New Rivers Gov, Siminalayi Fubara pledges loyalty to Wike, says ‘he made me who I am today’

Hours after his inauguration, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State on Monday reiterated his loyalty to his immediate predecessor and benefactor, Nyesom Wike.

Speaking during an inauguration dinner organised in his honour in Port Harcourt, Fubara had a word for his critics — for him, his path to success is sure with the former governor in his corner.

“He (Wike) has been the person who made me the man that I am today. I will continue to give him all the honour. I don’t care what you want to say. I don’t care how you feel; I don’t owe you any apology. I don’t even care how you feel that we are going to run the government,” he said.

“When you don’t know where you’re coming from, that is when you have a problem where you’re going to. I know where I’m coming from, and by the special grace of God, with the help of him (Wike), I will get to my destination.”

On his election bid, the governor spoke of his supposed ordeal at the hands of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), saying God had used Wike as a blessing.

“From the first day the filler came out that I was an aspirant, everywhere in Rivers State, it was EFCC, EFCC, EFCC,” he said.

According to Fubara, the story is not an easy one.

“In fact, my personal aide, who knows where I’m staying, had to park his car very far away to come to my house to say, ‘Oga, I heard they had carried you,’” he recalled with a chuckle.

He however said the glory belonged to God “because He remains the only one who, when He says it, it will come to be”.

In the governor’s view, no person nor gang-up can change the will of God.

“But God will not come down from heaven to perfect His wish,” he added. “He passes through human beings. And in my own case, right from the time when I was in the Ministry of Finance, He has always passed through one man that I call my Oga.”