By Samuel Olusegun Precious
The Rivers political reconciliation has entered another phase as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and Governor Siminalayi Fubara met on Tuesday at the Governor’s private residence in Port Harcourt.
The closed-door meeting, which lasted about four hours, was attended by the APC governorship candidate Kingsley Chinda, Senator Magnus Abe, who heads the Rainbow Coalition Reconciliation Committee, and former APC Deputy National Chairman Sam Jaja.
According to reports, it was the first time Fubara personally hosted a reconciliation meeting with Wike since the beginning of the crisis, and the first meeting since Fubara announced he would not seek re-election in 2027.
Sources described the engagement as strategic and part of ongoing fence-mending ahead of the Rainbow Coalition’s campaign for the 2027 general elections.The meeting comes months after Wike declared that his feud with Fubara was over, saying the Governor had agreed to return to the political family that brought him to power in 2023.
The relationship between the two men deteriorated shortly after Fubara assumed office in 2023, leading to impeachment proceedings, division of the State Assembly, and President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a six-month state of emergency in the state.
Fubara has since joined the APC, aligned with the Wike-backed Rainbow Coalition, endorsed Chinda as his preferred successor, and declared support for President Tinubu’s second term.Details of Tuesday’s talks were not disclosed, as both sides maintained silence, fueling speculations among Rivers people whether it is a genuine peace or the peace of the graveyard forced by 2027 calculations.
Meanwhile, some analysts in the state have condemned the politicians hobnobbing with the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike after their bitter political rivalry.
Chetam Nwala, a former student activist and human rights lawyer, decried the turn of events in a facebook post seen by our correspondent on Tuesday.
Writing under the name Certified Courtist II on Facebook, he said:”Wike is moving from LGA to LGA forgiving people. He is now posing himself as the political messiah, who is dishing out forgiveness without restraint.
The people I blame are the former Simplified members who are shameless and always looking for political relevance and bootlicking. Most of them cannot stay out of politics because they have no means of livelihood.
In Etche, the names of people he called out for his forgiveness parade was really shameful and disheartening. These are men who have been in politics for the longest. Men you would have felt had reputation and integrity but whose stomach is their god. Ndi ara.
I love what most of the younger people are doing, insisting on remaining hungry rather than share in the king’s devilish meat. These guys who continue to return to Wike asking for forgiveness are the ones making Wike look like a demi-god, but do you blame them so much when Sim threw everybody under the bus?
I have come to a conclusion, Sim is the reason why most of his former lieutenants are being embarrassed everyday by Wike in the name of forgiveness.
The truth is, there is nothing genuine about this fake forgiveness, he knows the electoral battle ahead is enormous and he has made comments that he will need more men to achieve it, that’s why he is dishing out this fake forgiveness.
If men can learn to endure hunger, people like Wike will have no say in our politics.”
