The Bible book of Ecclesiastes is very didactic. It is wisdom packed and anyone who closely follows and internalizes its teachings may not falter easily in life. In the chapter three of the Bible book referenced, it says there is time for everything under the earth; “time for birth and the time for death, time for killing and the time for healing, time for sorrow and the time joy, time for war and the time for peace”. The foregoing infallible nuggets from the Bible should have guided the now evidently marooned Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike in his chequered political journey,vif he was gifted with some sense of introspection.
Doubtless, Wike has seen the best of a political life, from a local government chairman to a chief of staff to the governor, to minister of state for education and then to becoming a two term governor and now minister of the Federal Capital Territory, which is like the governor of a state. Any normal human being, not even a politician whom providence has visited with the aforementioned opportunities ought to be humble and grateful to God and humanity to have been so blessed in his prime. The minister just celebrated 58! But, Wike appeared to have emerged from the wrong side of the womb and perhaps delivered on a day cursed by the elemental beings.
A peep at the minister’s growth trajectory in politics is replete with betrayals, abandonment and avaricious pursuits. He is a modern day Machiavelli. These attributes combined formed the persona of Wike and defines his perception of life and what it offers. From Senator John Azuta Mbata who birthed the minister’s political career to Peter Odili, who nutured it and Chibuike Amaechi who fostered it to bloom, Wike has wantonly defeacated on the heads of each of the personalities and others in pursuit of self aggrandizement.
Entrusted with the liquid purse of Rivers State as governor, Wike grew into an Octopus and treated any other person as mere underlings, even fellow governors and contemporaries. It was with such mentality and poise he cornered the Peoples Democractic Party, (PDP) with the resources of Rivers State and became an undisputed king maker to the extent that anytime he sneezes, PDP would catch cold. With his feet firmly planted in the bosom.of the PDP and the financial war chest at his disposal, Wike thought that he could snatch the presidential ticket of the PDP in 2023 and so he threw his hat into the ring. But he soon discovered that there were smarter smart alecs than he had thought himself to be when Atiku and Tambuwal collaboration edged him out.
He felt the more deflated when he was skipped in the choice of vice presidential slot as Ifeanyi Okowa was eventually picked. Apparently demented by the turn of events, Wike drew his sword out of the porch towards the Wadatta Plaza and swore that that house must fall. He rallied some pliable PDP governors and formed G-5 without them.knowing the ultimate mission was to secure a place for Wike in the APC in the expected failure of the PDP in the presidential election.
A more sensible Wike would have reasoned that having achieved his purpose of derailing the ambition of Atiku and punishing PDP for that matter, it was time to come back and rebuild for the future. But he thought otherwise. He wanted PDP to die and his personal interest nutured on the ashes of the party. In the same token, he was breathing down on the neck of the young governor who succeeded him in Rivers, Siminalayi Fubara. The crisis he engineered in Rivers peaked with the declaration of state of emergency and the suspension of all democratic institutions in the state for six months by president Tinubu.
At Abuja and in Port Harcourt, Wike was making headlines in the news all for the wrong reasons. He became the leader of both the APC and PDP in Rivers at the same time while still claiming to be in PDP. The emergency interregnum in Rivers was expected to afford all parties to the crisis opportunity for introspection with a view to flipping a new page post emergency era. That was what everyone thought Wike meant when after the lifting of the emergency regime, he declared that peace had been restored.
Read also:
- FCT minister lauds Renewed Hope Initiative support scheme for the elderly
- Witness narrates how ex-aviation minister awarded N2.8bn contract to unqualified company
- Ex-Minister Chris Ngige remanded over N2.26bn contract scam
It was thus a chagrin when after a while the state lawmakers began to issue fresh threats to the governor and sounding holier than the Pope. With this, it was not difficult to fathom that Wike was at it again; the threats from the lawmakers were Wikes’s voice echoed through the lawmakers .Governor Fubara sensing another fire getting ignited took a bold step and briefed the president on fresh threats to peace in the state and shortly on arrival from Abuja announced his defection from the PDP to the APC.
Earlier at Ibadan, PDP leadership had taken the bull by the horns by conducting the party’s national convention where they summarily expelled Wike and his band of shadow chasers who were claiming to be authentic leaders of the party. The defection of Gov. Fubara to the APC and his automatic recognition as the party’s numero uno in Rivers and the expulsion of Wike from the PDP is a twin sucker punch that left the minister crashing on the floor. The Turaki led new PDP NEC is steadily gaining traction across the country with even a tacit endorsement by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC).
Wike and his band of shadow chasers will only be looking up to the courts to contrive the usual pro Wike judgement to upturn the new momentum already garnered by the new look PDP. But even that is unlikely. Had the FCT minister kept his notoriety in check and felt contented with foiling Atiku’s presidential ambition and then joining forces to rebuild the party, he would not have come down to this sorry pass where he has been issued with a certificate of expulsion from the same party he had been literally claiming ownership of.
In the same vein, had the minister genuinely embraced Governor Fubara after the emergency rule and forged a strong bond between the governor and the state House of Assembly, perhaps there would have been no cause for Governor Fubara to defect to the opposition APC which has now rendered the minister a political vagabond.
The teachings of the book of Ecclesiastes earlier cited remain instructive here. There is time for everything. No one remains on the offensive forever. There comes a time for truce and peace after a long drawn battle. Wike failed to appreciate this time honored principle and that is why he,the cookie crumbled.
