Nyesom Wike: The Portrait of Vengeful Governor

Eddy Odivwri

For nearly five months now, the name of Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State has not ceased to seize the front pages of the national newspapers. It has been for good and bad reasons. The good reasons are essentially stemming from the dividends of democracy which he has unarguably been able to deliver to his people, what with the many flyover bridges, road reconstructions, schools, and other public-connected projects and programmes. So impressive has his score on that been  that even the federal government controlled by a rival party to his (Wike’s) recently singled him out for an award. Thus, Wike has been shining bright in terms of developing his state.

But the bad reasons for which his name almost now collocates with partisan troubles derive from the outcome of the PDP presidential primary of late last May. By a twist of political conspiracy, Wike was beaten to the second position. And since then, the bile of Gov Wike has been spraying and diffusing its bitter content into the political space.

Matters were not helped by the unguarded comment of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, who had, in a jocund mood, with no attention to discretion, hailed Gov Tambuwal as being “the hero of the contest”. That information has continued to rile Wike who now hides under the so-called pledge of Ayu to resign if a northern aspirant emerges as the party’s presidential candidate. More than the pledge to resign, Wike is bitter that Ayu surreptitiously supported and rooted for Abubakar Atiku instead of himself. It is for that reason that Wike, five months after, has remained inconsolable, despite all peace initiatives, meetings and programmes of rapprochement. Every day, he fires deadly darts from his angry quiver, all aimed at literally scattering the party. But the party has refused to scatter, though weakened. And since the party will not scatter, Wike seems to have vowed to ruin and wreck the presidential potential of Atiku, in a manner that aligns with that other woman in the Bible story of how King Solomon adjudicated on the two women – one with a dead child and the other with a living child.

Both women were laying claim to the living baby. By sheer application of wisdom, King Solomon offered to slice apart the living baby so both women will go childless. While the woman whose baby truly died accepted that the living baby be sliced, the real mother of the living baby refused and preferred the other woman have the baby instead of watching her own baby being sliced.

The second woman’s selfish mindset is that of saying, “if I can’t have the living baby, then, let none of us have it”; let the baby be killed instead. 

That is the mindset that had governed the bitter position of Gov Wike. After all, he too had reneged on his promise of abiding by whatever outcome of the primary election, without any fuss. But now that the outcome did not favour him, he has been kicking and throwing reckless jabs all over the party.

And many have continued to wonder why the party apparatchik has lost the courage to address and deal with the Wike menace.

Not only has he continued to cause the leakage of the political compressor of the party, he has since formed the G5 team—five sitting governors, who are loyal to him, and like Wike, have sworn to work against the interest of the party at the presidential election.  Two days ago, the pro-Wike governors visited Gov Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State to woo him. If all that is not anti-party, then I don’t know what else can be so described.  If the Ayu issue is a legal matter, not moral, I am sure that Wike would have sued the hell out of the PDP. Like the Biblical Samson, Wike appears poised to pull down the house where he is.

Perhaps the electoral value attached to the Wike factor is so high that the party leadership has deliberately shied away from calling the bluff of Wike and co and perhaps sanctioning him and his ilk by suspending him from the party. Analysts have said whilst Wike wants to hang on to the party’s effigy now, as he hopes to take over the control of the party’s structures after the party may have lost the 2023 presidential election, as he hopes to take a bolder shot at the presidential contest in 2027. And I chuckle at the future of the PDP. 

Deft as his moves are in his political calculations, one thing clear about the profile of Gov Wike is that he is a vengeful governor, a brute political operator who brooks no opposition or disloyalty. Before him, you are not expected to have alternate initiative. He browbeats his followers to some measure of acquiescence if not outright pusillanimousness. He had declared Lee Maeba and co as “enemies of the PDP in the state” for aligning with Atiku.

He vents a mix of his power and his anger on any one that crosses the red line he often draws. When he declared ‘No Show with Atiku’, his followers who dared to establish romance with Atiku , got various bruises on their noses. Senator Lee Maeba who frolicked with Atiku reaped the angst of the governor. The senator’s cousins, who run filing stations, Lounges and hotels in Port Harcourt got them all sealed up for strange reasons. That was two months ago. Early this month, Gov Wike hit Maeba again, by revoking the Certificate of Occupancy of a parcel of land around the Golf Course layout in Port Harcourt, which belonged to the Senator. 

Perhaps the greatest show of this vengeance was when the governor, last month, decided to cut his own nose to spite his face by revoking the ex-governorship status of Sir Celestine Omehia, because Omehia decided to pitch tent with the Atiku campaigns, to the pain of Gov Wike. It was the height of charlatanism. The Supreme Court had, in 2007, ruled that in the eye of the law, Omehia was never a governor in the state. But Wike, on ascension to the seat of the governor of the state in 2015, ignored the pronouncement of the apex court, even though he is a lawyer, and restored Omehia as former governor, all to spite his predecessor, Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi, with whom he has been in a political duel. But last month, he got the state  house of assembly to reverse itself and stripped Omehia of the ex-governorship status, adding that he (Omehia) should refund over N600 million plus over N96 million received as pension. 

