Senator Magnus Abe, who represented Rivers South East district in the seventh session of the Senate, has explained why the state governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, cannot be described as the state’s leader.
Abe made this disclosure while speaking on the feud between Fubara and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, on TV Continental’s programme, Politics Night, last week.
A clip of the interview went viral on social media on Thursday.
The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party in last year’s elections said that being the state leader was a great deal beyond governing the state.
He said: “Being a governor has made him the leader of the government of Rivers State. But when you say political leader, that is something that you have to work to earn.
“To say Fubara is the political leader of Rivers State is a much broader context of leadership, and it takes time to build that kind of confidence, followership, support, and trust. Leadership is all about trust, and sometimes, navigating this difficult water helps bring you out as a leader when you begin to trust yourself and can rely on the direction you provide”.
Abe said that it was Fubara’s responsibility to work towards that leadership.
“But he is the governor of Rivers State, and it is his responsibility to work towards that leadership. But to say he is the political leader of Rivers will be putting leadership into a broad context. And it takes time to get there. It takes bringing people together. You earn trust.
“As a governor, you have the opportunity to get there, but I don’t think it is conferred”, he added.
Drawing a contextual analogy from Mallam Aminu Kano’s supremacy, Abe enunciated that radical opposition political leader was the political kingpin of Kano despite not being a governor at the time.
Earlier, the Senator said he had ended the protracted political feud between him and Wike
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Abe said he had mended fences with the FCT minister
Before the 2023 elections, Abe first fell out of favour with his principal and former Governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, who picked Lagos-based businessman and co-owner of Sahara Energy, Prince Tonye Cole, as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the state.
On the other hand, Wike settled for his political godson and then Accountant General of the state, Fubara, to succeed him.
