Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State has disclosed he has been working with enemies. Two commissioners just resigned from his cabinet when he tried to move them from ‘big’ ministries to ones considered smaller.
Almost an entire House of Assembly (27 out of 31) is made up of his detractors. Now, he told his guests from Bayelsa thus: “You don’t know what I am going through. I am working with my own enemies. Imagine where your Attorney-General will go to sabotage you. It was as bad as that. But, they will get their reward.
“So, you see, if I have not gone to reconcile with my brother (Bayelsa), I would have been in bigger mess. So, I have already started benefiting, reaping the fruits of that peaceful relationship.”
Fubara made the explanation when he received on courtesy visit the Bayelsa State delegation of political and traditional leaders, led by former governor of the State, Henry Seriake Dickson, former senator, at Government House in Port Harcourt on Monday.
Fubara also regretted that Rivers State was experiencing such protracted political crisis because there were no leaders of conscience who could stand up boldly and mediate on issues without bias.
On the possibility of crushing his opponents, he said: “I have never gone anywhere to ask anybody to do anything against anybody. But what happens to the people that are supporting me? They are being harassed, they are being arrested and detained. There is no week that somebody doesn’t come here with one letter of invitation for trumped-up charges and all those things.
“I am saying all these because of what my senior said here: restraint. I don’t think the other party has shown any restraint. I am the one that has shown restraint in the face of this crisis.
“I am the one that is badly hit, even when I have all the government instruments to shake up the table. But, why will I do it? I believe that peace is the best relationship to cultivate.”
Speaking further, Governor Fubara thanked the delegation for coming to solidarise with him and his administration, and noted that there was no complete Rivers State without Bayelsa State and vice versa, which demands that they continue to work together for development.
He said: “We were separated because of political purposes to expand development, but we need to be united so that the economies of these two states will grow.
“There is no need for us to have any argument over assets; there is no need for us to have disagreement over issue of who owns this or who doesn’t own that.
“One way or the other, we are even inter-related. That is the truth. So, there is no need for fight.”
