I never thought it necessary at this critical time of politicking to join issues with any politician, most especially a desparador or wounded lion on a wild goose chase until the exited governor of Rivers State and defeated PDP 2023 Presidential aspirant, Barr. Nyesom Wike proved his political incapacitation and impatience after the presidential primary that he luckily lost.
Wike had no doubt rated himself above each and every other member of the PDP and foolishly and arrogantly believed he owned the party that he could dictate and direct where the pendulum should swing at will for pecuniary interest. He was proved wrong.
PDP belonged to him and his coterie of supporters as he erroneously believed until he was floored down at the primary election and given a thorough political beaten that affected his mental equilibrium he least expected. The man has gone totally wild in pursuit of shadow reasoning to ridicule the same party that saved him from political extinction.
One is not revisiting the drama of how Wike became a state governor in 2015 through a suspected compromised judgment by the Supreme Court, allegedly facilitated by retired Supreme Court Judge or how he labored in-vain to dwarf the then rising profile of President Muhammad Buhari along with another lost sheep, Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State. The rest is history.
When the former national chairman of the PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu referred to the drowning Wike and his fellow lone rangers as children, many people found the expression too harsh, or at least inappropriate going by the, deft moves to reconcile the warring factions of party spearheaded by Wike ahead of the 2023 elections.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, many people will begin to better understand what Ayu was trying to say. As a popular saying goes, “What an elder sees while sitting down, the younger ones may not see even when standing on an elevated platform”.
Wike has so far parried all sincere and insincere efforts to get him see reasons as to why he should let bygones be bygones and reunite with the majority of the PDP stakeholders for the task ahead. Democracy has always been known to be the game of numbers in which the minority, have their say, even as the majority have their way. Losing a party primary election is not the end of politics.
Actually, what happened in the PDP primaries is a way of telling him to deploy more efforts to have his way in the future. The delegates had decided that Atiku Abubakar should be the party’s flag bearer for the 2023 presidential contest. What again?
Wike had his own delegates but their votes were outnumbered by those of Atiku. It is like a game of football, no team can win it all the time. You win some and lose some. This explains why winners do all in their power to remain on top, while others continue to plot their downfall so they can also have the experience of what it feels to be champions. But they play according to the rules no matter the gravity of the challenges.
The fact that Wike came short of his aspiration in that party primary election circle does not mean an end to his political career if he so wishes to remain in politics. Tomorrow is another day, and no one knows what tomorrow holds.
A celebrated Reggae Star in the 70s, Peter Mckintosh said: “He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day”. So, Wike has his future ahead of him with bright chances unless he decides to terminate it now which he is eager and desperate to do at no cost.
Well, the PDP, right now, has resolved to forge ahead with or without Wike which is an encouraging development, for the stability of the polity. Even if Wike decides to sheath his sword at this moment, he has lost the trust he enjoyed. It is better for him to continue the comedy as a true unregulated comedian from the Niger Delta than to sheath his sword without a trust in the base.
Indeed, the political trajectory of Dr Peter Odili should be a lesson to Wike and both have a lot in common. Like Odili, Wike was twice elected governor of Rivers State, and now a minister of the federal republic. Wike almost emerged as the running mate to Atiku, same way Odili narrowly missed being on the Umaru Musa Yar Adu’a ticket in 2007.
To express his bitterness on how he was systematically edged out by the Think-tanks of the PDP in 2007, Odili wrote his experience in his published biography titled “Conscience and History: My Story”. In the book, he painstakingly narrated how he went down the ladder from being a frontrunner in the 2007 presidential race to an anointed running mate, only for him to be left with nothing at the end of the show.
Odili told the story of how he had the privilege of being shown the typed copy of the prepared acceptance speech of Yar Adua, where it was clearly stated that he had been nominated by the then president-to-be as his running mate.
But at the last minute, Odili’s name was dropped and replaced with Goodluck Jonathan who eventually became the vice president. This bears some resemblance to the Wike story of today, how he lost out to Atiku Abubakar and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State.
Odili eventually congratulated Yar Adu’a and Jonathan. But still, politically speaking, where is Dr Peter Odili in the scheme of things today? He has been forcefully retired and rendered irrelevant.
Former governor of Jigawa State Sule Lamido, related same story to Nyesom Wike for him to understand the fact that he is presently heading to political irrelevance immediately he vacates the office he presently occupies.
Lamido advised Wike to emulate Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, former Senate President Bukola Saraki and Rotimi Amaechi who have shown maturity when they lost the presidential tickets of their parties.
