David Briggs, a former Commissioner of Works in Rivers State, has accused President Bola Tinubu of employing divide-and-rule tactics to create political instability in Rivers State and Lagos, attributing the ongoing crisis in Rivers State and the leadership dispute in the Lagos State House of Assembly to Tinubu’s manipulative and divisive political strategy, SAVANNAH NEWSNOW REPORTS.
Briggs remembered predicting in a November 2023 AIT interview that President Tinubu’s intervention in the Rivers crisis would not yield positive results due to Tinubu’s shared political traits with Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“I said so then, and I still maintain it now because Mr. President and the present Minister of the Federal Capital Territory have a commonality — both in attitude, character, and operation,” Briggs stated.
According to him, Tinubu and Wike share a reputation for being politically aggressive, having an insatiable desire for wealth accumulation, and possessing an unrelenting drive to exert control over others.
Briggs revealed that President Tinubu publicly denounced Governor Siminalayi Fubara during a meeting about the Rivers crisis and suggested that the 27 lawmakers who defected from the PDP to the APC had made an irreversible decision.
“That meeting started with a condemnation of the governor,” Briggs said.
He said Tinubu described Fubara’s actions as an insult to democracy, adding that he was not there to resolve the crisis but to humiliate the Rivers State governor.
“The President was already biased,” he said.
Briggs alleged that Tinubu was backing lawmakers loyal to Wike in their continued legal challenge to Fubara, despite the governor’s attempts to make peace by dropping his own lawsuits.
“That is the case with which they are punishing Rivers State now — so who is fooling who?” he asked.
Briggs cautioned that Wike’s political approach is characterized by a desire for revenge and exploiting ethnic divisions. According to Briggs, Wike’s rise to prominence was facilitated by the support of Ijaw leaders, without which he would have struggled.
The former Commissioner noted that it was an Ijaw son, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, who ensured Wike’s candidacy for local government chairmanship despite the PDP national leadership’s initial rejection.
He lamented that Wike is now turning against the Ijaw people, labeling them as weak and incapable of winning elections.
Furthermore, Briggs alleged that Tinubu’s strategy of divide-and-rule extends beyond Rivers, contributing to the leadership crisis in the Lagos State House of Assembly.
“When Tinubu was governor of Lagos State, all the local governments had two leaders at a time so that he could control the loyalty of both,” Briggs alleged. “That is exactly what he’s doing in Lagos now. He wants to divide the loyalty of APC members so that he remains in control.”
Briggs claimed that Tinubu’s suspicion toward the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, began after he allegedly contributed to the fundraising of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign.
“From that day, Tinubu declared him an enemy,” Briggs said. “What is happening in Lagos now is a direct result of Tinubu’s political tactics.”
Briggs warned that Wike’s political career could unravel if he continues to alienate the Ijaw people, who played a crucial role in his rise to power.
“Wike uses people and he dumps them. (Former President Goodluck) Jonathan helped him to become governor, Jonathan appointed him as a minister as an Ijaw man. That popularised him and gave him the spread in Nigeria,” he said.
“So for him to now say these (Ijaw) people are minorities, and useless, they cannot win elections, I believe that he has 48 hours to rescind that else some of us will be forced, not minding the barriers and not minding that some of us also have the DNA of being Ikwerres, we will be able to let him know.”
