APC Primaries Reactions in Akwa Ibom & Fubara’s Withdrawal | Niger Delta Today

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]The hottest news in the Niger Delta right now is arguably the withdrawal of River State of Governor Siminalayi Fubara from the All Progressives Congress APC gubernatorial primary citing a strategic decision to prioritize the peace and unity of the state over his personal political ambition. Uh in a press statement issued to the Governor Fubara disclosed that the difficult decision followed deep reflection and extensive consultations with his family, friends, and associates. The governor emphasized uh that leadership ultimately demands sacrifice, asserting that the collective interest of River State supersedes any individual aspiration at this critical juncture. Uh addressing his supporters, Fubara went ahead to acknowledge the disappointment, anger, and pain his sudden withdrawal might cause, expressing profound gratitude for their unwavering loyalty, resources, and prayers. He maintained that he remains fully committed to serving the people of River State until the completion of his current tenure and pledged his firm support to whoever emerges as the APC gubernatorial candidate. Well, the question in the polity is was this a sacrifice for peace as he claims or a calculated political retreat in the face of mounting pressure? What does it say about the balance of power within the APC in River State and how does this development affect supporters who had invested heavily in his political future? We'll also mirror some developments in Akwa Ibom as the gubernatorial primaries take center stage today. To help us unpack all of these issues, but I'll be joined by public affairs analyst and organization development consultant Obong Marvelous and welcome to the program. Thank you for joining us.

[00:01:54]>> Yeah, good afternoon, Savior.

[00:01:56]>> Thank you for joining us, Mr. Marvel.

[00:01:58]Well, Akwa Ibom We were just listening to the Senate President speak a couple of minutes ago, and he likened the successes that have been recorded thus far in Akwa Ibom state since the commencement of the primaries to the peace in the state.

[00:02:18]Uh well, to a very large extent, you would notice that across Niger Delta states, there've been pockets of issues here and there. And not so much has been reported regarding issues that have arisen since primaries started in Akwa Ibom state.

[00:02:39]You You think that the Senate President is making a good point regarding, you know, his submission. Yes, certainly.

[00:02:46]That's a fact.

[00:02:48]That's something that we are all witnessing. That's something we have seen. That is something we anticipated that has come to pass that as the primaries are ongoing, you notice that from the first day, there is barely any situation of disagreements around in Akwa Ibom state. So, this cannot but be attributed to the political understanding that exist has been existing between the Senate President and the governor that has trickled down to their supporters that has made it that uh we are not having so much strain relationships in Akwa Ibom state. So, of course, the Senate President is very correct in his assessment of the situation in Akwa Ibom. So, what would you say about the turnout of the people that came out for the exercise?

[00:03:37]Yeah, the turnout is uh political and is very impressive.

[00:03:43]The turnout is uh actually, from the first day, I went round about three wards to witness how the turnout is and how the elections are being conducted and the mood of operation of this of the primaries and of course you see a lot of party members lining up and coming out to exercise their right to vote because in the system that APC has adopted even where you have consensus they still go to the field to really say that this is the candidate that they have chosen. So the it has been very very the turnout reflects the party membership. Well, when you look at how the primaries have progressed in Akwa Ibom State you'd want to recall you know the times when it was yet to be primaries and persons who observed from afar were of a pessimistic view.

[00:04:50]There were insinuations that when it gets to this point there would be disagreements that issues would arise and people would you know naturally you know want to tow another line as a result of disaffections from agreements that have been made and choices that have been made which may not naturally as humans all go well with others who perhaps had you know visions of running for one position or the other but to a very large extent that seems to have been carefully taken care of. What factor do you think played the most in ensuring that this was the case because I mean if if we're going by that there's also another narrative that perhaps they have been settled perhaps money must have exchanged hands. You think that this is a factor of who was able to influence who or was this truly, you know, internal democracy at play here. I don't know. When you speak about influence, there is financial influence, there's political influence. But I'll tell you leave out the financial part completely.

[00:06:02]>> Mhm.

[00:06:03]If you understand politics very well, that's this just politics playing out.

[00:06:10]In politics, propaganda is a tool that can be used. And when one you employ that tool of propaganda, uh people that are not very familiar with politics may begin to have um fears or sentiments about what is going to be the outcome. But when you understand how politics is, you will see that uh there is no way most of those people that may have been clamoring for the elective positions will insist and stand firm to continue to insist where they already know that the political structure is being controlled by certain individuals. And in that regard, you will see that uh immediately their sponsor or if you like godfather or political leader or whatever you want to look at it as, but as long as their leader says come, it's okay, stop there, they will stop.

