Of Ibas’ probe and Aregbesola’s plots to eat Tinubu’s lunch in Lagos

The returnee Rivers State House of Assembly seems to be on heat. Its threat to probe the former Sole Administrator appears “a joke taken too far” in the estimation of some people.

Rauf Aregbesola, who was highly elevated by Asiwaju (now the President), seems to be a fierce political foe of his benefactor. In fact, he is plotting to frustrate the president’s re-election in 2027. Find out what the matter is.

Can the tail wag the dog in Rivers?

Many things do not seem right in Rivers State, even though the suspended elected officers have returned to their offices.

The Martins Amaewhule-led House of Assembly, in a show of “we are in charge”, reeled out expectations that sounded like marching orders to the returnee Governor, Siminalayi Fubara. From the way they spoke at their first plenary, Thursday, September 18, they still sounded cocky and gave the impression that they had improperly cemented cracks. In the eyes of many observers, Fubara is a “fallen hero”.

That same day of resumption, the lawmakers tried to say what they thought would excite their listeners but not something they hoped to carry out sincerely.

The Assembly mooted the idea of probing Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas’ six-month stewardship in the state in relation to how he spent the over N254 billion that accrued to the state through FAAC. But many Nigerians have expressed doubt over the genuineness of the move because of the activities that led to the emergency rule in the first place.

In what seems like a spat, Ibas has dared the House to try it. He knew that the lawmakers may just be exercising their freedom of speech; that would not amount to anything. The former Sole Administrator has moved on, having satisfied whatever was the main reason for sending him to Rivers. He believes that if indeed the Rivers State lawmakers are serious about carrying out any probe into how money was spent, they should first consult their political godfather, Wike.

Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, reportedly picked holes in the touted plan, saying that the lawmakers lacked the balls to carry out such an exercise. He also said that there was no way such an inquest could be carried out without the mention of President Tinubu.

Eze simply described the threat as a mere hoax.

“There’s definitely not going to be any probe. Those loons parading themselves as Assembly members do not know their right from left,” Eze said in a statement in Port Harcourt. “So, they should not be taken seriously.

“The threat to probe Ibas is just for the media. If not, one would have loved to see a situation where Ibas is brought to explain how he wasted Rivers State funds.

“For six good months, no record project, not even in a small interior village. Seeing that President Tinubu was the supervisor of Ibas during the illegal state of emergency, he should also prepare himself to account for all the illegalities that Ibas committed against Rivers State and its people.”

By the way, the state House of Assembly does not have the power to probe Ibas because the man operated outside their space of supervision. They were not in existence and cannot be said to have powers of oversight functions on whatever Ibas did or did not do.

The hundreds of billions of naira Ibas spent were not appropriated by the State House of Assembly but by the National Assembly. If there should be any probe at all, it is the National Assembly that should do so.

Ibas told everyone who cared to listen that he fulfilled the mandate of Mr President. To that effect, he may have worked in tandem with the instructions handed down to him from the powers that be.

Again, the period of emergency rule was a lawless period in the state in terms of administration. Everything rational was on holiday. Ibas simply initiated and supervised administrative rascality.

He singlehandedly appointed a chairman of a state Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) from his own state without anybody’s approval and went ahead to conduct a controversial local government election.

As a sole administrator, not known by any constitutional law, Ibas inaugurated the 23 council chairmen. So, it was after he completed these “great mandates” that Abuja believed there was no need to extend the emergency rule.

But can Amaewhule and his colleagues in the house look straight into the eyes of President Tinubu and Wike and say with all honesty that they want to probe Ibas?

If they could do so, it would indeed amount to the 8th Wonder of the World and be tantamount to the bizarre case of a tail wagging the dog and not the other way round.

By the way, the state lawmakers, while on suspension, are cruising with life abroad. Reports had it that they were hosted by Wike in London in April.

The latest grandstanding has a semblance of pulling a wool over the people’s eyes. But who is fooling whom?

