The ongoing, bitter power struggle over the political control of Rivers State has reached a new threshold of hostility. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has publicly claimed that Governor Siminalayi Fubara is violating a strict pre-election agreement that explicitly barred him from seeking a second term in office.
Speaking at an unscripted, high-stakes briefing with Rivers State political stakeholders and traditional rulers in Okrika, the former governor laid bare the foundational pacts that enabled Fubara’s rapid ascent to the state’s highest office in 2023. According to Wike, Fubara’s emergence as the standard-bearer was contingent upon a mutual understanding that he would act as a transitional executive, serving a single four-year term before returning the governorship ticket to alternative structural caucuses within the state.
The Anatomy of the Broken Promise
Addressing a packed hall of loyalists, Wike did not hold back his frustration, framing the current governance crisis in Port Harcourt not as a standard policy dispute, but as a severe betrayal of trust.
“Let it be known to all Nigerians who are watching the drama in Rivers State that we did not just wake up one morning and hand over the structure,” Wike stated, gesturing emphatically from the podium. “There was a clear, unambiguous agreement before the tickets were printed. Siminalayi Fubara knew the terms. He signed up for a single term to stabilize our political family. Today, he has tasted power and wants to burn down the entire house just to secure a second term that was never allocated to him.”
The FCT Minister’s public disclosure provides a definitive explanation for the rapid and aggressive collapse of his relationship with his former protégé. Wike asserted that the governor’s subsequent political maneuvers—including the systematic dismantling of pro-Wike structures within the state assembly and local government councils—are part of an unauthorized push to construct a personal campaign machine for 2027.
“He Will Bury Me Politically”
In an exceptionally raw moment of self-preservation, Wike admitted to his stakeholders that the political survival of their entire camp is tied directly to halting Fubara’s re-election ambitions. He warned that allowing the governor to consolidate power over an eight-year cycle would result in the absolute destruction of the political structure that has governed Rivers State for over a decade.
“If he gets a second term, he will bury me politically, and he will bury every single one of you who stood by me,” Wike warned the gathered delegates. “We cannot afford to play sentimental politics with our survival. A man who breaks a solemn agreement within his first two years in office cannot be trusted with another four years of state power.”
The FCT Minister also issued a stern warning to traditional rulers in the state, advising them to steer completely clear of partisan endorsements. He stated that any royal father who allows their palace to be used as a launching pad for illegal second-term campaigns would face massive political consequences from the structure’s grassroots base.