[00:07:10]Where you have strong political tigers that want to slot it out, the APC also had made it out that you go for the direct primaries. So, any serious contender cannot say that he has been called out of the competition. Any serious contender cannot say that he did not have opportunity to express himself or to contest or to compete in these uh primaries. So, if you see people coming out to say I want to contest, some people use the word uh uh that that they they have imposed candidates on them. But, when you see the the rule of the game, you already see clearly that there's no way an imposition in that, you know, regard can really actually take place. Because, if you say you have you are doing imposition you are imposing a candidate. The candidate has bought form and has a right to stand in election.

[00:08:09]Until he signs and agrees that he in a written form that he is no more interested in the election, you cannot tell him not to contest the election. So, when you see people say they have been financially induced to step down, of course, it means that they were not even serious in the first place to contest.

[00:08:29]The party has made it very clear that if you want to contest, you go for the direct primaries. So, there is no doubt about the fact that there is a political structure in Akwa Ibom state that has aligned with the thinking of the party leadership. So, in this case, we [clears throat] have that harmony Okay. in the party. In Akwa Ibom state, would you say that this strategy of direct primaries helped to contain some situations that may might have, you know, arisen as a result of these complaints that might have existed you know, during the exercise?

[00:09:04]Yes, the direct primary, you know, there are two strong that is from the electoral part of it, they say you are allowed to do either consensus or direct primaries.

[00:09:14]So, now in Akwa Ibom state, you see mostly it is the consensus arrangement that predominantly taken place, consensus.

[00:09:24]So, with that, you still have the party harmony. It keeps the party highly in cohesion. So, you don't have situations where people will feel so dissatisfied because if they were not satisfied with the consensus arrangement, then they had to leave where to go for the direct primary. So, in the instance where they they say they are not going for a direct primary, they already agree with the party, the consensus arrangement. They they don't have anything to complain about the party anymore. There may not be room for you to now say I want to jump out from here and go to another party like the question said arms. All right. Well, still staying on Akwa Ibom before we go to River State.

[00:10:10]Today's primary is happening ahead of Saturday's presidential primary and and many observers are already saying the APC structure in the state appears to be highly centralized around the few dominant political figures in the state.

[00:10:26]Now, in your view, is this level of coordination a sign of political maturity and if you may, party discipline, or does it risk uh shrinking internal democracy by perhaps discouraging uh descending voices and alternative ambitions in the party?

[00:10:46]It is purely a a sense of maturity in handling political issues. If you look at the uh Akwa Ibom state, it's not today that uh Governor Udom Emmanuel had been adopted as a the sole candidate for APC.

[00:11:04]started talking about him as the sole candidate from the moment he moved from the other party to APC.

[00:11:12]So, from that moment everybody began to have the consciousness. So, I don't think there is any serious-minded person in the APC that will still go ahead to buy the form, the gubernatorial draft form, to want to contest for that election because of course the the political structure will align behind the governor and still have him to succeed at uh direct primaries if there was need for a direct primaries. So, why would anybody even think of wasting time to go and buy form to contest. But, when you also look at the party system uh to want to assess how uh it it may favor the parties and future in terms of the general upcoming elections, then you see that um uh the this system that they have adopted has already taken care of uh whatever disharmony would have uh brewed within the party such that when they are going for the general election, the party will still remain very strong as a one party. So, the system of um uh consensus the system of direct primaries has already taken care of whatever issues may have arisen from the party. No.

[00:12:30]Uh humorous.

[00:12:32]If what we are seeing play out now in Akwa Ibom state the Governor Udom moving to the APC if this arrangement uh was not uh well thought out, what do you think 2027 would have looked like in Akwa Ibom state?

[00:12:52]You see, prior to the governor moving to APC we had the 2023 election.

[00:13:01]And of course, you know Akwa Ibom state consists of three senatorial districts just like in other states.

[00:13:08]Uyo senatorial district is a key senatorial district. And of course, you cannot underplay any other senatorial district. There is Ikot senatorial district and Ikot Ekpene senatorial district.

[00:13:21]So, when an opposition party wins one of the senatorial district. It signals competition. It signals that there was a very strong competition. For the ruling party, as it were, to have lost one senatorial district. One senatorial district consists of several local government areas.

[00:13:46]Now, when that happened, you would also observe that immediately the current Senate president then went to the Senate. He became the Senate president.

[00:13:58]Now, if you understand Nigerian politics very well, that position of Senate president is the number three citizen. So, when you talk about Nigeria, you talk about the president, you see the number three person is the Senate president. That's enormous power. That is federal might. That's a very strong power.

[00:14:19]There are people who are having issues in that state because of the federal and state competition. That who wants to control the resources of the state or who wants to control the structure in the state.

[00:14:33]If that were to happen in Akwa Ibom state, it would have been a a very high competition that may have, you know, introduced some forms of hostilities in Akwa Ibom state. And you There's no way we would have had this kind of peace if the the state governor did not align with the the same in the same party with the the Senate president. So, having aligned in the same party, it wasn't sufficient to conclude at that point that oh, there's peace in Akwa Ibom state. They went a step further to establish very cordial relationship that has helped us establish this peace that they call United Akwa Ibom state today. All right.

