Is Wike an Asset or a Liability to Tinubu?

By Rex Akindele

Politics, they say, is a game of interest. No permanent friend, no permanent enemy but permanent interest. But in every sphere of life, there is morality and a person is more respected for his principles and the values he stands for.
There is this school of thought that says ‘if you do not stand for something, you will fall for anything’. This is the crossroads where the former governor of Rivers State and incumbent Minister of the FCT, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, stands.

Loud, brutish and loquacious with a touch of arrogance, the APC as a political party was constantly the butt of his not-so-humorous jokes while he held sway as governor of Rivers State.
Wike rose from the ashes of the crisis that engulfed Rivers State in 2007 after the gubernatorial primaries of the PDP in the state which the then president, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo described as having a full-leg. The winner of that primaries, Rotimi Amaechi with a full-leg was not actually the most preferred candidate of the powers that be and he was unceremoniously substituted with Sir Celestine Omeiha to carry the flag of the party. What ensued after was a pre-election legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. After the general elections which Omeiha won and was inaugurated as governor, the tension grew to become unbearable for Amaechi and he fled to Ghana on a self-imposed exile. It was Barr. Wike, a former Council Chairman of Obior/Akpor Local Government and close ally of Amaechi who stayed behind to coordinate the perfect team and supporters of Amaechi until the case was decided by the Apex Court.

In appreciation of the job Wike did while he became once away, Gov. Amaechi appointed him as his Chief of Workers in some unspecified time in the future of his first term in place of job. The Chief of Workers in the hot machine we prepare wields hundreds of powers and Amaechi, seeing how mighty and spectacular Wike became once turning into, determined to in the reduce fee of him to dimension by no longer re-appointing him when he won his 2d term in 2011. Amaechi in no doubt one of his interviews, confessed that Wike became once getting uncomfortable and when an alternate got right here to nominate a Minister from the Narrate, a mutual buddy of theirs pleaded with him to take into accout Wike in expose to keep him from a mental crisis. That became once when Wike became once nominated, and appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan as Minister of Narrate for Education in his authorities.
When Governor Amaechi and President Jonathan fell apart, Wike took profit of the crisis to assemble a parallel constructing for Jonathan in Rivers and when Amaechi joined forces with 4 other PDP governors to invent a faction for the interval of the PDP is named the Current PDP, which later joined the APC, Wike, a cabinet Minister, took fee of PDP in Rivers Narrate as the chief being the perfect political place of job holder from the Narrate. With the total Occasion constructing in his kitty and since the perfect hand man of President Jonathan who became once contesting for a 2d term in place of job, the Governorship designate of the PDP became once an easy pick for Wike and despite the opposition from the then incumbent and his estranged buddy, Rotimi Amaechi, Wike rode on the South-South sentiment and the recognition of President Jonathan in the quandary to clinch the governorship seat. This became once Wike’s fling to limelight.

I basically have taken time to designate this to point out you might perhaps well perchance presumably inquire that Wike is a crisispreneur and amongst active politicians in the nation this day, he has benefited from crisis basically the most. That’s why he rejoices at any time when he sense a crisis anyplace as crisis to him is esteem the fairway grass to the fairway snake. His involvement with the APC in some unspecified time in the future of the closing fashioned election became once as a outcomes of the crisis that engulfed the PDP after their presidential primaries of 2022 through which he became once an aspirant. His aim in President Tinubu winning Rivers in 2023 can never be overemphasized but while he presented himself as any individual fighting for the hobby of Southern Nigeria, he lost what can had been a spacious goodwill from such act by accepting a ministerial appointment from the president and the Occasion he had injurious-mouthed for 8 years. It intention it became once all about his deepest hobby all along, which on its hang is no longer injurious if most effective he can swallow his pleasure and show some respect for others.

