By Chimaobi Afiauwa, Abuja
Fubara got into a fight he had no balls to finish and foot-dragged his way to the negotiation table. Having been squeezed on the scrotum by the principalities and arm-twisted into negotiating for his reinstatement, he’ll only receive the crumbs from the larger chunk of the deal already made at the table.
Believe me, when reinstated, he’s going to be an even worse puppet— toothless and remote-controlled. Politically and administratively, he’ll be dispossessed of anything that gave him the audacity to bark in the first place and reduced to a mere nominal governor, even more so than he was before the Rivers political crisis began.
Before inviting him to the negotiation table, the principalities had already set mechanisms in motion to ensure he accepted the crumbs from the deal, knowing very well he would have no bargaining power. Blame him or not, even the crumbs that will come to him in that exalted seat of a governor are far more succulent and juicy than being a bystander in the political arena.
In the future, if Fubara ever complains of getting the crumbs, what then will the people of Rivers State– who have gotten nothing from the protracted political crisis– complain about?
The people, driven by the natural psychology of the underdog bias, mobilized and supported the suspended governor, hoping that he’d defeat his godfather and liberate them from the cancerous ‘Wikematic politics’ that has infected the state. Day by day, in every cycle of the conflict, what they celebrated as having the upper hand was wittingly turned against them, owing to the political naivety of Fubara.
As the impasse appears to be coming to an end, with deals struck after this latest truce meeting by President Tinubu, I hope lessons have been learned by supporters of the warring parties. Every political fight is never in the interest of the people. Political deals are struck in secret places, and taking part in the fight in open places is nothing but stupidity.
