Maduabuchi Idam, an activist attorney, claims that although other governors on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform received automatic tickets, Siminalayi Fubara, the governor of Rivers State, was used as a scapegoat.
According to Naija News, Idam claimed that Fubara’s denial of the same privilege in spite of his open support for President Bola Tinubu was dehumanizing.
He responded to Fubara’s decision to drop out of the 2027 governorship contest in an interview with the Daily Post.
Idam claimed that the fact that many APC governors were permitted to run for reelection without opposition made the governor’s predicament worse.
He said, “What makes the situation even more humiliating is that several governors within the All Progressives Congress were rewarded with automatic tickets while Fubara was only scapegoated and denied the same privilege despite publicly chanting ‘On your mandate’ in support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
According to the attorney, Nigerians ought to be more worried about the country’s economy than about politicians getting second-term tickets.
“To me, however, the automatic tickets granted to many APC governors represent rewards for hard times,” Idam continued. Instead of celebrating politicians winning second-term tickets, Nigerians should be lamenting the country’s economic situation, particularly since the ruling party has significantly worsened it.
“The fact that Nigeria is in such a deplorable state is truly painful and depressing.”
According to Idam, Fubara’s decision to withdraw from the election may signal a significant drop in his political significance.
He believed that if the governor had accomplished significant things while in office, he may have continued to be politically relevant.
Following his resignation from the 2027 governorship contest, the attorney declared, “Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s political career can arguably be said to have passed into the dark pages of history, where glory does not live.” If he had achieved great things while in government, his political significance might have lasted.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be the case. It is challenging to identify any genuinely transformative project or people-focused initiative he worked on that he would be recognized for after leaving office.
According to the attorney, Fubara may now be more concerned with what would happen to him once he leaves government than with his political aspirations.
“He now risks quietly fading into political obscurity, precisely where his oppressors may have always wanted him to be,” Idam stated.
“At this point, his biggest concern may not be political aspirations but rather what will happen to him after he leaves office: whether those who oppose him will let him quietly fade away or unleash the machinery of anti-graft agencies against him, further damaging his image before the Rivers people.”
Idam expressed concern about Nigeria’s political structure and how it purportedly fosters persecution.
“As a concerned Nigerian, I worry deeply about how the country’s laws and political structures appear skewed in ways that permit such blatant political oppression, while citizens remain helpless observers, able only to analyze events without the power to resist intimidation and suppression carried out in broad daylight,” he stated.
