Rumbling And Fumbling Of Fubara: End Of The Road For A Weakling?
By
Coker Onita
Sir Siminalayi Fubara, Executive Governor of oil-rich Rivers State, gave up the ghost, politically, just recently. Before then, he had managed to put up what Lagosians will describe as a “bold face.” Unfortunately, so it seems, he had started a fight he had no liver or temerity to finish. And so, he literally came crashing down like a pack of cards!
Good for him, you’re wont to say. But l can predict that he’s sure to regret his actions, if not now, later in his political journey. With that “show of shame,” he has disappointed a lot of his admirers and fellow citizens.
Recently, Fubara openly confessed at a public gathering in Port Harcourt that he had abandoned the war and returned to his “political family,” having fully re-united with the “Rainbow Coalition.” He therefore openly campaigned for President Bola Tinubu and Mr. Chinda, who instead of Fubara himself, had become the chosen Gubernatorial Candidate of the group. He therefore quickly informed his followers to tow his line of action.
Said he: “l have returned to our political family.”
I have no doubt in my mind that the Late Chief Edwin Clark, the renowned South South leader would be turning in his grave for Fubara’s hollow decision. What a bitter pill!
Mr. Nyesom Wike, Federal Capital Territory Minister and head of the Coalition said last Saturday, August 1, 2026 during a media chat in Port Harcourt that Fubara was the greatest loser of the political imbroglio that engulfed the state. He said that Fubara’s desire to set up a political structure outside the one that brought him into office was the man’s greatest undoing. He also accused him of listening to wrong advisers.
And l dare ask: ls there anything wrong with that? Having brought him into office, can’t you allow him to govern the state? Does he have to send every file to Wike in Abuja before taking decisions? Who are the wrong advisers? Do they include the likes of former Governor Peter Odili and other elders who handed over to Wike the torch? To me, it amounts to a stupid excuse. Call it arrant nonsense!
But it is clear to every discerning mind that Wike would not have succeeded if he did not have the full backing of the (grand) godfather himself, President Tinubu. The oppression and hostility from the centre was too glaring. All forces, including the Judiciary were deployed against him. If not, how can one explain the initial defection of state assembly members to the ruling party and our courts still cleared them? His six months suspension by Tinubu’s State of Emergency Rule, which was an aberration, added fillip to the gang up.
Poor Fubara, with his tail behind his legs, he had no option but to throw in the towel, accept his fate and bow to his oppressors. Now that he is being blamed for all the tension that had gripped Rivers State politically, and having whimsically accepted his fate, l see no future for him, moving forward. Fubara should go home and rest and say bye-bye to politics and the art of politicking –or could it be “politriking?”
It can be concluded without any fear of equivocation that most of his political associates and admirers would have been thoroughly disappointed. Some may even wish him dead. And those who don’t won’t like anything to do with him any further. He’s hardly electable again. He has tumbled, rumbled, crumbled and fumbled badly.
Goodbye Fubara!
MR. COKER ONITA IS FORMER PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, TODAY’S CHOICE MAGAZINE, EDITORIAL CONSULTANT AND COLUMNIST INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS LIMITED. HE WRITES FROM LAGOS.