But he is determined to ride roughshod over the 2023 election. 

With the appointment of 200,000 special advisers on the eve of his stepping down as governor, many have interpreted this to mean a preparation for election duel in the state.

But undaunted by his studs, the PDP campaign train has since moved on, as Wike continues to threaten the victory of the party at the presidential election. Nobody is sure where he will pitch his tent. He has held several rounds of meetings with rival political leaders. He is politically restless and he appears worn, even in his physique. 

Canticles…..

Bayelsa Flood: Does the Minister of Disaster Management Live in Nigeria? 

Eddy Odivwri

I hear that the Minister of Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHADMSD), Mrs Sadiya Umar Farouq and who oversees seven agencies like the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), National Commission for Refugees etc., does not live in Nigeria. One mischievous fellow said she actually lives in Niger Republic and tries to manage the Nigerian disasters from there.

That is not true. She lives right there in Abuja, Nigeria. How can she be living in Niamey? She was born in Zamfara State. But she lives in Abuja.

So, why is she not in tune with the developments in Nigeria?

ho says she is not? How can anybody say so of a very busy minister supervising seven major agencies? Do you know she oversees the affairs of the North East Development Commission (NEDC)? She presides over the ministry with the longest name. And at a time like this where disaster is like a national plague, Mrs Umar Farouq is the toast of many distressed people and communities, who see her as God-sent burden bearer.

What kind of burden bearer is that? God-sent my foot! How much burden has she borne for people in the Niger Delta who have been living either on top of water or even inside water ever since the flood sacked them from their homes and farms?

Yes, but she sent relief materials, using the Airforce jets to those distressed people, since they cannot be accessed by road.

Rubbish!  So she knows that their roads have been cut -off? She sent those so-called relief materials after Gov Douye Diri of Bayelsa State raised the alarm that long after his people had been pummelled by the flood, no agency of the federal government had reached out to them.

And then, last week, the minister, while briefing the press, claimed that Bayelsa State is not even among the top ten states in Nigeria that suffered the flood effect. It was like a vexatious heresy. Nigerians were alarmed. Very alarmed and really wondered whether the minister truly lives in Nigeria. And if she does, whether she listens to news broadcast or if she even receives messages and video footages on her phone. Bayelsa was completely submerged in water.  Schools were sacked. Many public institutions shut. The below-the-sea level of the Bayelsa topography made the state all the more vulnerable to the crushing flood. The homes and communities of even the former President Goodluck Jonathan, and the serving governor of the state were all ravaged by the flood. The TV houses have been focusing on how devastated some of the Niger Delta States like Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Akwa-Ibom etc., have been. But our dear Minister of Disaster Management said Bayelsa State is not among the ten worst states hit by flood. That statement itself is a disaster that needs to be managed.  She chose to mention Jigawa State, as the most affected state. Jigawa State is in the northern part of the country, the same region from where Madam minister is from.

Yes, in August flood ravaged many communities, farmlands and washed away two major bridges in Jigawa State, as well as claimed many lives, but experts would really have to assess the degree of damage done both in Bayelsa and Jigawa to know which state was worst hit. But it is even more befuddling to say that Bayelsa is not among the worst ten hit states? Really? So, madam minister, which are the other nine states, after Jigawa? Perhaps Kogi and eight other northern states! Many suspect that she said what she said so that Bayelsa and other Niger Delta States will be excluded from foreign funds that may come in aid of flood victims.

Many think it was a deeply reckless statement from a federal minister. It is certain she has never been to Bayelsa State or even any state in the Niger Delta. So, she can hardly connect with the depth of damage done by the flood.

But are the NEMA officials not giving her report? Many communities like the Isoko nation, Kwale nation, parts of Urhobo nation in Delta State, have long been sacked by flood. Canoes and boats are the only means of movement even within the towns and villages. Large stretches and portions of the East-West road, connecting over fourteen states have been cut off. But our dear Disaster management minister does not know or pretends not to know.

Don’t put all the blames on her. The people in the Niger Delta also have other federal agencies like the NDDC to come to their rescue at such times. What have they done?

Did you not see the NDDC also sending relief materials to the distressed people now hibernating in Internally-Displaced Camps? Did you not even see that the NDDC has begun the reconstruction of the badly damaged portions of the East-West road? 

Ok, it is enough. Tell all those people calling for her resignation to withdraw their demand, as she will neither resign, nor be sacked. 

Tell them Madam minister made that statement in error. It was on her birthday, and she was carried away in her birthday mood. Can’t you see that ever since then, she has not retorted on the matter? We are one people. The federal government is concerned about the plight of her people in distress whether they are in Jigawa or Bayelsa. Efforts are being made to meet displaced people with packages of succour and palliatives, as we pray for no such disasters again in Nigeria.