He is a popular Rivers state politician who is outspoken, smart and pragmatic with undeniable wit and brightly eloquent. Dr SAMUEL NWANOSIKE, for two tenures was the elected Chairman of IKWERRE Local Government Area, he is businessman and a top SUPPORTER of FCT Abuja, Minister Nyesom Ezenwo WIKE’s political CAMP In first week of October 2024 while his Isiokpo town headquartes of Ikwerre LGA was in inferno due to the botched October 5th, 2024 Local Government Council election, he was in far away United States of America, studying at Harvard University for further academic feat after earning a Doctoral Degree PhD in Risk Management at University of Port Harcourt, Rivers state. Recently, he spoke EXCLUSIVELY to Ibrahim Bakare of TheNEWS and PMNEWS in Port Harcourt.
As a serving LG Council Chairman of Ikwerre LGA and a prominent pro-Wike supporter in the state, what will you say is the genesis of the political feud between the godfather and a godson? Where would you situate the crisis?
As far as I’m concerned, I’ll speak from my perspective and I’m someone who had the privilege of participating in the administration of my boss and political leader, Chief Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers State and the current Minister of FCT Abuja. Through his political upbringing, because as far as I’m concerned, Wike didn’t only build physical structures, he built men and resources for the people of Rivers State. Wike built young men and kept a very cordial relationship with our political leaders and elders of this state and we have a political family that we never had before in the annals of politics here under his leadership.
That political family has the likes of Chief Ferdinand Anabraba as Chairman of the Elders Forum and other leaders of different strata. I belong to the Committee of Serving Local Government Council Chairmen and I also belong to a very vital organisation called the Grassroot Development Initiative (GDI). So, I can say that by my own knowledge and experience that it was the decision of the family that a Local Government like Opobo that has only ten wards, should be given an opportunity to produce the governor of Rivers State, which made the lot easier to fall on Siminalayi Fubara as the Executive Governor of Rivers State.
Of course, like you know, Fubara had no political structure but he was a member of our political family because, in a political family there are several departments and everybody has his own sector that he/she is working for the interest of the entire political family.
So, in answering your question, as far as I’m concerned, when a man has planned evil in his heart against you, what the man would seek is the time and opportunity to execute that evil. Siminalayi Fubara, the current governor of Rivers State, even while he was in our political family had embedded in his heart evil that he had planned to disintegrate our political family, embarrass our political leaders and make us become political orphans in our state. So, as far as we”re concerned, we’ve not seen in any way that Wike or anybody in our political family wronged Siminalayi Fubara. Not to the point of even imagining that he could orchestrate an impeachment of Rt. Hon. Martins Chike Amaewhule, Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, which caused the political crisis that broke out on October 31, 2023 and the burning down of the sacred chambers of the Legislative Arm, which is the voice and representation of the people.
Like you know, for a democracy to be called a proper democracy, the institution called the Legislature must stand tall. So, when you burn down the hallowed chambers and come to the public media to say that the Assembly will exist because I say it should exist. It shows it’s not a democracy. So, our worry is that we say we’re practicing a constitutional democracy in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory FCT Abuja and we’ve seen the governor, whether it’s because of inexperience or the wickedness of a man’s heart that made hi decide to emasculate the legislature and legislative business with only three men. He organised and orchestrated an Assembly of his own, sitting inside Government House!
Which one came first? Is it the impeachment of the Speaker or attempted impeachment of the governor?
The impeachment of the Speaker came first. It’s the impeachment of the Speaker that led to the suspension of Edison Ehie, who was the ring leader of the impeachment plot and the three other Assembly members who were those going around and speaking to their colleagues about the need to impeach Martins Chike Amaewhule.
Why and how has the crisis escalated to this point over a year and still counting. . .?
First of all, like we’ve noted here that the crisis began as soon as the Proclamation of the House was done by Siminalayi Fubara on the 9th of June, 2023 when Martins Amaewhule was elected Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly by the overwhelming majority of the 32 other members, including the one that died because then, he was alive. And Martins Amaewhule was elected Speaker; Edison Ehie was elected Majority leader and the others who emerged in their offices. But for whatever reasons Edison Ehie and Siminalayi Fubara had in their sleeves, believing that they had gotten hold to power decided to use the resources of the state to create a division in the legislature by orchestrating that impeachment plot.
