Former Bayelsa senator and businessman, Ben Murray-Bruce, has reacted to President Bola Tinubu’s intervention in the Rivers State political crisis.
Politics Nigeria reports that President Tinubu had met with Rivers stakeholders on Monday in a bid to resolve the ongoing dispute between Governor Sim Fubara and FCT minister, Nyesom Wike.
While the Peoples Democratic Party had described Tinubu’s eight-point resolution presented to both Fubara and Wike as unconstitutional and unacceptable, Bruce said the move has brought peace to Rivers state.
The PDP chieftain and “commonsense senator” also appreciated the National Security Adviser, Mallam Ribadu, for his effort at restoring peace to the oil-rich state.
Bruce wrote: “I am from the Niger Delta. We know what we went through, and Nigeria knows what she went through when we had the militancy. The economic impact on our GDP and our sudden and drastic drop in oil production contributed to the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. Given the restiveness of persons instrumental in triggering those trying times, a cerebral intervention by persons with an understanding of contemporary history was necessary.
“Only a myopic person wants a return to those days. And the crisis in Rivers was tilting too close in that direction. Brinksmanship is not what Nigeria needs at any time, especially right now.
“A multiethnic state is more volatile than an ethically heterogeneous one. And the contagious effects of such a budding crisis on neighbouring states are too much of a risk for a region capable of intense volatility with little notice.
“As such, I commend President Bola Tinubu, and especially his NSA, for bringing peace to Rivers State. Mallam Ribadu has shown that the apple did not fall far from the tree. We remember his father’s role in the First Republic.
“Their intervention was timely, prudent, and statesmanly. It now falls on the dramatis personae to abide by the resolution and thereby avoid a revolution.”
