Andy Ezeani
On his way out of the Government House, Port Harcourt on Wednesday September 17, 2025, Ibok-Ette Ibas, retired Vice Admiral and sole administrator of Rivers State, up till that date, took a last kick at Siminalayi Fubara, the elected governor of the state.
Ibas stopped over at the executive chamber of the Government House and swore in a new Secretary to the Government for Fubara, who was billed to return to office the next day. It was a mean act, at once symbolic and actual, a summational statement on his completion of a clumsy assignment in Rivers State.
For all of six months, counting from the very first day he was procured for what obviously was a dirty job, Ibas had Rivers State to himself. Whatever majority of the citizens of the state thought of him or his presence in the state hardly mattered to him.
When his wife attempted to confer first ladyship of Rivers State on herself at a public event and the women of the state uncompromisingly rejected her, the sole administrator took the affront in his stride.He kept his focus on his primary task,working assiduously to remove every trace of Governor Fubara in both the Government House and the government of Rivers State.
Having been deployed to Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu, purportedly to restore normalcy to an environment where the governor and his predecessor godfather were at loggerheads, Ibas exploited his proconsular brief to bolt not a few mischiefs. His interpretation of his assignment was both curious and clinical.
Judging by his scrupulous focus on wiping off any identified signature of Fubara across the state within a short time, many would have believed that Ibok-Ette Ibas had a personal score to settle with Siminalayi Fubara. The only thing Ibas did not do, as sole administrator, to obliterate Fubara’s gubernatorial presence in the state was what he did not remember. Yet his mission was temporary.
In truth, however, there was nothing personal in Admiral Ibas’ single-minded mission to undo Fubara. It was simply a paid job. Hatchet men, as it is the case with hit men, almost always never know their victim before they pull the trigger. That is the nature of their job. Ibok-Ette Ibas proved himself the ultimate hatchet man. That was just another hit job in Port Harcourt. Siminalayi Fubara happened to be the target in sight. It was nothing personal. The retired naval honcho’s inscrutable face spoke of his professionalism.
The intention of the sole administrator in swearing -in a new Secretary to the Government, just as he was walking out of the door, could not have been lost on anyone. It was a last bomb, a final act of belligerence that completed a six-month demolition job. The act was akin to laying a landmine for an enemy at the door.
Ibas may even have hired cooks and wardrobe officials for the government House. The idea is clear; leave enough problems for Fubara to contend with when he returns. The bad blood and disorderliness that will likely be triggered off by the governor’s decision to untangle the evil cobweb set on his path will occupy him for a long time. If, on the other hand, he chooses, for whatever reasons, to live with the landlines laid for him, good luck to him. That will be like a man lying on a bed of thorns.
The last official act by Ibas in Government House, Port Harcourt, was another premeditated kick. If the new Secretary to the Government had been acting for months, what difference would it have made if Fubara swore her in? But then, what if the governor looks elsewhere? That was the issue. It also depends on the hazy sharing formula.
Nobody anywhere ever said that Ibok-Ette Ibas was sent to River State as sole administrator because he was a statesman. For a retired admiral, however, it was not out of place to expect, as a number of people did, that Ibas would work to calm frayed nerves in Rivers State politics.
He was expected to be a peace maker. Alas, Admiral Ibas did not seem interested in being a statesman. He showed no inclination to make peace. Contrary to the spirit of the elevating Igbo counsel that a wise person sent on an errand as a slave should strive to deliver the message as a free born, Ibas delivered the mission as he was sent.
Called up out of retirement to go and luxuriate in the sun of oil-rich Rivers State, as it were, it was obvious that Ibas did not fancy any move that would endanger the uncommon fortune that came his way. Who wants to be a statesman? Or a hero?
For him, obviously, being a villain for six months, with open cheque drawn on Rivers state, was unarguably preferable to whatever good name being a statesman could offer.
Details of the agreement or sharing formula between Fubara and Wike remain at best, a conjecture for now. With Fubara now restored by President Tinubu, it will be known in a short while how the governor stands.
With Ibas having conducted a local government election of some sort, and with the Supreme Court clearly showing its hand in the Rivers State matter, Fubara’s second coming within his first term promises to be very interesting.
In bequeathing the governor a new Secretary to the Government on the very day he completed his mission as sole administrator, Ibok-Ette Ibas may have been reminded on his way out to remember to properly tighten the noose on Fubara.
For the assignment in Rivers State, Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas went, enjoyed himself, and executed the task. He may have left as a villain to many, but who says he cares?
When next Admiral Ibas walks into the retired officers Mess in Abuja or elsewhere, his colleagues will behold a different man, one with a new bounce to his steps. A hatchet job never came more lucrative.
