By Senior Fyneface
Unarguably, the relationship between the Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seem to now be defined by mutual incomprehension as the tolerance level seems to be moving from patience as a virtue to longsuffering.
It is increasingly becoming difficult to discern what the Rivers state governor’s interest is in the ongoing faceoff and cantancerousness with his party. Does Wike even realize that he will not matter so much in the PDP or any other party equation once he no longer controls the Rivers State purse?
An appraisal of the governor’s conduct tends to suggest that he is a politician for the moment that hardly understands how to plan for the future. He seems not to know that he is in the twilight of his dynasty and his continuous relevance will depend on his old allies.
Nyesom Wike’s recent reaction and humiliation of identified disloyalists reflects his lack of tact. Immediately after the PDP presidential primaries, Governor Wike readily blamed his failure to clinch the coveted presidential ticket on betrayal by certain persons from our dear south-south zone though he did not mention names.
He has been using every possible opportunity and available forum to berate those he alleged were responsible for the turn-around of events in his quest to contest the presidential election on the platform of the PDP and later to become the vice presidential candidate.
More shocking was the extreme localization of the issue whereby the governor singled out the PDP elders in Rivers state for underserved persecution.
He accused some of the elders of the party in the state of ganging up against him simply because they did not scale through the primary to be the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state. Can you imagine that?
Today, Wike argues that Adamawa, Benue etc have gotten concessions from the PDP and Rivers State got nothing. The governor should not forget easily that Rivers State had Prince Uche Secondus who he generously worked against. Rivers people should be told the truth that their governor sold them out for a morsel of porridge because of his inordinate ambition and insatiable quest for Power.
How did the PDP governorship candidate in Rivers state emerged? Why did the governor use his executive instruments of coercion to harass and incarcerate the frontline contender to the ticket, Farah Dagogo, labelling him as a cultist/militant?
My dear Rivers people, Wike should be reminded in plain words that he single-handedly trashed and instigated the removal of a Rivers son, Uche Secondus, as National Chairman of the PDP after slamming all sorts of charges on him that borders on incompetence as party chairman.
Uche Secondus, a Rivers son, was removed in their words for ‘Lack of performance’ not knowing his very state governor planned his presidential bid ahead of time by first removing the hindrance “Secondus” (a Southerner) from the picture thinking bringing a Northern PDP National Chairman will make room for his emergence as the party’s presidential candidate.
In his further plots, no National office was given to any Rivers son/daughter just to have enough grounds to negotiate with in getting the party’s presidential ticket. But as man proposes and God disposes, all these plots failed and he is now unleashing the frustration of his failed ambition on everybody.
As aptly captured by His Highness, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe in his Statement “ Enebate Kalabari Ominisake” issued in Port Harcourt on Monday 12th September, 2022, “ Governor Wike has no ones interest in his politics of abuse and insults. He is in politics to grab power, which to all intents and purposes, is motivated by his greed and selfishness. We (the Kalabaris) should not be deceived to reward Nyesom Wike with a third tenure in the state through his proxy who will only be in Government House to serve him.”
Whether Wike wants to hear it or not, regardless the outcome of the ongoing negotiations between him and the Atiku Abubakar camp in the PDP on one hand, and his theatrics with the APC, there will be consequences on him in the future both in politics and out of politics. Mark my word!
Every sane person would agree that what the governor should have been doing now is having a sober reflection on his misdeeds and miscalculations as a politician and begin to rework his strategies including atonements for his sins against several people across the country including Rivers people, the people of the South-South and the South-East geopolitical zones.
Governors of Ebonyi and Cross River states, Dave Umahi and Ben Ayade respectively, decamped to the APC because of Wike’s unnecessary bickering and busybody in the politics of other people’s states.
Can you imagine that the Rivers state governor and his funded co-sojourners are insisting that one of the major conditions for their cooperation with the PDP in the forthcoming presidential election is that the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, must be removed and replaced with somebody from the South?
Is Wike and his league of food-is-ready supporters oblivious of the fact that removal of Ayu and his replacement have constitutional implication as there is provision that when a chairman leaves mid-way in his tenure, his replacement, in acting capacity, would be the deputy chairman from his zone, pending the organisation of a national convention to pick a new chairman?
How possible is it to organise a national convention to elect a new chairman from the South before the general elections? Is it not clear that Wike’s position on this speaks of a near-impossible tense?
See Wike see who is fighting for injustice and equity in sharing political slots! In Rivers state this same Wike imposed Desmond Akawo from Oyigbo in Rivers Southeast Senatorial District as the PDP State Chairman and at the same time single-handedly picked and imposed the PDP governorship candidate, Sim Fubara from Opobo in the same Rivers Southeast Senatorial district. This is the man who wants everybody to believe that he is fighting for “Enye ndi ebaa Enye die baa.”
Wike has been asking the PDP about the interest of the South. But the question becomes, in whose favour should this Southern interest be sought for if actually he and his co-sojourners are clamouring for equity and justice?
As said by a colleague, “The whole noise about the South has remained a deliberate and calculated attempt to injure or jeopardise the interest of the South-East and deny the region what is due for them. And it should be understood for what it is.”
The South-East, today, isn’t anywhere to be located in Wike’s struggle for his own brand of justice or equity, true or false? It is well on record that Wike single-handedly frustrated Peter Obi out of PDP even when Atiku Abubakar publicly accepted to forfeit his presidential ambition if the ticket will be zoned to the South-East. So what are we talking about?
SENIOR FYNEFACE lives in Port Harcourt @No 6 Nsirim Close off Elelewon Street, GRA II PH; Email: senior_fyneface@yahoo.com)