Most discerning warriors pick their fights and deploy their arsenals with calculated precision. They don’t jump into battles no matter the level of provocation. They are patient to study the opponent’s modus operandi. And so, they consider it suicidal to open many battle fronts at the same time. Indeed, real warriors are not garrulous and petty.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Chief Nyesom Wike obviously prides himself to be a warrior or so he is seen by many who admire his weird mannerisms. It is also obvious that Wike sees himself as an impregnable colossus, while every other person is a spineless jelly that can be taken down with careless abandon. The Wike distraction in Rivers State since he fell out with Governor Siminalayi Fubara has attracted many commentaries from many commentators.
The one that struck a chord was the one in which he tried to associate his first name with his weird antecedents. Nyesom, which is a typical Igbo expression, means ‘give only me’. The minister has remained an ardent stickler to this name and it has defined all his dealings in his political life.
Without going too far into memory lane, few recent instances may suffice. At the last PDP presidential primary, the minister told the whole world that in case he loses the presidential ticket, he would support wholeheartedly anyone who emerges from the exercise. However, at the end of the day when it didn’t go his way, he reneged and started pursuing a selfish agenda with four other governors whom he railroaded into his contraption labelled as the G-5.
At the end of the day, the four governors all but one lost their senatorial bids. But Wike riding on their backs found favour with Tinubu, hence his appointment as the FCT minister. In Rivers State, it is obvious that Wike had thought he could use Governor Fubara as a conduit pipe for self- enrichment. But the bubble burst before things could get to a head. Hence, the fight that has defied all elixir to heal.
Wike in his characteristic ‘Nyesom’ (give only me) stance having fallen out with his protégé, now wants Rivers State to burn and crumble since he couldn’t get his hands on the state’s commonwealth. The same way he has succeeded in holding PDP to ransom almost to the point of death, since he lost the party’s presidential ticket in 2023. Also in Rivers State, the minister is holding PDP in his right hand and APC in his left hand, all in the name of sustaining his political structure.
For the same purpose of sustaining his selfish interest, Wike has declared war against any person who dares to raise a voice of caution or reason that stands opposed to his selfish pursuits. Before the 2023 general elections, the minister had declared as persona non- grata most of the people who propped him to power and prominence in the state, simply because they couldn’t find his weird mannerisms and principles fascinating to flow with him.
People like former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara, former Minister of Transportation, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, Senator Lee Maeba, and former Governor Celestine Omehia, among others. They were all products of the restoration team founded by former Governor Peter Odili. Wike has benefitted tremendously from the foundation laid by the restoration family; from being a two-time local government chairman to becoming the chief of staff, minister and then governor.
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And he has only one person to thank, the father of modern Rivers politics, Peter Odili. And he did. Many people watched the minister live at the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA), Port Harcourt, during the thanksgiving church service to celebrate the retirement of Justice Mary Odili from the Supreme Court. Wike then as governor waxed lyrical as he sang the praise of the Odilis for keeping his political career alive.
The minister relived the story of how he ran to Justice Odili almost in tears when his name was dropped from the list of candidates for reappointment as council chairmen and the woman graciously drew the attention of her husband (Dr. Odili), who immediately summoned the then state Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus and instructed him to insert Wike’s name in the already prepared list of approved candidates.
Then turning to where the Odilis sat on the front row in the church, Wike said: “Sir, any day I make you cry, may God stop my growth.” He continued and again turning to where the celebrant sat with her husband, Wike said: “Sir, I will not be alive to make you cry.” Odili was there for Wike from day one in his governorship ambition. It was Odili whom Dame Patience Jonathan taking Wike by the hand, handed him to Odili in the presence of other members of the restoration family and asked him to mobilize support for Wike to enable him emerge as governor. And Wike became governor.
Who would have believed that a day shall come when the same Wike would claim that he “resurrected” the Odilis, among other supercilious remarks he made recently against the family, just because Odili advised that Governor Fubara should be allowed to govern just like Wike did. But nobody should cry for the Odilis because Wike himself has prescribed a fitting comeuppance for himself for making the Odilis ‘cry’ after swearing in the name of God that he would never hurt them. God will now do the needful as Wike had pleaded.
A local Igbo proverb warns that a disrespectful son who attempts to throw his father overboard would be struck blind by the swinging testicles of the old man. Indeed, the FCT minister has cast a stone into the evil forest and he would not escape the wrath of the enraged gods who would come for his liver and kidneys.
Wike’s ill -fated locomotive is on an irreversible motion headed for perdition. By also excoriating the Odilis, among the lot he had already taken to the cleaners in his quest to bring down Governor Fubara and Rivers State, the locomotive has reached a nadir, next is the long expected crash. This will be Wike’s last fight and when the battle will be over, he would be packed along with the rubble because the battle would consume him.
If only the minister had done a little introspection since he began his ‘Operation bring down Fubara’, he would have noticed that at every point he is always the one losing. He had all it takes to impeach the governor, but somehow, the impeachment went awry. The battle then shifted to the grassroots in the local government areas, Fubara’s own plot supervened.
The next plot was to lock down the finances of the state. It also failed. Now, the court had validated the three- member state House of Assembly and even imposed a fine on the plaintiffs, who were allegedly sponsored to file a suit challenging the propriety of the laws being made by the three -member assembly.
So where is Wike and his allies going to come from again? Some say 2027. But, it is only those who are strong, alive and politically relevant that will talk about 2027. The arrow has already left the bowstrings, what remains is to see where the arrow will strike.
