointment of Wike’s ally, Tony Okocha, as the caretaker chairman of the APC in Rivers State was a move to pave the way for Wike to have an undue advantage.

He said: “I think we should take responsibility in some ways because perhaps if, as leaders of the party, we didn’t indulge Wike the way we did, he would have managed his relationship back in Rivers with the governor and other political leaders better.

“You are witnesses, I am sure, when the Caretaker Committee came to pay the courtesy visit to the national chairman and shortly after that, the national vice chairman South-south led APC leaders from that state to visit Wike and that, without any local problem in Rivers state the National Working Committee sat down and dissolved all structures of APC to open the door for Wike to come into the party. So, I mean you just give him license to say you are welcome whatever you do we accept it. That is what I mean by indulgence, and I don’t think we should reduce politics further.”