Nyesom Wike, the former Rivers Governor and current FCT Minister, has become the most visible, voluble and overbearing individual on the Nigerian political stage. He is more assertive and aggressive than his boss, Mr President. He hosts more pro-government media interactions, grants more interviews and issues more statements than the Minister of Information and presidential spokesmen. He is far, far louder than any other member of Tinubu’s cabinet. He boasts that APC would have won the recent Osun gubernatorial election if he had been in charge. He has positioned himself as the numero uno defender of the commander-in-chief and implies that he is so much more loyal than other Tinubu sidekicks (including those who are fellow Yorubas and have known Tinubu for decades longer than Wike has!) that if the Opposition wins the 2027 election, he will be singled out for punishment. And he is not wrong. He has offended so many people because of his obsessive and obnoxious devotion to Tinubu.
Most annoying of all from my point of view is the fact that Wike carries on like the Owner and Emperor of our home state…and the fact that Rivers men – VIPs and billionaires who don’t need him included – are allowing him to get away with this crude imperial megalomania.
Most maintain a studious silence when he sacks the Governor, sucks the oxygen out of the democratic space and forces the APC and PDP into a “Rainbow Coalition”. Most either avoid him out of fear or resignation…or sychophantically run after him, doing his every bidding like adoring lapdogs and smiling even when he kicks them in the teeth.
One wonders whether there is something in the water or air in that part of the country that deprives most big Rivers men of testosterone! To be fair, there ARE some bold and principled Rivers men who have refused to meekly accept defeat and slavery…which is why I have said that MOST (rather than all) Rivers men are enabling Wike to triumph.
Unfortunately, those who are not playing this depressing surrender game are a minority. As things stand, there simply aren’t enough rebels to keep Wike in check and we are sliding inexorably into a whole new – and even more dangerous – level of tyranny and state capture. Things can only get worse. If Wike is behaving like this when he is seeking a second term for Tinubu, how will he behave if he gets a second term and no longer has to worry about winning/rigging an election? Will he not embark on an uncontrollable epic bullying spree? If he was suffocating and traumatizing ordinary Rivers People when he was dealing with a Governor – Sim Fubara – who was reluctant to succumb to every financial demand he made, initially at least, how will he behave if Kingsley Chinda, his 2027 guber candidate, takes over?
Chinda is much closer to Wike than Fubara was. They come from the same place. They have done business together. Chinda is also more grateful by nature than Fubara. He will not forget the many favours Wike has done him over the years. He will regard his elevation to the governorship as a massive gift from Wike. He will be totally obedient. And we, suffering regular Rivers folks, will be robbed of the high-level socio-economic development that the capital of the oil-producing Niger Delta should enjoy. We could be as prosperous and infrastructurally sophisticated as Dubai or Texas. But such potential will be an unattainable dream while Wike has his hands around our throats. Exorcism may wind up being the only thing that will save us from him!
Meanwhile, he has instructed his cronies in the Rivers State House of Assembly to cancel more than N6 billion earmarked for the sponsorship of Rivers students at PAMO University of Medical Sciences, which is owned by our former Governor, Dr Peter Odili.
Odili used to be Wike’s mentor and the scholarship arrangement was initiated during Wike’s administration when the state government entered into a partnership with PAMO University.
But Wike and Odili have since fallen out; and the ever-vengeful Wike has decided to mess up a whole bunch – literally hundreds – of medical students, just to humiliate and impoverish Odili. This is not the first time Wike has spitefully disrupted the studies of Rivers scholarship recipients. In 2016, he ditched foreign scholarships that had been awarded by his predecessor Rotimi Amaechi. And many youngsters suddenly became penniless and were compelled to drop out of school. I’m told that some were even deported from the UK, etc. An enraged Rivers native whose nephew is one of the victims of Wike’s latest move has this to say about Wike’s disregard for kids whose parents cannot afford to fund their tertiary education: “For how long will Rivers people allow Wike to get away with this level of wickedness while he continues to educate his children abroad with monies he stole from Rivers state? I hope we will all work together to vote in a new government that will serve Rivers people with compassion.”
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