Whatever name: errant godfather bootlicker, or a loquacious mischief maker, etc.; that his media bashers may call him, Wike, a versatile, shrewd master of his game, has since the run up to 2023 elections, defined the character and the colour of Nigerian politics just as he remains the main issue of 2027 election. While President Tinubu, overwhelmed by a deluge of defecting politicians, trying to escape from a sinking ship, is laughing at his political foes and unthinking ‘Obidients’ who only yesterday swore to pull his government down, Wike remains unapologetic as he embarks with an unusual fervour in his self-assigned crusade of ensuring President Tinubu’s victory in Rivers in 2027. Towards this, he has passed ‘fatwa’ declaring Rivers State close to other contestants in 2007.
Wike, a very versatile and resourceful politician is a man whose adversaries often underestimate until almost too late. The testimony is in the number of wars he waged and won since joining politics at the grass root level as a local council chairman in his state. It is on record that Wike has never lost any political battle.
His first victim was Rotimi Amaechi, his dependable and faithful ally during his war against dictatorship of Obasanjo who substituted Amaechi’s name after winning a PDP primary with that of the president’s favourite. Wike fought the judicial battle while Amaechi took refuge in Ghana, returning only after judicial victory was secured. When they however fell apart over sharing of spoils of war, Amaechi came out with bruised nose.
That encounter which occurred on in Port Harcourt on November 11, 2015 where, gun-toting security men attached to Wike’s convoy confronted Amaechi’s over 50 SARS personnel, soldiers and mobile policemen ended in a draw. The second encounter was when Amaechi suspended the chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area which had become Wike’s recruiting base for thugs in readiness for the 2015 election. But President Jonathan came to Wike’s aid by directing Joseph Mbu of Rivers State Police command to illegally take over the LGA.
Wike won the third round when he defeated Amaechi as a sitting governor along with his candidate in the governorship election. When Itse Sagay, alleged “Wike climbed to the governorship seat over dead bodies”, Wike celebrated his victory by declaring through his information commissioner that all he did was to “urge his people to defend their right to freely choose their leaders with their blood”. With Wike’s formation of a rainbow coalition of PDP and APC in Rivers State, Amaechi without a political base has been forced to escape to ADC, a ready-made vehicle for disgruntled and frustrated politicians.
It was the turn of IGP Ibrahim Idris and Major General Kasimu Abdulkarim of Port Harcourt sixth division to be tamed following the beheading of some security officers during Rivers State legislative rerun election, in Ujju community near Omoku on December 10 2016. When the service personnel attached to Wike were fingered following the recovery of the uniform of the beheaded officers in the bush, Wike’s question which remained unanswered was “were there polling units in the forest?
Moving to the national level after consolidating his state, Wike literarily retired Iyorchia Ayu, PDP former chairman he had challenged to account for the sum of N1b allegedly raked in from sales of forms to aspiring political office holders.
Wike, more than any other PDP politician, probably caused Atiku Abubakar the loss of the 2023 presidential election. After he and Tambuwal breached PDP zoning policy, Wike who has driven all those involved in that fraud from Atiku to Tambuwal and David Mark to ADC, was further incensed by Atiku who settled for Ifeanyi Okowa to spite Wike despite securing 14 of the 19 votes of PDP leading lights that carried out the screening exercise.
In the battle for the soul of PDP against Bode George, his estranged godfather, and Makinde who disagreed with him over the controversial Ibadan convention which ended in fisticuff with use of thugs at their Abuja Wadata plaza headquarters, it was his opponents that came out calling on Trump to come and solve their intraparty crisis.
Unfortunately, after series of external victories, Whirlwind Wike who always ensures those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind, has been drawn back home to face the battle he thought he had won.
Fubara, against the run of Rivers politics, often dominated by Ikwere Igbos was installed as the first governor of Ijaw extraction for reasons not totally altruistic. But you never know a man until he is in power or has acquired wealth. Just a few months into his four years tenure, Fubara tried to assert his own independence. Fubara, ‘a mistake’, to borrow Rivers Speaker’s phrase was doing this in breach of the constitution. He employed the services of media meddlers and the like of Ugochinchere, an interloper from Imo state.
Fubara, who was saved from impeachment at the last minute by the president’s declaration of state of emergency, was again served notice of impeachment for an alleged bombing of the assembly complex, conducting LGA election in defiance of court order and presentation of budget to a three-man assembly while he side-lined 27 elected members of the state assembly. After being saved by the president’s declaration of emergency rule, Fubara learnt no lesson from his six months ordeal. He is yet to understand the intrigue that goes into balancing the interest of pressure groups and public interest in a democracy, the deviousness and ruthlessness of office.
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Back from emergency rule, one would have thought Fubara would have realised that “politics is the art of the possible’’ where compromise is a badge of honour. Now served with another impeachment notice last week, Fubara who has learnt nothing from his six months ordeal during which other people helped him to fight his battle is probably hoping to be saved by appeal to his Ijaw nation, just as he did few months back.
A Yoruba axiom crudely translated says someone who is aware of enemies plan to have him roasted should not rub his body with inflammable oil. The question Fubara sympathisers, including the APC to which he recently decamped is not asking him, is why he is deliberately breaching the constitution. But for the appointment of a sole administrator during the emergency who raised a moral question about NBA holding on to unappropriated N300m Fubara donated on the understanding that Rivers would host NBA annual conference, no one would have discovered that NBA refused to refund the money even after the venue had been unilaterally changed by some ignoble men in NBA protesting president’s declaration of state of emergency in Rivers. Supporting NBA’s right to hold on to the money, the chairman of the NBA 2025 Conference Planning Committee, Emeka Obegolu (SAN) said that the money was “an unconditional gift to support the event”.
That incident is enough reason for the Rivers State House of Assembly to insist Fubara does the right thing. And who do you blame if such impunity and deliberate breach of the constitution provided additional incentive for Wike, who holds no hostages, set in his ways and would do whatever he says he would do no matter how mean?
Wike had during his recent visit to some traditional rulers in Rivers criticized Fubara saying he would not secure re-election after accusing him of failing to honour their political agreement. But the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, under the leadership of Dr Alaye Tari Theophilus, has reaffirmed its total, unwavering, and unequivocal support for Governor Siminalayi Fubara. And while “The Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide categorically states that it does not recognise, accept, or align with any political arrangements or agreements being promoted by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike”, Fubara was not cautioned about his breach of the constitution.
By Jide Oluwajuyitan @TheNation