Aregbesola’s ‘treacherous’ moves in Lagos

In what many observers have described as having a colouration of treachery, Rauf Aregbesola, a former governor of Osun State and ex-minister of Interior, is seen to be plotting to eat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s lunch in Lagos in 2027.

Aregbesola’s latest moves may have left many people tongue-tied, given the deep relationship that existed between him and the Asiwaju in the recent past.

Those who have followed Aregbesola’s political trajectory said that whatever the former governor can claim to have become in politics today was purely through Tinubu’s benevolence.

From an unknown political quantity, Aregbe, as he is fondly called, rose to become a power broker. He was said to have been so close to Tinubu that he vetted all those who wanted to see the Jagaban for one reason or all the others.

The duo’s relationship was so tight that Tinubu was the next after God, and it was said at that time that Aregbe could take any drastic decision against anybody if he had a feeling that such could please the Jagaban. Back in the day, Tinubu’s words were Aregbe’s command, and he relished the political anthem of Lagos, “On your mandate we shall stand…”

The former minister became the governor of Osun State on the political large-heartedness of his godfather. He was handed over the state on a platter, even when he doubted so much his own capacity to govern the state.

To see both men part ways today can only be explained by Nigeria’s brand of politics, where there is “no permanent friend but permanent interest”.

Aregbe has been a “Lagos boy”. His roots are in Alimosho, the largest local government area according to the official 2006 census, which reported over one million inhabitants in the area.

Even while he was governor for eight straight years outside Lagos, the people of Alimosho held him in high esteem as their leader. This was why the lock-up shops at the market on the ever-busy Ipaja-Ayobo Road were named after him.

Despite his estranged relationship with the Jagaban, who is the President, Aregbe still enjoys a cult following in Alimosho and some other places across the state.

Aregbesola has since left the All Progressives Congress (APC), even long before the 2023 general election.

He is the current National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and strongly believes that his new party in coalition would sack the APC in 2027.

In August, he was in Lagos, where he received defectors from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and others into the ADC.

He used the occasion to lacerate the image of the very party that made him. He totally forgot yesterday to win today.

Knowing full well that the President will seek a second term in office, the former Osun governor is working very hard to buccaneer such an ambition by supporting and sponsoring another presidential candidate to wrest power from the incumbent. He wants to demystify the Jagaban and forcefully take away the feeding bottle from his mouth, as it were.

In his remarks, he fiercely elbowed the President, saying, “We are not a party owned or financed by one individual, but a collective of patriotic citizens coming together as equals to salvage a nation fast sliding into a precipice. The people are the centre of politics and the government.

“Any government, whether democratic, military, authoritarian, monarchical, or by whatever definition, that does not make their welfare and well-being the basis of governance will soon lose relevance and die.

“There is a limit to which the people can be squeezed and pushed before something eventually gives…”

From Aregbe’s calculation, ADC would garner lots of votes in Lagos, a state that remains Tinubu’s incontrovertible political fiefdom.

The Lagos State chapter of the APC did not take Aregbe’s threat lightly but reminded him that “no matter how tall an okra tree is, the owner of the farm will always bend it during harvest” (an Igbo adage).

In a statement signed by Seye Oladejo, spokesperson of the Lagos chapter of the party, the APC gave Aregbe an uppercut.

“From Lagos Commissioner to Osun Governor and then Minister, Aregbe ate, dined, and thrived on the APC table. Today, in a desperate bid for relevance, he is busy setting fire to the same house that made him. That, dear Nigerians, is political suicide of the highest order,” Oladejo stated.

The party issued a disclaimer, saying that Aregbe’s criticisms of the APC only damaged his own legacy.

The spokesperson conveyed thus: “When Aregbe condemns the APC, he is not damaging us – he is shredding his own résumé. Every attack on APC is an attack on the very foundation of his career. It is akin to a man writing his autobiography with an eraser. Nigerians know better than to take such a self-destructive messenger seriously.”

Nigerians will continue to witness interesting dramas, involving treachery, backstabbing, bad-mouthing and lots of dog-eat-dog exercises as 2027 approaches.