GOVERNOR Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State is planning to unveil the Godwin Obaseki strategy for the 27 lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The political crisis rocking Rivers State took a new twist on Monday, December 11, when 27 out of 31 lawmakers loyal to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, dumped the PDP, citing divisions in the party that brought them to power as their main reason.

In the video that went viral on social media, the lawmakers were seen waving the APC flag, chanting a support song for President Bola Tinubu and his ruling party. The APC is the national ruling party while the PDP controls the oil-rich Rivers State.

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However, sources close to Mr Fubara told Economy Post that he would copy Mr Obaseki’s model to govern Rivers State without some members of the House of Assembly if the crisis continued.

The Obaseki strategy

In 2019, Governor Obaseki had inaugurated only 9 out of 24 Edo State House of Assembly members, claiming that the rest went ‘awol’ and did not present themselves for service.

The lawmakers, now 14, were mainly those from the APC and loyal to former Governor Adams Oshiomole. They rejected the inauguration, and went to court to force Mr Obaseki to inaugurate them. They however did not succeed in the courts.

There had been a subterranean plan by the APC lawmakers to frustrate and possibly impeach Mr Obaseki, who then hurriedly inaugurated the House of Assembly to put the kibosh on their plan.

Four years after, the lawmakers, who had been duly elected, are still not members of the House of Assembly, with 14 constituencies going without representatives at the Edo State House of Assembly.

Defending the situation in 2020, Mr Obaseki said, as reported by TVC, “They were listening to their godfather who kept hoping and promising that he would unconstitutionally get the state House of Assembly to reissue a proclamation even after the court had settled the matter.

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“For more than 180 days they did not come. They refused to represent the people. Those seats became vacant. That’s what the constitution says. They went to court after the seats were declared vacant by the speaker. There is nothing I can do about that at this time.

“I wish it did not happen but people were playing God and promising what is not constitutionally possible. It is not about me, I am an elected governor of Edo. I am not one that planted people into the House of Assembly.

“They, on their own, operated the rules the way it should be, the seats are now vacant.”

Though the Rivers State House of Assembly has been inaugurated, the source said Fubara planned to use the court to stop them from sitting perpetually.

Another option is to declare their seats vacant or work for their recall through their constituents.

Rivers State economy suffers

While Governor Fubara and his godfather, Mr Wike, are fighting, the Rivers State economy is suffering.

According to the source, Mr Fubara was unhappy that several programmes he planned to unveil, particularly on infrastructure, had been put on hold due to the crisis.

The source further said the situation was halting Mr Fubara’s plan to unveil 25 projects, six of which would be road projects in the state.

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Rivers State is battling insecurity, oil theft and kidnapping, which have scared investors in recent times. The state did not attract any foreign investment in the first quarter of 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). It also did not attract investments in the first six months of 2023, NBS said.

Mr Fubara is yet to fulfil the basic parts of his political campaign promises, which include economic growth, infrastructure renewal, investment in technical education, and improvement in healthcare.

“You were a governor for 8 years. People who opposed you were resisted and crushed by your political machinery. Why are you stopping your successor from making his own impact and being his own man?” the source, who is part of the current government in Rivers State, asked.