[00:15:16]Well, let's crisscross now.

[00:15:19]You you juxtapose Akwa Ibom with Rivers State.

[00:15:25]To a very large extent, I feel there are similarities because these two leaders came in was at the same time and you look at the the situations that defined both of them. Both of them indeed had governors that actually held them by the hand and said, "Okay, this is somebody that we believe can move the state forward." But if you look at the two states now, there are different scenarios playing out. You look at Rivers State and we're just having an announcements from Governor Siminalayi Fubara that he is not going to be, you know, contesting or vying for the ticket of the APC in the 2027 elections, even though he hasn't given his clear reasons regarding that, but has hinged it on his peace movement regarding ensuring that Rivers State stays stable and for the peaceful cordial relationship in the state. But then, you juxtapose Akwa Ibom State and Rivers State. What do you see playing out here in terms of leadership and the overall situation in both states? Let me emphasize on something. When you compare Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State, maybe in terms of the time they started their tenure. Mhm.

[00:16:51]And of course, you want to compare again with the leadership in Rivers State and what we are witnessing in Akwa Ibom State. There it's a There are a lot of complex issues around those the two states in terms of leadership.

[00:17:11]In terms of leadership, you have in Akwa Ibom State that Akwa Ibom state would have even been more complex than what we are having in Rivers state.

[00:17:23]Why I'm saying that is because the person that um campaigned and introduced the current governor of Akwa Ibom state did not you know go into the federal government as a as a as part of the administration of this current federal government.

[00:17:46]So, that individual may not have that muscle to assert his uh authority or political structures in the state so much.

[00:17:57]But, you now have an indi- another individual whose power is far higher than the Federal Capital Territory Minister in terms of uh federal might.

[00:18:15]But, you see the response from the governor of Rivers state depends on his own political calculation and has given him the kind of result that he has had.

[00:18:31]The response from the governor of Akwa Ibom state has also given him kind of result that he is having. So, when you want to look at leadership you want to look at the emotional intelligence that has been employed. You need You also look at the political calculation, political arithmetic that has been applied. Then, you would establish that um leadership has come to play very great role in the uh stability and harmony that we are having in Akwa Ibom state against the instability and political upheavals that we have been having in Rivers state. So, no matter how you want to look at it, it it it is a matter of leadership. It is a matter of um leadership response. I I would really emphasize on emotional response to the issues of politics and how it has um you know, helped or marred the two leadership of the states. So, Amaechi Now, the governor of River State has said said he is not uh, you know, contesting the the party ticket and he's withdrawing. Does it in any way affect the political landscape in that state going forward after this withdrawal?

[00:19:51]What do you foresee the the it's still outcome of It's still a very complex situation. When nothing like you see, when you look at Fubara as he was governor in River State, I keep thinking about it since 3 years ago, what kind of agreements were they having before he became governor?

[00:20:13]And what kind of agreements did he have with the president, that's the current commander-in-chief, through the uh, mediation that the current president was undertaking on their behalf. So, you look at River State, you look at the issues that Fubara is engaged in, then you it's such a complex issue that you cannot really uh, say that there's going to be a change around because it seems, you know, Wike was the governor of River State. So, he continues.

[00:20:49]If you look at the landmarks, from the time Wike Fubara conducted local government elections and the court said let's go back and do it do it again. And when they went back, he in quotes, handed back the structures to Wike.

[00:21:09]And Wike began to control the local government.

[00:21:12]From the moment that they went to the thought of impeaching him, and the impeachment process failed.

[00:21:19]And he was asked to work with uh the speaker of the state of assembly.

[00:21:24]Of course, the House of Assembly was under uh Wike's control.

[00:21:29]The local governments were under Wike's control. And those things kept happening that he could not even pass his budget.

[00:21:36]And all those things that were happening in Rivers State. So, it delayed maybe the progress of Rivers State. So, if they now have a new governor in 2027, the new governor would now start uh working in Rivers State, the administration of Rivers State. Don't also forget that 6 months of uh Fubara's tenure was dashed out to a sole administrator. So, however the sole administrator handled issues in Rivers State, and it returned back to Fubara. We just know that um administration in Rivers State has been badly affected in the past 3 years. So, now, if you ask me, what's going to change? It's going to be like that till 2027. Uh the new governor is the one that will now tell us whether things are going to change, or Rivers State will still be bedeviled Well, with issues. Oba Marvel, when you first heard the statement, uh what stood out uh to you most when he said he is withdrawing? What stood out to you most? And then, there's a lot of uproar. Reactions have been coming in describing uh the current governor of Rivers State as in quote, "weak."

