Siminalayi Fubara’s Treaty Of Versailles -By Emeka Obasi

I feel for Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, who returned to Port Harcourt from Abuja waving the Olive Branch after what sounds like a strange deal brokered by the Presidency. My mind keeps racing back to the Treaty of Versailles.

At the end of the First World War, Germany suffered humiliation. Territories were lost, most importantly, the Alsace – Lorraine area, to France and the Polish Corridor, which gave Poland access to the sea, depriving the Germans of most of Poznania and West Prussia.

Some Nigerians may not know that Germany colonised Cameroon, just like we were under the Union Jack. The Treaty of Versailles took our Eastern neighbours off German control and also all other overseas territories including parts of Togo, Tanganyika and Namibia.

The castration continued. Germany would pay reparations in millions of pounds, including interest. Their rail engines were seized, Army reduced to not more than 100,000, no more Air Force and the Navy denied submarines. Wealth belonging to citizens outside their country was also affected.

Neither Fubara nor his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, lived on Planet Earth when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919. I am sure they have visited Paris. Someone should please tell them about the Hall of Mirrors, in the Palace of Versailles.

The mirror shows us ourselves. President Bola Tinubu is a benevolent godfather. He began to show it in Lagos and kept the state under his control while others were working towards grabbing home and away. As governor, he did not need President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Federal Might to maintain order.

Fubara and Wike have been in a brawl. The minister shoots more with the mouth. The governor says little. That has not belittled the man who should be in control of Rivers State. What has made him shorter is the Treaty of Aso Villa, signed in Abuja on December 8, 2023.

Like Germany, Fubara lost everything. Martins Amaewhule was returned as Speaker of the Rivers State House Assembly. His seat and those of other 27 members that dumped the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for All Progressives Congress ( APC) were guaranteed.

The House of Assembly was virtually granted Presidential Independence, something that is constitutional but had been violated by even some of those who brokered the deal. The Senate President is tied to the apron strings of the President. It is an open secret.

Fubara was further diminished. All his commissioners that quit were asked to go back to their jobs. He also does not have the power to dissolve local government councils and replace them with caretaker committees. Defecting House of Assembly members were not asked to return to the PDP.

They really orphaned Mr. Governor in his presence. The mediators cannot all be said to be neutral. Wike is part of the Tinubu regime. Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila has been watching the FCT Minister’s skit and eating from Nyesom’s kitchen. Dr. Peter Odili is Wike’s grand godfather.

It would have been nice to have men like former governors Rivers Ada George, Celestine Omehia and other stakeholders like Admiral Promise Fingesi, Eze Sergeant Awuse, Ann Ankio – Briggs and Chibudom Nwuche, around the negotiations. I am trying to strike a balance here.

At the Treaty of Versailles, Germany did not get an invitation. Their leader, Philipp Scheidemann, refused to sign and chose to resign. His successor, Gustav Bauer, only signed after he was threatened. The Big Four – British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, his French and Italian counterparts, Georges Clemenceau and Vittorio Orlando and US president, Woodrow Wilson, had a field day.

The Treaty of Aso Villa did not give Fubara room to breathe. The Big Four – Tinubu, Wike, Odili and Gbajabiamila – were in charge. The Rivers governor could not count all the weapons fashioned against him. Someday, we may get to hear that it was not his will to sign. The book will come out in future.

I am worried that Fubara has been deprived of his power to appoint men that will work with him. What we have in Rivers is not Peace. It is Peace of the Graveyard. Someone should explain to me how Amaewhule will respect the governor after what transpired in Abuja. It sounds like the minister is dictating the tune.

President Tinubu cannot be part of this. Anyway, you never know with politicians. He may be doing something different from what we are seeing. As governor of Lagos, he did not treat his Chief of Staff like a messenger. When Governor Babatunde Fashola assumed office, his predecessor honoured him as the man in charge.

Even if some people accuse Tinubu of removing Akinwunmi Ambode, they cannot not prove it beyond reasonable doubt because there was a process handled by elders of the party. Ambode was not treated like scum, less than six months in office.

The Treaty of Versailles created disorder. Germany lay dead, militarily, financially and diplomatically. Of the 440 Articles, Article 231, The War Guilt Clause, was too hard to swallow.

The League of Nations became utterly irrelevant and could not stop the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The result was the Second World War.

The Treaty of Abuja has been condemned by many. Izon leader, Edwin Clark, is ready to organise his people in defence of Fubara’s mandate. Burning the Rivers House of Assembly and demolishing the entire structure paints a picture of Gaza.

I do not see Tinubu going ahead to watch the Garden City turn to Gaza. And the Tinubu I know, has a way of righting wrongs. He withdrew the nomination of the Chairman of FERMA board. He dropped some ministerial nominees as well. Rabiu Kwankwaso dined with the president. Today, whatsgwan?