Doubt rises over planned meeting between Gov Fubara and 27 lawmakers as lawmaker mocks governor

Doubts are rife in Rivers State over the expected meeting between Gov Sim Fubara and the 27 lawmakers which is at the invitation of the governor.

A major doubt in the air was over the mode of communication between the Governor and the Speaker which has been a subject of dispute.

Now, a lawmaker has released video footage mocking the governor over the mode of communication, using words that showed they did not recognize the invitation mode.

Relationship between both parties was severed during the impeachment move in October 2024. Since that day, two parallel institutions have emerged, one loyal to Gov Fubara, the other to FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.

The Martin Amaewhule faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly which has been recognized as the right faction to approve the budget sent an ultimatum to the governor in 28 hours to lay the 2025 budget before them.

The government said in a public statement and social media that they did not get any such communication. The lawmakers rejected the reply they got from the secretary to the state government, saying it was the governor they expected to hear from, but many bureaucrats said governors do not write but use offices of government to communicate.

Read Also: Threats of War: Fubara, lawmakers scramble for solution as Rivers teeters on edge

Now, the governor through the secretary to the state government has written to the lawmakers to come for a meeting to discuss how to present the budget, how to find a place for them to sit, and how to release their allocations.

Whereas doubts rose in the air, a lawmaker, Lolo Opuende Isaih (Akuku Toru Constituency 2) has released a video on social media seemingly mocking Gov Fubara. Speaking in pidgin English, he said their principal (Wike) had told them that the time would come for everybody to ‘dey his dey’.

A popular mockery song in the state used such slang to shun any relationship between both camps. The lawmaker says their principal had stomached the insult by urging them to remain calm because a day would come when they too would not want to relate with anybody. Isaih seems to suggest that the hour has come.

He said the same way the governor said the letter from the lawmakers was not properly sent to him, that they too want the governor to send his own letter to them properly, otherwise, let each camp stay on their own (dey their dey).

Observers say the way things have gone bad in the state politically, there would be need for a strong body to coordinate how both camps would act to obey the orders of the Supreme Court to avoid merely playing to the gallery.

Besides, the lawmakers had scheduled 10am Monday, March 10, 2025, as when to receive the chairman of the Rivers State Independent Election Commission (RSIEC).

All these developments seem to have created fog around the possibility of a successful meeting between the governor and the lawmakers.