Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, has asked National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, to mind his business and stop commenting on matters relating to Rivers State.

Speaking on Monday in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mr Wike asked the APC scribe to find out what happened to people from outside the state who commented on matters relating to Rivers State, noting that “Rivers is a no-go area.”

“Ask other people what has happened to them. That’s how they were pushing the young man (Gov Sim Fubara), but when trouble started they all ran away,” Mr Wike threatened, urging the Osun State-born scribe to concentrate on his state.

“Allow us to play our game. Don’t get involved,” he warned.

“I can challenge anybody, If you are an ungrateful person, leave us alone,” he said, still referring to Mr Basiru. “Don’t take our support for granted. Here is the APC chairman of the state, here is the PDP chairman. This is the only state where both the PDP and the APC are working together. Anything state that can do it, let them come out,” he boasted.

He warned individuals coming into Rivers State from other states to collect their own share of ‘the N600 billion’ to be careful and stop making comments on matters relating to the state. “Put the parties together and see what it takes.”

READ ALSO: Wike denies striking deal with Tinubu to weaken PDP ahead of 2027

The N600 billion refers to money that was left in the coffers of Rivers State after the emergency rule ended in September 2025. Mr Fubara had disclosed that he left N300 billion before he was removed from office in March but found that the money had grown to N600 billion when he returned.

Basiru’s sin

Mr Basiru had, on Monday, asked APC’s National Vice Chairman, South-South, Mr Victor Giadom, to stop disrespecting Governor Fubara to please Mr Wike.

“I find it unfortunate that a member of the NWC, who is the Vice Chairman of the South-South zone of the APC, was referring to a governor in our party as a ‘so-called governor of Rivers State,” Mr Basiru said on Monday.

“No matter what his allegiances are to anybody, it is unbecoming of somebody holding such a sensitive position, and it should not be encouraged by anybody. Even if the governor is not in our party, you can’t refer to an elected governor as a ‘so-called governor’ in order to please anybody,” he noted.

“The office of the governor is an exalted position, and whoever is occupying it must be respected, irrespective of whatever political differences you have or whatever animosity exists between them,” Mr Basiru had added.

Wike and Fubara fight

The Governor and the FCT Minister are locked in a war of supremacy, with the former referring himself as ‘the 001’ and latter boasting that his arch foe will not have his second term.

On Saturday, while addressing stakeholders at a meeting in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mr Wike said he would be buried politically if Governor Fubara should secure a second term.

READ ALSO: Wike’s threat on governors supporting Fubara highlights PDP’s weakness

“We have made a decision as far as Tinubu is concerned. The other one (Fubara’s re-election), no way. Because if we make another mistake, then we will go and bury ourselves politically. I will not allow myself to be buried. I will not allow that mistake again,” he said.

Two elephants fighting, the grass suffer

The situation between Governor Fubara and Mr Fubara can be likened to two elephants fighting and the grass suffering. While Mr Wike and Gov Fubara trade punches, 4.4 million Rivers State citizens, accounting for 62.4 percent of the state’s estimated 7.47 million inhabitants, live in multidimensional poverty, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.

Poverty and unemployment are close cousins. According to the NBS, Abia State, the FCT, and Rivers State recorded the highest unemployment rates in Nigeria for 2023.

The report stated that Abia State led the chart with an unemployment rate of 18.7 percent, followed closely by the FCT with 14.1 percent, and Rivers with 13.4 percent jobless rates.

The oil-rich Rivers State had 408,000 unemployed individuals in 2023. Rivers State records a high number of unemployment rate, which tends to fuel cultism, kidnapping and other levels of crime. Yet, Mr Wike has been governor of the oil-rich state, which is Nigeria’s second biggest economy by gross domestic product (GDP). Mr Fubara, on the other hand, is the state governor.