The President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, Alaye Tari Theophilus, has linked the ongoing impeachment push against Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara to the lawmakers’ demand for unrestricted access to the state treasury.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Friday, January 23, Theophilus said the Assembly members are frustrated by Fubara’s refusal to allow personal control over state funds.
“The central issue in the recent Rivers crisis is Governor Fubara’s refusal to grant Assembly members unrestricted access to state funds,” he said.
According to Theophilus, attempts to mediate through the IYC and other stakeholders have failed because the lawmakers remain focused on financial gain rather than governance.
“They have rejected all peace initiatives proposed by the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, and others, insisting that the governor is too stingy and does not want them to benefit,” he said.
He explained that the youth council engaged elders and stakeholders to interface with the lawmakers, but the Assembly’s desire for state funds remains the main point of contention.
“Basically the youth council have taken a series of steps, including stakeholders, elders from those particular constituencies, to see how they can interface with these lawmakers in question,” Theophilus said.
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The IYC president described a growing pattern in Nigerian democracy where legislators treat state resources as personal property.
“But the truth of the matter is that there has been a Nigerian system, or a moving pattern in the Nigerian democracy that Assembly members or legislators are now contractors, or they are businessmen, where they approach the governor outside their constituency project to be given allocations of the state treasury, where they can live flamboyant life,” he said.
Contrasting Fubara’s governance style with previous administrations, Theophilus said, “but today, we have a very prudent and people-oriented governor, and he’s telling them that, look, if it is Rivers treasury that you want, I can’t give it to you. But if it is true good governance that you want, then we can work together.”
“So that is where the bone of contention lies. They want the Rivers treasury to be open for them so that they can dive down to take whatever that they want to take, as other Assembly members, in other administrations have been doing,” he added.
Theophilus concluded by emphasising Fubara’s commitment to prioritising the state’s development over personal enrichment.
“But today we have a project governor who has said that no, these funds in question are for Rivers people and is meant for infrastructural development, human capital, development and good governance,” he said.