Sydney Tambari Gbara
Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Sydney Tambari Gbara, in this interview with ANN GODWIN, spoke on the crisis bedeviling the party in the state, the face-off between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Minister of FCT, Nyesome Wike, transparency issues in governance, and why Rivers is now better off despite unease.
Most importantly, one of the achievements of this administration is the upward attainment of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which for the past eight years has stagnated. The past administration told the people that the monthly IGR was only N12 billion, but the present administration, being a transparent one, has declared N27 billion and is still improving. It is good to let people know that this government is not borrowing to execute all the ongoing projects. They are being financed by the IGR. The governor has promised residents that he is not going to borrow a dime to run the government. This shows that there were a lot of fishy things in the previous administration. They were not declaring the actual IGR to Rivers people. You can see the difference between N12 billion and N27 billion to tell you how much has been disappearing in the past eight years. Fubara is a God-sent governor to Rivers people.
Let me quickly point this out that one of the things that brought problems was the visit of Governor Fubara to the Songhai farm. It is a government owned Agricultural facility that was built by former Governor Chibuike Amaechi. The farm has different sections, and recreational facilities. It employed over 5,000 youths when it was operational but during Wikes tenure, the farm was shut down. When Fubara decided to visit all the Agricultural facilities to see how he can revive them including the Buguma fish farm, Wike became angry.
As I speak, reconstruction works in all the Agric facilities in the state are going on so that our youths will be empowered and food will be available. By the time the Agric facilities kicked-off and with the N27 billion of IGR on ground, it will enable the state government to run a more robust economy like that of Lagos State.
We can now ask him if what he is doing is good for the young politicians to emulate. As far as I know, the party that produces thegovernor supports the government of the day, so most of us in the party are supporting the governor 100 per cent while others under loyal syndrome still follow the minister even when they are not happy with what he is doing.
Be it as it may, we all still attend meetings as party members but the difference is that while they dont attend state functions, we attend. They attend the functions of the FCT minister, but we do not attend, because he is no longer the governor. Out of the 31 executive members, 20 are with the governor while the rest are with the minister.
We discovered that names of Fubaras supporters were missing from that list. We wrote to the NWC and copied the governor, who followed it up.A letter was written and signed by the national organising secretary telling us to remain calm that the list will be revisited. When the NEC met, they directed that the Rivers State list be revisited and the national organising secretary wrote another letter that they will provide a political solution to the matter. But I wonder the kind of political solution that will be provided to this because we are all politicians. That is where we are today. It is, however, glaring that the list was tampered with but those in the NWC should for no reason compromise their integrity. They have not done well as leaders in their responsibilities. They have the original list of the executive members of PDP in Rivers State and they are aware that the rule is dont add, dont remove.
A lot of funny things are going on at the PDP national secretariat. I also want to use this opportunity to advise them that PDP at the moment is the hope of Nigerians. A lot of Nigerians are waiting for PDP to put its house in order so that they can take over governance and redeem Nigeria from the excruciating pains people are going through. But we cannot take over power with the way we are going. A good number of our leaders have compromised the PDP and they have put the integrity of the party to question. If they dont desist from what they are doing, PDP cannot give that expected opposition to the ruling party Nigerians are waiting for in 2027.
On his romance with APC, we are not aware of it but he does not need to be in APC to support the President. During the last election, we were not in APC, but he told us to support the President and we did. One leg in APC, the other in PDP is a typical characteristic of an inconsistent character. He is on his own; majority of PDP members are with the governor.
He has forgotten the critical role these leaders played for him to remain as governor in 2015 because he lost at the election panel, also at the Appeal Court but won in the Supreme Court. He told us who assisted him to win in the Supreme Court. He is fighting Odili because he is supporting Fubara. What does the minister really want after all he has acquired, does he want the youths to start killing themselves? Anarchy or what?I dont really get it but our support for Fubara is firm and there we are.
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