Veteran actress, Ibinabo Fiberesima, has addressed the viral video of her emotional breakdown amid the ongoing crisis in Rivers State. In an exclusive interview with Saturday Beats, Fiberesima passionately defended her reaction, while lamenting the challenges faced by residents in the state.
“When I cried yesterday, I don’t even know what came over me. I just saw the tankers, the military personnel, and soldiers carrying guns, and I had a flashback. We cannot go back to where we just came from. Everybody can say what they like, but they don’t live here with us. They don’t know the pain we go through”, she said.
The actress also addressed the leadership dynamics in Rivers State, defending Fubara while condemning those she believes are attempting to undermine his administration. “We have so much money in this state, so much. Now we have a young governor who I’m even older than, and he has started to look into humanity, creativity, health, and everything a leader should. But they won’t let him drink water in peace,” Fiberesima lamented. She added, “People are making accusations against him, but who has proven any of these things? We just hear them, and we here in this part of the world don’t know how to use the media to respond.”
Making a comparison, she described Lagos as an “enabling” environment where people are given opportunities to thrive, unlike Rivers, where economic and creative freedom are stifled. “You go to Lagos, and it’s an enabling state. You can wake up in the morning and do what you want, you get support, and people believe in you and you make money. Here, you cannot. Yet, we are struggling to bring our faces out, to say let us be at peace, and they declare an emergency”, she said.
Expressing her frustration over the deployment of military personnel to the state, Fiberesima questioned the motives behind Tinubu’s declaration, stating, “All these bombings we are hearing about—suddenly in how many days, they bombed two places? And now they want to declare a state of emergency? Come on now! I think there was a situation like this in Lagos during Ambode’s time. Did they bomb anywhere? Did they throw things at people”, she queried.
Speaking further, she noted that Tinubu may have been misinformed about the situation in Rivers, asserting that the President she knows would not support such measures. “For Tinubu to have made this proclamation, it’s obvious that there were too many lies told to him. Because the Tinubu that I know, the one that is my papa, this is not him at all. He would be glad that a young man is governor. The only fault I find with my governor is that he didn’t come out to say his side of the story.”
The actress hinted at a possible foray into politics, stating that she could no longer sit back and watch events unfold without taking action. “I’m not a politician, but the way I’m looking at things now, it looks like I will be. This is too much. Must we all run to Lagos to survive? Don’t we have our own homes? I don’t understand politics, I’m too emotional, but maybe it’s time”, she declared.