[00:22:54]Would you Would you Would you Would you Would you describe it this move as that?

[00:22:58]Because I mean, I I I I recall instances where Governor Siminalayi Fubara has spoken about, you know, his ascension as Governor Rivers State. And he had made comments regarding his willingness to even get out of the race if it becomes too, you know, too tedious for the sake of peace. He He had always said that.

[00:23:20]But would you say that the persons that are describing Governor Siminalayi Fubara as weak have a point? And on what basis can he be described as weak? No, you cannot describe a man by any of such traits if you don't wear the shoes of that man.

[00:23:41]You You just hear the news as it comes.

[00:23:46]You don't have the For example, there have been series of reference to the an agreement that was done.

[00:23:54]But none of us Oh, I have not read the agreement.

[00:23:58]I have not seen I have not seen any of those agreements.

[00:24:01]We don't know the inside story.

[00:24:03]We don't know the discussion the Fubara had with the the president.

[00:24:10]We don't know his pre-arrangement and his discussions with Wike. We just hear Sometimes, for example, Wike recently said that Fubara had agreed to the president that he's not going to run for a second term.

[00:24:26]We only heard that from the Wike.

[00:24:29]>> Wike. We didn't hear any of such thing.

[00:24:32]Fubara has not made any comment regarding what he agreed with the president. So, if he has now come up to make a decision to resign, I tell you, Xavier, I read that letter up to five times.

[00:24:45]I read the letter to be able to first, see the mindset of the writer of that resignation letter.

[00:24:54]Secondly, I read that letter to see if there is any strategic political strategic content in that letter.

[00:25:02]And I read it over and over. When Fubara is saying that he's a he's just undertaking this as a sacrifice for the benefit of the state.

[00:25:15]It would all depend on his state of mind and what he may be looking at as sacrifice for the state.

[00:25:22]But you see if you have been studying the political situations of Nigerian state, especially River state, you will know that going into a primaries of this nature, direct primaries of this nature, there would have been detention would have gone so far that there would have been a lot of violence in River state. If Fubara did not step down yesterday.

[00:25:48]Mhm. Now, if you describe a man that stepped down to avoid crisis as weak, you may not be correct. Mhm.

[00:25:58]But if you look at his reason for stepping down, if you were to understand what made him to arrive at that decision.

[00:26:09]Mhm.

[00:26:09]In that letter, he said something like uh what um the hunter sees in the bush, he may not be able to express it in the market.

[00:26:22]So, there are things that he has kept to himself and he has not been able to say. But when you also look at um the political calculations in Nigeria, you'll also be wondering how come Fubara did not resign during the state of emergency when the state of emergency was declared.

[00:26:45]Why did he come back as governor of River state when apparently he wasn't going to succeed at um doing so much about building his own structure.

[00:26:56]>> Structure.

[00:26:57]Now, he moved to APC. What made him move to APC? And what was he intending to gain from moving to APC? Then you now see that there was an impeachment threat that he was avoiding.

[00:27:11]A lot of calculations, there was this budget issue. All right. And several other things that may have been, you know, going around him. So, his decision is something that we cannot really analyze him.

[00:27:24]>> are saying that he's not an rooted politician. If you notice that some of his allies that were with him also didn't scale through the the whole process. It now looks as if he's not a grassroot, you know, in-time politician.

[00:27:34]When we say grassroot politician, it means that you have structure. That's why I said to the local government. He was trying to build his structure by running that local government election.

[00:27:45]Now, he lost it. So, that's why I asked, why did he step down? Because you cannot sit as a governor without being sure with all his this political structure.

[00:27:54]If you're not using your own, then borrow from somebody and use. Well, let let let let let's end with this in 30 seconds, over Marvel.

[00:28:02]There are a lot of people that are also of the opinion that Fubara lost the war against fighting fighting God for that reason. How would you describe that? He tried to tackle the elephant in the room, and then he was unable to do so.

[00:28:19]You think that this is the persons that are holding this opinion actually correct? Because is there something we are not saying?

[00:28:28]We have example of the likes of Fubara. Remember Ambode in Lagos? Mhm. Yeah.

[00:28:34]>> Yes, he lost in the same manner.

[00:28:36]So, where is Ambode today? Has he gotten any federal appointment through Buhari's time? And now his so guy is the president. So, has he gotten any political appointment? So, do we We a problem? So, in the way things are are structured. Wow, you want us to go into deep analysis. [laughter] I I would say yes and no.

[00:28:58]>> [laughter] >> Time shall tell.

[00:29:00]We'll continue to observe events in rivers as they unfold. But, we must thank you very much for joining us Marvelous CN for speaking to us on these issues and and bringing some insights to it. Appreciate your time and company.

[00:29:13]Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time. It's always a pleasure.

[00:29:20]>> [music]