Rivers Crisis Would Have Defied Solution Without Tinubu’s Intervention — Tonye Cole

The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate of Rivers State in the 2023 general elections, Tonye Cole has stated that the intervention of President Bola Tinubu in the political crisis between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike was the reason for the resolution of the dispute.

Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Morning Brief’ on Wednesday, Cole revisited the public fallout between Fubara and his predecessor, describing the episode as one that pushed Rivers into what he termed “a very, very unfortunate state of emergency.”

“I recall always saying the only person who can resolve the Rivers crisis when the governor, Sim Fubara, and the Honourable Minister Nyesom Wike had a very public falling out is Mr President. If he had not weighed in, there is no way the issue would have been resolved.

“We found ourselves in a very, very unfortunate state of emergency — one which was not welcomed at all, but that’s where we are,” he noted.

Cole recalled that the president’s intervention led to a reconciliation between Governor Fubara and Wike, though the process left the governor politically constrained.

“And in the midst of all of that, there was a reconciliation between the governor and his godfather, the Honourable Minister. It was not a palatable situation but that’s where we are,” he added.

According to him, recent political developments suggested that Governor Fubara is once again back in a position similar to when he first assumed office, unable to act independently of the forces around him.

“Tomorrow we have the governor coming back and the scenario is like when he started — which is that he found out that he was totally surrounded and could not take decisions by himself,” he said.

He stressed that the “status quo” was the very situation that triggered Fubara’s initial clash with Wike.

“I believe that we are finding ourselves back to the very, very beginning. Status quo revealed that he’s returned to the situation that caused him to begin his fight,” he stated.

Looking ahead, he said the governor now faces a stark choice to either accept the same status quo he fought against or prepare for another political confrontation.

“So we are going to see if this time around he’s going to choose to live with the status quo that he fought against or go back to another fight. Only the governor can tell us,” he said.