So, when it backfired, it led to the suspension and impeachment of Edison Ehie because they didn’t just stop at the impeachment plot. When the impeachment plot failed, they went as far as burning down the hallowed chambers with their cronies. And that’s why everybody is shocked that the governor up till now never set up a panel of inquiry to investigate that action. Rather, what did he do? He quickly went on to destroy the evidence needed for prosecution by demolishing the entire Assembly Complex, claiming that he has issued a contract to rebuild the Assembly Complex. The question is: if an arson is committed you don’t tamper with the evidence. You allow investigations to be properly conducted and result of the investigations made public and those found culpable to face the wrath of the law to act as deterrent to future occurrences. But the governor acted undemocratically by going to pull down the Assembly Complex and destroy that evidence.
But as far as we’re concerned, government has a record-keeping activity. For every action you take, there’s an equal and opposite action waiting to be taken. If you call us the pro Wike group, we’ve been following the rule of law in making sure that in all we do, we don’t cast aspersions on Judges; in all we do, we don’t make flimsy statements that are against the constitution; in all we do, we obey the rule of law because we believe there’ll be anarchy in a state of lawlessness. If we, as those who believe in democratic practices, decide to go against the rule of law, how can the centre hold? That is when those who are supposed to uphold the law are the ones breaking the law . We’ve just said one thing: you can’t govern Rivers State with a three-man Assembly. It’s not known to law.
And so, when they parade the story, the 27 lawmakers have lost their seats. Is that what the constitution has said? The constitution hasn’t said that when you defect from your party you automatically loose your seat. No .
Who was the Speaker that declared the seats vacant? They went around and said oh, Edison Ehie was the Speaker. Who elected Edison Ehie? At what point did Edison Ehie become Speaker of the state Assembly? A man that was impeached and suspended indefinitely from the businesses of the House; who has not approached any Court of law to quash his suspension or who hasn’t appeared before any panel before the Assembly to ask why he was suspended and defend himself? And you wake up and said he was the Speaker. Now, the Supreme Court has ruled in several decisions that you can’t conduct a House without having a quorum. So, can 3 men be a quorum of 31?
As if that was not enough, our president, the father of the nation, for the second time called us for a meeting and which was not the first meeting he has had with incumbent Gov Fubara and the immediate past governor, Chief Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike and he thought that he had reconciled them. But that he was surprised, the actions were still going. So, he had decided to call an expanded meeting of all critical stakeholders of the state. In fact, that meeting was coordinated by Mr President, Sir(Dr) Peter Odili and Gov Siminalayi Fubara. No other person had the opportunity to utter a word. Mr President said, gentlemen, this is not the Nigeria I want; I don’t want a Nigeria of crisis. So, I want all parties to sheath their swords. Moreover, you people are from one political family.
So, in answering your question, we pro-Wike supporters are calm; we’re very calm and focused on allowing the rule of law to prevail because we believe that when the law prevails, rascality will give way; ethnicity will give way and thuggery will give way.
Would you support another intervention again by Mr President in this crisis?
That sounds insulting to the President of the federal Republic of Nigeria. I’ve just told you here that even the governor sponsored people to go to court against the President, that he should stay off Rivers State and Rivers State crisis. That Rivers state has the power to handle its own crisis. So, you’re asking the same man who they’ve told: is Rivers Lagos? This same man that they’ve warned that if he doesn’t want crisis in Nigeria, that he should stay off Rivers state to intervene again? Intervene in what matter?
Will you support another impeachment move against the governor?
If the governor has conducted himself in activities that are impeachable, why shouldn’t he be impeached? Am I the one that wrote impeachment in our constitution? Is impeachment not part of the constitutional provisions .
What is the way forward now?
As far as I’m concerned, For me, let the rule of law take its course.