Former Bayelsa State Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate, Engr. Udengs Eradiri, has advised the suspended Rivers State governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, to shut his doors against crisis merchants and step up the ongoing reconciliation.
Eradiri commended Fubara for heeding his earlier advice that he should kneel before his estranged benefactor and predecessor, Nyesom Wike, and beg him for forgiveness.
The former president, Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, recalled that when he advised Fubara to beg Wike for forgiveness, some Ijaw leaders opposed his position, but said he was glad the suspended governor saw the wisdom in it.
In a statement yesterday, the former commissioner for Youths and later Environment in the state, said amid the ongoing reconciliation, Fubara must learn to keep enemies of Rivers that once surrounded him in abeyance.
He classified those, who tried to make an ethnic case out of the crisis and others, who choreographed most political mistakes of Fubara and supervised some of his constitutional breaches without guiding him properly as the enemies of Rivers and Fubara.
He said most of the people, who claimed to love the governor and offered him pieces of advice, were his real enemies because according to him, they were profiting from the crisis and would not want it to end.
He urged the suspended governor to reestablish his relationship with Wike and heed the directives of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the process of finding lasting political calm in Rivers.
Eradiri said if Fubara had been allowed by crisis merchants to implement the earlier peace agreement crafted by President Tinubu, whom he described as an old political warhorse, he would have avoided the political turmoil that almost led to his impeachment.
He said, “Thank God that President Tinubu saved you through the declaration of emergency rule. This opportunity has offered you a second chance. Please do not bungle it.
“I was happy that you heeded my advice, got up from your comfort zone and initiated the reconciliation by first meeting with Chief Wike and apologizing to him. You have done well. But you need to follow-up this process.
“First, make yourself unreachable to those, who will come and slow this process down and feed you with unsolicited advice to abort this reconciliation”.
Eradiri appealed to the governor to rein in his supporters and stop them from actions capable of derailing the reconciliation process.
He particularly condemned the decision of some pro-Fubara women to walk out on an empowerment programme of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) of the First Lady Senator Remi Tinubu, under the guise that Dr. Theresa Ibas, the wife of the Rivers Sole Administrator represented Mrs. Tinubu.
“Such action is condemnable in the reconciliation process. It can derail and slow down the process of peace in the state as well as casting doubts on the suspended governor’s sincerity to end the political crisis in the state.
“The suspended Governor must rein in his supporters and stop them from all forms of protest capable of deepening the political discord in the state. He must be seen to walk his talk because every action of his supporters will be attributed to him”, he said.
Eradiri appealed to Wike, suspended members of the House of Assembly and other stakeholders in the Minister’s camp to forgive Fubara and help him facilitate the process of reconciliation.
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