Rivers APC: No, Gov Wike is not merely punching above his weight

By Ifeanyi Izeze

Ordinarily, the statement credited to the factional Chairman –elect of the Rivers State All Progressive Congress, Chief Emeka Bekee, that “Governor Wike attacking the federal government is a typical case of a butterfly thinking itself a bird,” would have been ignored as mere political vituperation if not that it once again exposes the flaws in political leadership recruitment in Rivers state and across the Niger Delta.

According to a statement issued by Rivers state APC spokesperson, the inchoate Chairman-elect made the assertion while reacting to “the unguarded attacks levied on the federal government by Governor Nyesom Wike at the commissioning of the reconstructed Ezimgbu Road in Port Harcourt last Monday.”

As said, “The subject matter the governor chose to criticise the federal government about evoked a sense of tragedy. How can someone who has no understanding of the economy and development suddenly arrogate to himself the job of lecturing the federal government on how to stimulate the economy?”

Is it not curious that of all the problems of the Rivers state APC, the priority agenda of the factional chairman-elect should be to assume the position of spokesperson of the federal government/Presidency? Of the many thorny issues in the Rivers APC, that his priority should be the man who has slightly over one year to go as the state governor, speaks volume.

Whether anybody wants to hear this or not, there is an inherent lack of ability to think deep by my people and those who even have such traits are outrightly branded as rebels or disloyal to the power (s) that be in our region.

Instead of settling down into deep thinking on how to mend the shattered unprogressive and dissonant congress of selfish and self-serving leadership of the APC in the state, what is topmost in the mind or rather agenda of the factional chairman-elect is to engage Wike in exchange of banters. Haba! Can my people ever think differently?

Is it not glaring that most of the leading characters in APC across the states of the Niger Delta only scheme for positions so they can use it as franchise to make their selfish bargains in Abuja? None of them thinks of the collective interests, welfare and wellbeing of the ordinary citizens following them as party members in the various states.

Which ordinary member of APC in Rivers state can beat his chest and say ‘this is what I benefitted for sticking to the party aside not more than three or four top and privileged members that got appointed at the federal level? How long do you think these people will continue to stick to you while you destroy their chances of even getting one or two local governments merely because of unnecessary ego?

Some of them followed you this far because they also want to be governors, National and state Assembly members, local government chairmen and councillors or council executives or you think they don’t have ambitions? You see what selfishness is costing those around you!

Does common strategic sense not tell the leadership of the party in Rivers that Wike is no longer a factor or an actor on stage that they should be expending their energies trying to tear down? Is Wike going to be governor again in the state? And if the constitution had allowed him to contest again, none of these people can ever defeat him in any election just because of their tactlessness, abi na lack of swag sef? Na me talkam ni!

Can these APC people be told that the more they throw darts at the governor, the more they make him shine with them? It is this dissonance in reasoning in the opposition camp, whether they want to hear it or not, that has turned Wike into a political superstar that even the topmost APC leadership in the country whether north or south would prefer to deal with the governor openly or secretly rather than some of these characters parading themselves as party officials in Rivers state that cannot deliver a single local government in an election.

Now, let me put this caveat here before those who don’t know will start writing uninformed comments on this piece: Your two I-no-gree factional APC leaders in Rivers state, Chibuike Amaechi and Magnus Abe are my very good friends or more aptly, my brothers and we relate as such till tomorrow and I am one of the few people who can look at each of them eyeball to eyeball and tell them where they are going wrong because throughout the almost two decades we’ve related at that level, I never looked on any of them for handouts and they don’t even give of their own accord. Two of them are the same in that wise but that’s an aside.

Let’s even ask Chief Bekee: is there APC as a party in Rivers state or you have franchises for rent-seeking at the federal level? If Rivers APC refuses to wake up its ideas on how to appease or rather compel Amaechi and Abe to “die their matter”, the party will not have any candidate again in 2023 general elections. Mark my words!

Why has it become impossible to address the core issues that produced the two factions of APC in Rivers state in the first instance? Don’t come with that trash that almost every state in country has two or more factions because as at the time Rivers’ gashed into two, most of the states’ chapters were still intact and working together.

Pretending that all is well and that the party is now united in the state is nothing but an outright self-deceit. There is serious storm beneath the uneasy calm at the surface. Those who have ears let them hear what the spirit is saying to Rivers APC.

You ask somebody to go to hell to the extent that he decided to actual embark on the journey if for nothing but to see what would actually happen. Now you’re all trapped in a hellish go-slow or even complete jam! Still, instead of thinking how to get out of the quagmire you already are in, trying to show Abuja that you can engage Wike is your priority. Continue until you wake up to see that 2023 has been blown again as 2019.

Give it to Abe, it is clear that he is smarter and more tactical or rather proactive than most of the people in the bunch. You want to use graa graa to hound him out; he quietly goes to the Court to seek redress. So today, whether anybody wants to hear it or not, he has the joker in the Rivers APC game of thrones. That’s deep thinking at work not noise making! And until his matter is addressed as ordered by the Court or he agrees to play the fool for peace to reign, everything being done in the party in the state is outright banza. Go and write it down! Abeg, I don off my mic!

• Ifeanyi Izeze writes for National Daily: [email protected]; +234-8033043009