Rivers crisis: Wike owns up, says it's about ensuring his political relevance

The Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, insinuated on Tuesday that the political crisis rocking Rivers State is about control of his political base to ensure his political relevance in the country.

Recall that some lawmakers loyal to Wike in the Rivers Assembly had thrown the state into political crises as a result of the plot to impeach the FCT Minister’s successor, Siminalayi Fubara on Monday.

It was believed that the lawmakers were acting on behalf of Wike who helped to install Fubara as his successor.

However, while practically owning up to being the brains behind the crises, Wike told a group of South-South leaders at his office in Abuja on Tuesday that he must secure his base to maintain his political relevance.

The former Governor who dismissed the claim that the move against Fubara was motivated by ethnic considerations insisted that he would not allow his political base to be taken away from him as a politician because that would mean he had lost his relevance politically.

He added that he is not losing sleep over what he described as a campaign of calumny against him over the matter.

“All of us want to be politically relevant; all of us want to maintain our political structure,” the minister was quoted as saying during the meeting by Channels Television.

“Is it not your political structure? Will you allow anybody to just cut you out immediately? Everybody has a base. If you take my base, am I not politically irrelevant?”

Wike added that internal wranglings are common in politics and will be settled using the party’s mechanisms.

“In politics, there are a lot of internal wranglings. But to come out and say ‘Oh they want to do this against me, it will not work.’

“I had every power then to say where this thing is going. So, when things are wrong, you ask questions.

He however insisted that the issue is a party party affair and would be resolved using the party’s mechanism.

“The party knows how they resolve their problems, it is not an ethnic affair.

“Our party is coming to it, that is what I will say. Every politician has his own interest,” the former governor added.

However, President Bola Tinubu and the PDP Governors’ Forum have intervened in the crisis between the Minister and Fubara.