Fubara, Wike and Rivers State: The Danger of Riding On The Back of a Tiger

Editorial Board

The proverb “He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount” means that once you have embarked on a dangerous or troublesome course of action, it is often more perilous to stop or back down than to continue, even if the journey becomes tough.

For those politicians who decide to ride on the back of the ‘tiger’, for their political journey, the problem is not how to mount, but how to dismount without ending up as sumptuous supper for the cat.

So it looks now for Governor Simi Fubara of Rivers State, the level 14 civil servant-inexperienced politician that was handpicked by the ex governor of the state, Nyesom Wike and who since assumption of office, has tried his amateurish skills to dismount the tiger, without success.

Like Jonah who disobeyed God, Fubara has ended up in the belly of ‘Whale—Nyesom Wike.’

The troubled governor Fubara now has the opportunity to ‘repent’ in the next six months he will spend inside ‘Whale Wike’, and pray to him and repent from his disobedience.

The six months state of emergency declared in River State will provide a perfect condition for Fubara’s adversaries to reset the political dynamics in the state.

One thing is certain, the sun may set so early on Fubara’s political fortune.

Fubara is the perfect example of majority of Nigerian politicians, who believe that the ends will always justify the means in politics.

The Machiavelli principle had suggested that any method, even morally questionable ones, is acceptable if the desired outcome is deemed worthwhile. And in Rivers State, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declaration of State of Emergency in River State is acceptable—depending on the side of table you are seated.

In the beginning, from a default position, Wike, in his desperation to aniont a successor that would deodorize any skeleton, settled for a seemingly lustre-iridescent glazed appointee—Amaopusenibo Siminalayi Fubara, his Accountant General of the state.

The desperation of these two sneaky, cunning, moral lacking Machiavellians have caused the people of Rivers State, long-term negative consequences as a result of their actions, taken based on personal interest.

For Wike, he has rightly adopted the principle of Machiavelli in his book, the ‘Prince’—that: “It is better to be feared than loved”, which illustrates his adaptation to what he believed to be the Medici’s ruling philosophy—brash, coarse, bristly and assertive.

For thousands of years, this iron-fist rulership style has worked around the world and for some lucky political rulers like Wike, they believe that one can only rule through fear, through oppression, and through trepidation.

And since, it has worked for them, then the principle stands to reason that, “the outcome justifies the deeds”, a characterization of the “belief of an oppressor and a tyrant; someone who is not an impartial judge on the fact of their own wrongdoing.”

The decay in Nigeria’s political development is principally due to this branch of political philosophy which sums up as ‘rule-consequentialism.’ Steadily, and sadly too, “…the ends justify the means” and this hysterical political desperation has provided a justification for the unjustifiable fights between godfathers and their godsons in Nigeria’s political environment.

Read Also: Rivers’ Broken Peace: Unpacking The Wike-Fubara Feud