“Anger doesn’t solve anything. It builds nothing, but it can destroy everything.” – Anonymous
Way back, when Nigerians were craving for good governance as a means of security and protection against the winds of chaos that was blowing throughout the country, the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were given red-card at the 2015 poll for serially reneging on the pact they signed with Nigerians, broken the rules of governance and in return of their never-forgot malfeasance.
Genuine holders of Any Party in Power (APP) immediately deserted PDP and joined the winning All Progressive Congress. At that memorable moment, APC becomes the newly embraced and celebrated bride—a success with many fathers while PDP looks like a failure—an orphan without a single father.
When the path of PDP completely gone askew, Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, kept it locked within him, takes on all the woes, then he save the party from going to more than hell, also helped the party finds it worth within the political arena. That yeoman effort gave him the illusion of dominance along with false impression of having absolute control of the structural formation of the party.
Nevertheless, Wike was politically born as well as raised by the Peoples Democratic Party; all the same, the party has given him all the necessary support to accomplish his dreams, then eventually taken him to the summit of greatness. Whatsoever Wike has done for PDP, to say the least, he has not done enough to reciprocate the kindness of the political party that brought him to public eye.
Wike had conscientiously perused the menu of delegates before the party’s presidential primary election; knowing so well that each state delegates have their price-tag, he invested a huge resources particularly in North western states in the hope of polling the votes of avaricious delegates that can guarantee him victory in the primary election.
Kano state delegates were the quintessential tergiversate who have completely fallen prey to his mightiest wallet. Wike went to that election with an intimidating treasury of Rivers state to buy the conscience of those who earlier resist the temptation to fall into his pocket; that gave him the illusion that he would defeat Alh Atiku Abubakar at the primary election so as to emerge the party standard-bearer.
Something that surpasses the magic any dollar can perform was used to defeat him in the process; that something was nothing but cordial relationship. Wike was so furious, felt betrayed by the withdrawal of his erstwhile ally Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal, from the race. The instruction he had given to the delegates at his fingertips to vote for Atiku Abubakar doesn’t go down well with Wike. Even though he openly expressed his dismay in the aftermath of the primary election, but he managed to stifled his anger for a simple reason mean to be, he stands the chance to become Atiku’s running mate.
Atiku provoked and incurred the wrath of Wike when he picked Delta state governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate against the choice of the committee set up by the party to elect its vice presidential candidate. According to media reports, 16 members of the committee voted for Wike while Okowa was able to score 3 votes. Yet, Atiku settled for Okowa because choosing whom to work with in most occasion is the prerogative of the party’s presidential candidate.
That was the beginning of the end. Positioning Okowa ahead of Wike is the highest taboo in Wike’s book of verboten as he had since turbaned himself ‘the king of all PDP governors.’ The me-first attitude saturated his sense of reasoning and his grand egomania have informed him that he is vitally important, incredibly crucial to find himself next to someone in everything and in whatsoever situation, he must be at the top, the one to lead not to be led.
If a veteran politician like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu can once be subordinates to his vanity and queue-up behind his low-ranking commissioner, then who is Wike that can’t be subordinates to a two term serving governor like him? Someone that couldn’t even secure the votes of Bayelsa, his next door neighbours.
Everyone knows that Tinubu wanted to be Buhar’s running mate in 2015 but he had to sacrifice that position for other consideration. Today, against all the odds, his patient has pay him so well because he is now the presidential candidate of APC. That doesn’t happened within the blink of an eye but it is a result of many years of careful planning, strategy, patient, tolerance and endurance.
Atiku Abubakar is not an amateurish politician thus, he can’t succumb to puerile noise likewise can’t pick someone that will become a clog on the wheel of his progress. Northerners would have rejected Atiku should he pick Wike as his running mate because of the diabolical utterance he once made which offended Muslims among other controversies. He was once accused of saying: “Rivers is a Christian state.” He has forgotten that no one can win presidential election in Nigeria without the votes of Muslims. This is precisely what set him on a collision course with Muslims.
If Wike is politically significant as he has been depicting himself and wants us to believe that he is not a political liability, also wants to prove his political clout, then he must have at least won the entire south-south region where he comes from during the primary election. But he only won his own state and managed to gets very few votes from Edo state.
“In victory, learn when to stop. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop” says Robert Green. Success has obviously made Wike a vainglorious coxcomb who doesn’t know when to stop in victory.
The greatest weakness of governor Nyesom Wike is that he doesn’t know how to manage failure unfortunately, that is a clear sign of delusional disorder. If you know how to win then you must equally know how to fail. If you don’t know how to manage failure, you will definitely miss the best turns in life.
Wike and his allies rebel against their party just to cripple it before general election but their absence is yet to be noticeable in the Peoples Democratic Party’s electioneering campaign rallies. Things are moving contrary to what they planned which now seems to be their biggest trouble. Wike has now been reduced to what Hausa man called ‘Jemage’ translated to mean Bat. He is neither here nor there.
Atiku has done precisely what the wise man said: “Don’t seek revenge. The rotten fruits will fall by themselves.” Wike is setting up a dangerous template which his successor would use to politically retire him after May 2023.
Amiru Halilu writes from Kaduna and can be reach through [email protected] or @AmiruHalilu