Mr Wike’s use of his position as a cabinet minister in an opposition government to interfere with the governance of his home state of Rivers without reservation is becoming a serious burden for the Tinubu administration. A crisis of distrust and disloyalty is common between successive governors and their predecessors in Nigeria since the inception of this democratic dispensation, and in all cases, the sitting governor consistently enjoys the sympathy of the people.
At present, as in Rivers, there is a cold war in other states between governors and their benefactors, particularly in Benue State, where Senator George Akume, a former governor of the state and incumbent Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and his anointed governor, a Catholic priest turned politician, Fr. Hyacinth Alia, are vying for supremacy. Senator Akume has maintained a dignified silence and conducted himself in a manner befitting a high-profile government appointee while allowing his allies to battle it out with the governor. In the case of Mr Wike, he speaks at every opportunity in a demeaning tone, directing his criticism not only at his state governor but also at any elder who dares to associate with the governor. Some of these remarks are not even appropriate to be directed at an opponent, let alone members of the same political party. His supporters continue to abandon him on a daily basis, as it appears the communities are increasingly turning against those who oppose the governor.

Rivers State is an extraordinarily soft State. One of the oil-producing States in the nation that has the privilege of serving as the operational hub of most oil companies in the country. It used to be the hotbed of militant actions until the intervention of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who launched an amnesty programme to assuage aggrieved youths fighting decades of neglect and insensitivity to the plight of their people. At present, anything that threatens the peace of Rivers State is a threat to national security, and it’s becoming evident from the tone of elders, traditional leaders and stakeholders of the State that the Minister of the FCT is viewed more as a threat to peace in the State—a demeanor unbecoming of anyone who served as Chief Security Officer of the State for 8 years.

On the political side, Wike is caught between a rock and a hard place. After the 2023 general election, in which the PDP performed poorly due to some decisions and miscalculations by its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Wike was expected to be the rallying point for aggrieved stakeholders and disillusioned supporters of the Party. He was being looked upon, alongside members of his G-5, to become the new face of the opposition in the nation and give the Party a new direction—until he fell from his Olympian height. He had Governor Ortom, the former governor of Benue State, who had been a thorn in the side of the Buhari-led APC administration, with him. But by choosing to serve as minister in an opposition government, he lost the trust of his fellow ‘comrades,’ and the first to abandon him was almost certainly the most senior governor among them, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State. His appointment as Minister from Rivers, with the President not giving additional consideration to the State to accommodate anyone from the incoming APC fold, threw the APC into confusion. At present, while the national secretariat of the APC dissolved the State Working Committee and installed Wike’s loyalists in a caretaker capacity, Wike remained a PDP member by day and an APC member by night, thereby allowing both parties to suffer in the State as he continued to play the double game. Supporters of multi-party democracy will undoubtedly question President Tinubu’s democratic credentials on account of this. A vibrant democracy thrives on the foundation of a strong and healthy opposition, and the President will enhance his standing in the international community greatly if he focuses on strengthening his Party rather than being seen as destroying the opposition.

Regardless of the preference of State Assembly members standing with the minister, it’s an advance impossibility to impeach the governor as the State will mosey up in flames. Seen as the first person to emerge as governor of the State from the riverine communities since the return of democracy in 1999, Gov Fubara has played the ethnic card very wisely to his profit. He has additionally succeeded in harvesting the total other feeble governors who were additionally at the receiving raze of Wike’s arrogance, vindictiveness and winner-takes-all means to politics.
It has now advance to the final public that with the total noise from Rivers in some unspecified time in the future of his time as governor, Native Authorities workers were denied the statutory minimal wage of ?30,000 and for 8 years, their promotion became once stagnated. The national leadership of NULGE had to ship a sturdy delegation to governor Fubara to commend him for righting the wrongs of the previous by enforcing minimal wage for native authorities staff in the State and effecting their backlog of promotions. If these and additional is been done to ingratiate himself to the americans, Fubara has succeeded to a extensive extent as it continue to relish into any godwill left of Mr Wike as his feeble trusted allies throng the authorities house in Port Harcourt on day-to-day basis to pay homage to the governor and pledge their allegiance.

If an election were to be held in Rivers State today, could Wike still be ready to support the President? The answer is a clear no, and the situation will only deteriorate over time.
It is therefore long past time for President Tinubu to view Wike as a political liability and social liability, and to reach out to other stakeholders and build new alliances in Rivers State to safeguard his political future in the Niger Delta.

Akindele wrote this piece from Kubwa, FCT and can be reached at [email protected]