A day to the PDP’s presidential convention in 2007, which Odili was bound to win from all indices and was also bound to win the presidential election, he was stopped midway by the party which went on to nominate Yar Adu’a, who did not even show interest in the race. Odili who showed interest and worked tirelessly to actualize his ambition, was later promised a vice presidential ticket and yet, he was denied. He took everything as the mature man that he is.
Look at the APC, former Vice President Osinbajo was humiliated, the former Senate President was disappointed and humiliated and even Wike’s countryman, Amaechi was given the same treatment; they all took it as matured men and did not go about complaining or planning evil against the winner of the presidential primary as Wike is busy combing the streets ridiculing the party he claims to love. In Wike’s dictionary, that is what he calls maturity, acts of patriotism anchored on the tenets of equity and justice. What an illusion!
But do you know why those defeated accepted the defeat in good faith? It is because the party is supreme and must be respected no matter what. You cannot be bigger than the party you belong. Party is organic.
The convention has come and gone. Osinbajo, Lawan, Saraki and Amaechi have displayed maturity because their party spoke in favor of Atiku and Tinubu. If Wike had been in the APC, will he have been talking and behaving as he is busy doing now without attracting suspension or expulsion?
These days if you go through the newspapers, or scout social media platforms, you will understand the madness in Wike and his state of mental equilibrium and vituperations which have effectively been documented in history for coming generations.
From claiming to be aware of the underground moves of Okowa to become the vice presidential candidate of the PDP when the position was undecided (as if Okowa was not playing politics), to alleging (without any proof) that Ayu collected N1billion from Lagos and threatening to mention who gave the money. Wike is busy contradicting himself and insulting imaginary opponents out of frustration and fear of the unknown.
Let us take the issue of former PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus as an example. Wike first said Secondus was removed as national chairman for performing below expectation of party members, now just about few months after, he said same Secondus that he hoisted on the party at its trying moments was removed to pave way for a Southern presidential candidate. If that is to be believed, why the same Wike plotted the unconstitutional removal of Secondus without accomplishing the hatchet plan of loading a Southern presidential candidate on the party? That was wicked Wike at his best.
He had also challenged members of the committee set up to nominate Atiku’s vice presidential candidate to say if he ever lobbied them for his nomination but yet, he was expecting the committee to have nominated him as a prize for failing to defeat Atiku. He was clever by half.
Wike also accused Atiku of being in sincere in backing Ayu, adding that the PDP flag bearer does not have Kano and Lagos States. What does that signify? For the record, President Buhari in 2015 lost the votes of Rivers State but still made it to the presidency. In unison, PDP said to hell with Wike and his claimed votes of Rivers State that he could not deny Atiku a churn of it. What was destined to happen, had surely happened and so what!
Like those ex-governors who have misused their glorious days in office and now running helter-skelter, scheming their way to the Senate, forming WhatsApp groups for former governors (as Wike himself alleged), the drowning former Rivers State Governor should ask himself where he will be after May 29, 2027 if he refuses to mend fences with his party. The ruling party APC has no space to accommodate the likes of Wike neither the other strong parties on the political turf. Wike is steadily drowning in self deceit and pride in a vacuum. Enough of his political bragging, empty threats of intimidation that cannot change anything or help him out.
Every voice of reason, including that of Atiku Abubakar, has been advising Wike to sheath his sword so that, the party can go into 2027 election as a united front, but he seems determined to walk a dangerous and deadly path that can only lead him to a cul-de-sac. He is writing his political obituary with his own hand.
He is giving credence to those accusing him of being a mole, a serpent in the PDP midst. Neither the ruling APC nor the weak NNPP needs him for anything. Probably, he may be working for Peter Obi of Labor Party that has a hidden agenda against the unity of Nigeria from his body language and uncouth statements from his horde of supporters. Peter Obi is already an elected ‘President’ of the Social Media. What a pity!
Finally, lest I forget, there is something about children that make them unable to take decision devoid of emotion. They are always susceptible to manipulations by those who will promise them sweets and what not. T hey are incapable of seeing the bigger picture.
So in all these, if what Nyesom Wike is busy doing now is not childishness spiced with madness, who can tell me what it is? Dr Iyorchia Ayu was right to have taken Wike to the cleaners and ignored his provocative and unguarded utterances lacking substance. Definitely, Wike is going into political retirement and irrelevance. He has lost his market value to entice any prospective buyer now and in the future. Wike has retired himself forcefully because, for now, he has no party to claim. The man is a sad story to tell.
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
