President Bola Tinubu has been a fighter on both sides in the contestation of power between the presidency and governors.
Last Monday and for the umpteenth time since his inauguration as president, Tinubu more than ever before brought to the fore his determination to use his new podium in the presidency to dominate his environment.
We have seen this attitude in the deification of the president by praise singers who have elevated Tinubu’s political anthem (On Your Mandate) to compete with the national anthem at state occasions.
In the latest example of the contestation for power, as was seen with Simi Fubara, the neophyte governor from Rivers State, we saw the governor surrender the patchy victories he had recently won last Monday at the sight of the president.
Before his presidency, Tinubu had also fought assiduously on the side of the governors against the encroachment of the powers of the states by the presidency.
It was while fighting from that position that he took the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency to court on a surfeit of issues in furtherance of the autonomy of the states.
Whether it was his personal revulsion of Obasanjo or for some other reasons, Tinubu took his spat to the extra level of regularly boycotting meetings of governors with the President. His appearances at such interactions between Obasanjo and governors were an exception.
It was in that pace that Tinubu became one of the few governors even among the opposition governors who opposed the third term amendment that would have ordinarily given them and the president another term in office.
In fact, Tinubu’s opposition to the third term amendment was a striking chunk for his beautification as one of the mainstays of democratic culture in the country.
However, having acquired his dream job of president, all eyes are now on Tinubu to sustain the legacy he built as a defender of federalism that was at the core of his battles with President Obasanjo while he was governor.
Indeed, it is inconceivable to believe that Tinubu as governor would have submitted himself to such a parley as he presided over last Monday where he adjudicated between a sitting governor and his predecessor.
Indeed, Fubara had arrived last Monday night’s meeting with a bounce after bringing his predecessor, Wike to his knees. For doing that, the governor had won some popularity among Wike haters, particularly in Rivers State.
As it turned out in his adjudication, or presidential directive as one witness said, Tinubu turned back all the losses suffered by Wike and his protegees.
However, what has astounded many is the constitutional basis for the revisions that were decreed at that meeting.
Some of the decisions like the directive to re-present the 2024 budget proposal make a mockery of the democracy.
Some of the decisions are also seen as unconstitutional. How do you return the 25 or so lawmakers who violated the constitution by defecting and automatically losing their seats back as lawmakers?
A witness at the parley revealed that when the issue of the lawmakers who abandoned the PDP for the APC came up President Tinubu said that as the national leader of the APC, he could not see himself rejecting the lawmakers from the APC.
As it was told, the president laughed over it, saying that asking the lawmakers to return to the PDP would be like a father disowning his own children.
The witness, Hon David Briggs, a former chairman of Akuko-Toru Local Government Area has now revealed to the nation that what was claimed as an agreement between Fubara and Wike was more of a presidential directive that the president forced down the governor’s throat.
That several of the decisions reached at that meeting are contrary to the constitution brings to the fore the regard to which Nigerians would value our legal charter over the person of the president.
Indeed, the protest in Port-Harcourt yesterday by the coalition of workers, students, and civil society groups against the peace AGREEMENT reached between Governor Fubara and the camp of his predecessor, Wike is reflective of the popularity that Fubara has gained by distancing himself from his political mentor, Wike.
While Wike may have performed in building projects around Rivers State while he was governor, it is increasingly becoming clear that political projects are a different sort.
President Tinubu trying to help the former governor to build a political project on the head of the incumbent governor is clearly not working and it would be best for Tinubu to return to the years of his constitutional advocacy. Otherwise, the garlands that brought him forward could be enmeshed in a sullied legacy.
Credit: Emmanuel Aziken