Wike’s Endless Deception

After deceiving his G-5 colleagues to settle personal scores, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State thinks that he can deceive other Nigerians.

Last week, the governor hailed his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom, for backing the return of power to the southern region of Nigeria at the expense of his senatorial ambition.

Wike, who spoke during the inauguration of the Government Secondary School Kpor in the Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, said Ortom was the real winner of the polls despite his double defeat at the governorship and senatorial polls in Benue State.

Ortom is one of the aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who worked against the ambition of their presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. Other G5 governors are Wike, Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu). 

Throughout the period they were against the party, their agitation was for the then party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to step down since he is from the North like Atiku. Never did members of the G-5 governors demand that the presidency should rotate to the southern part of the country from the North.

As the February 25 presidential election came closer, confusion over who they should support became apparent and divided the group. While Ortom publicly declared support for Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), Wike kept his own to his chest until news filtered out that he had secretly instructed members of PDP in Rivers State to support Senator Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On the day of the election, Ortom who was on the ballot for the Benue North-West senatorial seat on the PDP platform, lost to his former aide, Titus Zam, of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Also, the PDP lost the March 18 governorship election to the APC in Benue. The losses that Ortom suffered did not have anything to do with the southern presidency.

He lost because he was overpowered by the Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Mr. George Akume. It had nothing to do with the clamour for the southern presidency as Wike claimed.

It would have really surprised many to see governor who failed woefully, owes backlog of salaries, pensions and gratuities, and who abandoned governance to be running around like an errand boy to even win in the first place.

Since after the elections, Wike has been using the clamour for southern presidency to console and glorify himself after losing the presidential and vice presidential tickets of the PDP.