By Bon Onyedi
I have read David Oguzierem’s hollow tale of agony in yet another attempt at smearing the reputation and political integrity of Governor Nyesom Wike and the outstanding pedigree of Sir Siminalayi Fubara, the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State.
Rather than writing with facts, he has descended into hauling unproven allegations and peddling tell-tale falsehoods as the common gossip and propagandist that he is. My view on the matter is that fools, often detesting the truth, constantly wallow in ignorance, no matter the effort to educate them to the contrary.
From his assertions, it is obvious he is truly ignorant of how government operates and how government offices function. Although it is incumbent on him to prove his allegation of the breaching of official protocol, the onus is on us to school him a bit on the facts.
Despite the coming into law of the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA, 2011), the Official Secret Act still holds sway in the public service. So, as an integral part of the test of integrity, every civil servant who desires career growth, subscribes to it. It therefore becomes part of the routine ethical conduct to secure government information, especially when one is already rising to the pinnacle of one’s career. This explains why gossipers, backbiters, fraudsters and flippant characters hardly rise to such sensitive positions of leadership.
So, no government entrusts sensitive positions such as cashier, assistant to the Accountant-General, Director of Finance and Administration or Accountant-General to unserious and unstable characters. It is certain that Emperor Amaechi also knew this and never doubted the competence and professional capacity of Amaopu Siminalayi Fubara while he served as Cashier and later Assistant to the Accountant-General during his tenure as governor.
To therefore insinuate or allege such service misdemeanor against Sir Siminalayi Fubara is far beyond laughable and wicked. Perhaps, David has forgotten that Gov. Wike was part and parcel of Emperor Amaechi’s first tenure as Chief of Staff in Government House and that he is quite abreast with the transactional procedures of Amaechi. Would he, therefore, need anybody to leak any document to him?
If we agree, but not conceding to David’s delusion on the imaginary leakage of official documents, he has technically indicted his masters, Emperor Amaechi and Tonye Cole, to have engaged in unholy acts, thus confirming all their humongous looting of the state treasury and appropriating the state’s assets to themselves in a criminal manner. What exactly does he take Rivers people for?
David, while asserting that Fubara is not a known politician in the state, in the same breadth proceeds to allege Fubara’s leaking of official information to the opposition PDP during Amaechi’s tenure. I then ask: “In what capacity”? And at what time did he and his masters realize that Siminalayi Fubara was leaking official information to the opposition and what was their immediate reaction? Was their discovery or complaint an after-thought?
It is pertinent to inform David and his masters that in Nigeria of today, the career path of a civil servant becomes political even from the position of Director; as the individual would be critically observed and evaluated before ascending to the next level. That observation and evaluation subsequently lead to appointment as Permanent Secretary.
So, Siminalayi Fubara has been in grassroots politics for a long while from the background. He is very much abreast with the state to the point that he cannot call any local government Isiokpo Local Government as his principal Tonye Cole did recently during a condolence visit to Isiokpo in Ikwerre Local Govt. Before David reads me out of context, there is nothing wrong for any civil servant to participate in politics in Nigeria as already cleared by the Supreme Court pronouncement in the case of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) v Balarabe Musa & Ors (2003) 10 WRN 1.
May I also inform David that before 2022, Amaopu Sim Fubara took charge as the leader of PDP in Opobo/Nkoro LGA with great followership that has culminated in depleting the APC to the tatters in that local government. In 2021, when PDP held its Elective National Convention that saw the emergence of Dr. Iyorcha Ayu as National Chairman and others, Sim Fubara was conspicuously there as one of the delegates. That has further put David’s challenge to lie.
Talking about grassroots and imposition, who then is Tonye Cole in Rivers politics before 2019 and even now? In reality, can David prove that Tonye Cole emerged as a very formidable politician in APC amongst other political heavyweights that contested in the party?
Can David tell Rivers people that Tonye Cole is not an imposition by Emperor Amaechi? Then, let him ask his masters why all the political heavyweights are leaving Rivers APC in droves. He knows the truth, but would continue to live in self denial and in pretense.
Tonye Cole is an alien and a stranger to Rivers politics. I am very sure he does not know his APC unit leader; simply because he is not on ground. If he is, why the slip of calling an LGA Isiokpo Local Government. Is there anything like that? He is an imposition of Emperor Amaechi for the business of coveting Rivers assets and patrimony for their self-aggrandizement. Nothing more, nothing less! He is a complete political neophyte who does not even know his roots properly.
Now, David should know that it is in public space that Emperor Amaechi and Tonye Cole are on trial for criminal diversion of state resources and assets. But it becomes amusing for David to chant ignorantly that an individual can withdraw N117b across the counter, which he knows is absolutely impossible. To garnish his propaganda, he said further that such sum was also withdrawn without approval. Does he expect people to believe such tall-tales? We certainly know that David is drumming for the corpses who are bent on capturing Rivers state, but God will disappoint them.
My candid advice to David is to focus on marketing and selling his candidate to Rivers people, rather than resorting to futile campaign of calumny. The more he tries, the more he opens up a can of worms in his camp. Instead of promoting negative propaganda, let him tell Rivers people what Tonye Cole will do differently in Rivers State. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.
