Wike should immediately call a truce in his internecine war with Atiku and leading lights of the PDP and keep his next moves very closely to his chest. Let him keep everybody guessing and talking while he remains silent.
By Tiko Okoye
Until a couple of months back, Rivers State Gov. Nyesom Ezenwo Wike was conspicuously missing from my list of favourite politicians in Nigeria. I’ve always perceived him to be unnecessarily pugnacious, combative and loquacious. But truth be told, he must know that there’s a very lucrative target market for his patented antics and tantrums, because his profile has been consistently on the rise, particularly in the South-East and South-South, the strongholds of the major opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
There are many ready to swear that he’s a grassroots mobiliser; a man of the people. But I believe that the biggest factor driving his popularity rating in the aforementioned areas is that, just like Gov. Sam Ortom of Benue State and then-Ekiti State Gov. Ayo Peter Fayose before them, Wike is an unapologetic basher of President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). His admirers and supporters profile him as a man not afraid to speak truth to power!
I must, however, confess that my perception of Wike underwent a significant transmogrification when he emerged from the recently conducted PDP presidential primary as “the last man standing from the South.” We may recall that Southern governors from the two major political parties met in Asaba, capital of Delta State, where they crystallized a bipartisan communique demanding – “in the interest of equity, fair play, justice and inclusiveness” – that their parties cede the 2023 presidency to the South given that Buhari from the North has been at the helm of affairs for eight years.
But when push turned to shove – and before the ink used to script the communique had dried on the paper – all the Southern PDP governors, including the host governor – and very much unlike their APC counterparts – bid goodbye to their collective agreement and scurried to back the candidature of former-VP Atiku Abubakar from the North-East! Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa was even rewarded for churlishness in backing such a grand cause by being selected as Atiku’s running mate.
Ever since the seeming conclusion of the presidential primary, the PDP has literally been on fire. Wike created the firebomb that caused the fire to start burning right after it exploded and just flat-out spurned every approach to have the raging flames extinguished.
Any diligent observer of Nigerian politics would readily understand why Wike is suffering the excruciating embarrassment and pains from what happened at the PDP nominating convention. As it turned out, he was actually on the verge of procuring the presidential ticket when his bosom friend and political soulmate, Sokoto Gov. Aminu Tambuwal, did a last-minute now-you-see-now-you-don’t number on him by shovelling the block vote of his state delegates to Atiku!
It’s also worth noting that after the PDP suffered an electoral shellacking in the hands of the APC in 2019, Atiku and several PDP men of timber and calibre migrated to Dubai and but for the yeoman’s job performed by Wike in using the funds of his state to keep the PDP afloat, the party would’ve died a natural death. It must also be remembered that Wike singularly funded the December 2018 presidential primary ultimately held in Port Harcourt after he threatened to ‘destroy’ the PDP if the national leadership agreed to move it to another location like Atiku was demanding.
Atiku wanted it moved because it was an open secret that Wike was pushing for Tambuwal to win the ticket with him as the running mate. But Atiku poleaxed the duo of Tambuwal and Wike. Wike was later to dole out a whopping N500m to Tambuwal to assist the state rehabilitate the fire-gutted Sokoto market – at a time the likes of Atiku didn’t even lift a finger in support.
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It’s quite understandable that Wike, much like every other investor, seeks to receive a reasonable return on his investment but he has been coming up empty-handed. Atiku even bypassed the recommendations of a selection committee he had set up to handpick Okowa rather than the near-unanimous choice of Wike. To say the least, Atiku and his men have been simply playing with fire going by the cavalier manner they’ve been handling a huffing and puffing Wike in the PDP china shop.
Those with understanding in the South highly appreciate the extent Wike has worked to restore our pride. Things can never be the same in any major political party after this. But be that as it may, I want Wike to take my advice to bow out now that the ovation is loudest very seriously to heart. The entire seesaw saga is now turning into a complete farce with grave consequences for his future wellbeing.
Hardly a week now goes by without different political delegations embarking on pilgrimages to London and Paris to parley with Wike and his three musketeers of Oyo State Gov. Seyi Makinde, Abia State Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu and Benue State Gov. Sam Ortom. Funds for first-class round-trip tickets, accommodation and feeding in plush hotels and other logistics are expectedly being borne by the convener – and we know who. Why must such meetings be held outside the shores of Nigeria? Why such a silly waste of scare resources when pensioners and civil servants are being owed a backlog of pensions and salaries and a yawning infrastructural gap still exists?
I fear that the way Wike has been frittering away the limited resources of his state on his personal presidential ambition and metaphorically engaging in fisticuffs with anyone who so much as disagrees with him would much sooner than later begin to take the shine off his legacies, and, since politics is dynamic and unpredictable, the same persons who shouted ‘Hosanna!’ in 2015 and 2019 would begin to scream ‘Crucify him!’
Wike already has too many enemies lurking in Rivers State and shouldn’t stretch his luck by taking on more on the external front, just as he’s transforming into a lame-duck governor with no prospects of an immunity-conferring higher elective office in view. The vultures are gathering and scattering above him. It isn’t a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would swoop down on him after leaving office given the way he has chosen to play hardball politics over the last eight years.
Wike also has a very bitter and angry predecessor in the person of former Transport Minister and estranged political godfather, Rotimi Amaechi – as well as Sen. Magnus Abe to a lesser degree – to contend with. Not to be left out are a vast majority of former acolytes and chorus boys who have since turned against him to support Atiku, and are coalescing under the leadership of a former PDP national chairman and estranged political godson in the person of Prince Uche Secondus.
There’s still a more significant iron in the fire. Wike has styled himself “Mr. Infrastructure” on account of the numerous pedestrian bridges and roads he has been constructing within the metropolis of Port Harcourt and its environs. But he ought to know that Rivers State is more than just Port Harcourt City and the adjoining local government areas. Won’t it have been far better if Wike had invested the funds for building 7-8 of the 13 bridges in constructing one or two long span bridges linking key towns in the upland and riverine sections of the state? Wike must correspondingly not overrate his popularity among the indigenes of Rivers State.
Now this: Wike should immediately call a truce in his internecine war with Atiku and leading lights of the PDP and keep his next moves very closely to his chest. Let him keep everybody guessing and talking while he remains silent. That’s when his enemies would be filled with dread out of fear of the unknown. And if it is true – as is being suggested – that Wike is seeking to negotiate a safe-landing deal with Labour’s Peter Obi or APC’s Bola Tinubu, then he should do well to wrap things up very quickly – and then bow out while the ovation is still ringing very loud for him! Our elders say that a wise masquerade doesn’t overstay its welcome in the dancing arena else it will lose its aura, charm and mysticism.
