…From silence to fury, Mbata finally talks back
…A war of words reveals who still commands Rivers
By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja
On December 30, 2025, at the Eneka Day celebration in Obio/Akpor, Senator John Azuta-Mbata stood before a cheering crowd and made a declaration that many in Rivers State had been waiting to hear spoken aloud.
“There is only one governor in Rivers State,” he said, stressing that this reality stood “whether Wike liked it or not.”
For Mbata, President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, it was not a speech crafted for applause. It was a personal line in the sand.
For years, he had absorbed slights in silence, choosing restraint over confrontation. That day, restraint ended.
What followed between December 30, 2025, and January 1, 2026, was a blistering verbal war between Mbata and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, one that peeled back years of buried history and exposed the deeper political realignment underway in Rivers State.
When Silence Became Too Heavy
Long before the exchange went public, Mbata had been navigating hostility quietly. Even before his election as president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, it was widely known that Wike opposed his emergence.
After Mbata won, Wike publicly questioned his identity, insisting he was Ikwerre and not Igbo, remarks many interpreted as an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of his leadership. Mbata did not respond.
When some Ikwerre groups went as far as stripping him of traditional titles for accepting the Ohanaeze position, he still did not respond. He watched as the same communities that rejected him had once embraced an Igbo man as governor without protest.
By the end of 2025, however, the political environment had changed. Governor Siminalayi Fubara, once politically subdued, was regaining confidence and institutional backing. Mbata publicly aligned with him, and the Eneka Day statement was the first outward sign of that choice. The response was swift, and vicious.
December 31: Memory as a Weapon
On December 31, 2025, Mbata released a video and statement that resonated across Rivers political circles. Gone was restraint. What emerged instead was rage sharpened by memory.
“One of the signs of very poor education and upbringing is that you can’t even pronounce simple words.
What is the meaning of integrity, integrity, integrity; what does that mean? Can somebody tell this semi-illiterate, swashbuckle, crisis-loving gentleman, you know, that this Rivers State belongs to all of us, not him alone, and that we will resist you, you won’t get away with all this nonsense you are doing,” Mbata said.
Then came the most personal strike: “You have forgotten the days you used to wash my car and I used to feed you and pay your school fees. You think you can talk to me anyhow, you are just an idiot,” Mbata added.
The words stunned even seasoned observers of Rivers politics. This was not policy disagreement. This was hierarchy reversed, old debts dragged into the open, and suppressed memory weaponised.
Mbata’s core assertion was unmistakable: Wike did not own Rivers State, and would never own it.
January 1: Wike Fires Back
Wike responded on January 1, 2026, during a public event. His reply was dismissive, laced with sarcasm, and unmistakably combative.
He dismissed Mbata as a ‘local politician’ who, despite spending eight years in the Senate, was now ‘playing community politics.’ He mocked Mbata’s relevance and questioned his record in office.
Addressing the insults about his education, Wike chose ridicule over retreat.
“At least I am ‘semi,’ not ‘fully’ illiterate,” he said, drawing laughter from supporters.
It was a familiar posture, defiance wrapped in bravado. Yet for critics, the response revealed something else: a refusal to accept that the political ground beneath him had shifted.
The Bigger Battle Beneath the Insults
Beyond the sharp language lies a more consequential struggle. For much of the past two years, Wike had been central to the presidency’s political calculations. His confrontational style was embraced, his ability to destabilise opposition structures leveraged, and his influence amplified. Then the strategy changed.
Governor Siminalayi Fubara, once constrained by what many described as a stage-managed state of emergency, began receiving quiet assurances of presidential support. Insiders say trusted figures like Nuhu Ribadu and Dave Umahi reassured him, easing his path into the APC power structure. His reported receipt of APC membership card number 001 was not symbolic, it was declarative. Any whispered one-term arrangement was effectively discarded.
Wike, however, appears fixated on earlier expectations. He continues to insist that ‘agreement is agreement,’ even threatening to reveal the contents of a tripartite deal he once refused to disclose.
His tours of Rivers State, from Khana Local Government Area, where he warned supporters against repeating ‘past political mistakes’ in 2027, to other strategic locations; now appear less like mobilisation and more like pre-emptive defence.
The structural imbalance is stark. Political control without financial leverage is hollow. Council chairmen and loyal legislators are ineffective without access to resources. Fubara, by contrast, now controls what insiders describe as the decisive levers: presidential backing, party acceptance, financial influence critical to 2027 calculations, and broad popular goodwill across Rivers State. In that context, Mbata’s outburst reads not as recklessness, but as timing.
When Memory Confronts Power
Rivers politics has never been quiet. But this clash feels different because it is deeply personal. Mbata did not attack Wike as a minister alone; he attacked him as someone who, in his view, had forgotten his past and overreached his present authority.
As power quietly migrates, arrogance is colliding with memory. The Mbata–Wike exchange is not the cause of Rivers’ political realignment; it is evidence of it. And in Rivers State politics, evidence often becomes warning.
CSOs Voice Harsh Concerns
George Batambari, political analyst and public affairs commentator, said the clash was inevitable.
“This clash has been a long time coming,” Batambari said. “Even before Mbata was elected president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, it was already common knowledge that the FCT minister opposed his emergence, so much for integrity and loyalty to one’s political godfather. After Mbata won, the minister went on air to insist that he was Ikwerre, not Igbo, which many saw as casting doubts on the legitimacy of his election. Through all of this, Mbata kept quiet.
It even got to the point where some Ikwerre groups stripped him of his traditional titles because he accepted the Ohanaeze position, despite the fact that the same Ikwerre people had no problem giving an Igbo man, Odili, a title and embracing him while he was governor. Seen against that backdrop, Mbata’s outburst now is well-timed.”
Omoniyi Akintabi, a political risk consultant, warned that Wike may be misreading the moment.
“By 2026, a lot of things will come to light in Rivers State,” Akintabi said. “Wike really needs to calm down. He cannot win a confrontation with the presidency unless he’s ready to burn his fingers. Bola Tinubu is not Buhari, whom he was used to fighting as governor. This is a different game entirely, and he’s just one wrong move away from being sidelined.”
From Wike’s camp, loyalty remains firm
Emeka Kency, a PDP member loyal to the Wike-backed faction, said: “Wike has worked hard and clearly set himself apart. Anyone going after him is most likely acting out of envy over his achievements. He doesn’t have to respond to every attack or distraction.”
Civil society voices were harsher
Prince Adebanji, a civil society leader, said: “Sometimes, when you hear this man speak, you’d think he alone has the power to make and unmake kings. The level of bravado that comes across is honestly embarrassing and completely unnecessary.”
In Rivers State, the insults may fade, but the message endures: power shifts quietly, and memory has a long reach.
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