Wike’s potholed governorship ambition -By Odimegwu Onwumere

The emergence of Bar­rister Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike as the gubernatorial flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State in the 2015 elections was a tumultuous accomplish­ment. About sixteen fellow contenders were short­changed in the kangaroo primary and the dust has yet not settled.

Aspirants who faulted Wike’s emergence as the party’s flag bearer are de­camping to other available political parties to pursue their political ambitions. Yet, Wike sees himself as the next gov­ernor of Rivers State, after the tenure of the incumbent, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi expires in May 2015.

As a Supervising Minister of Education before coming home to pursue his political ambition, Wike was boastful. He boasted that his main concern was to ensure the re-election of President Good­luck Jonathan in 2015 and not the succession struggle in Rivers State.

But where is he today? Is it not dangerous when a man speaks from both sides of his mouth? This is the person we have in Wike! As Nige­rians know, Wike made that comment when he paid hom­age to an ex-militant leader, Chief Soboma Jackrich (aka Egberipapa) in Degema Lo­cal Government Area of Riv­ers State. Not humiliated by his perceived ties with the “militant”, Wike described Amaechi as a “drowning poli­tician”. While other contend­ers faulted the PDP primary in the state, the same Wike in the den of the ex-Militant asked members of the party to work together as one and fa­cilitate President Jonathan’s re-election.

His self-seeking ambition today to become governor did not allow him to see that a house divided against itself will fall. In April while on a tour of allegiance to the ex-militant, Wike said “A house divided against itself cannot stand. My priority is to ensure the re-election of the president in 2015 and not who succeeds Governor Rotimi Amaechi. The governor (Amaechi) is an insensitive, irresponsible and drowning politician.”

Has that ‘house’ today not been divided by Wike? How can Rivers voters back such a man who says different things in one forum and something else in another forum ? The man who once said he’s not interested in who succeeds Amaechi, today is fighting dirty to succeed the same Amaechi. Wike has never been forthright to tell the masses when he visited any intellectual in Rivers State (if he actually did), but was quick to assert that he visited an ex-militant for who knows what in promoting his talks aimed at enhancing the chances of President Jonathan ahead of the 2015 presidential election.

No matter how Wike mean­ders to convince Rivers State masses to believe in his gov­ernorship ambition and vote for him, glory belongs to the Most High that many people know who Wike is and do not take him seriously. The former Chief Security Adviser to ex-Governor Peter Odili in September was credited with a statement where he fingered Wike as the source of the acri­monious relationship between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Amaechi.

As a Rivers State chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, according to media reports, the Former Chief Security Adviser to ex-Governor Odili said: “The issue of the crisis between Amaechi and the President is the selfish scheme of a particular aspirant who feels that such is the best way to achieve his ambition. And that aspirant has been able to bring fire to the backyard of the President and said ‘well, if you don’t support me, this fire will burn you. But if you do, I have the capacity to put off the fire.’ And so, Mr President is being arm-twisted.”

The same man was emphatic that the PDP should not act Wike’s conceited script be­cause: “If the PDP brings a candidate other than Wike, we can achieve that peace, but if Wike is PDP candidate for the 2015 governorship poll in the state, we cannot achieve that peace. Wike’s candidature will also generate bad blood for the party…”

The little peace that was about to return to the PDP in the state following the exit of Amaechi evaporated when Wike refused to abide by the fact that Ikwerre, where Amaechi comes from, has produced the governor for nearly eight years and should give way for the more than 20 ethnic groups in Rivers State to produce governor.

Wike who is also from Ikw­erre believes that other ethnic groups are garbage since he believed that he single-hand­edly sponsored the PDP in the state after the exit of Amae­chi from the party. As if the ex-Chief Security Adviser to ex-Governor Odili knew, the candidature of Wike is caus­ing tension not only in the party, but among the good people and residents of Rivers State who have vowed to re­sist his emergence as governor in 2015.

Not even the conspicuous endorsement of Wike by Mrs. Patience Goodluck Jonathan will save him. Although, this writer is not a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and not against any political party in the country, according to the APC in the state “Wike won’t get up to ten percent of votes in 2015”.

It is an informal but tacit agreement even among those who are not residents of Riv­ers State. It is as if the name Wike translates to trouble, because according to an ob­server “Wike’s emergence as Rivers PDP flag-bearer was mired in controversy when 16 other aspirants were physically prevented from at­tending the PDP governorship primary in the state.”

A recent press release by the APC in the state, stated that “Wike could have tried to be man enough and allowed the G16 to contest and defeat him flatly instead of allowing him­self to be imposed as Rivers PDP governorship candidate through what has been gen­erally accepted as the most fraudulent governorship pri­mary ever in Nigeria’s history.

“This is a man who is per­petually afraid of competition and who never believes in a free and fair election, hence we are not surprised that he brazenly used his stooges and clowns in the PDP to frustrate and rig out the other 16 better qualified gubernatorial aspi­rants. To say the least, Wike’s governorship ambition is both ungodly and unholy, while his emergence as the PDP’s candidate is shabby, dubious, shameful and undemocratic. For having the temerity to levy a false accusation against the APC when all that we have been doing is to state the facts regarding Wike’s unreliable nature, his lack of preparation for the weighty responsibility of governorship and the wick­edness of his party, the evil PDP, towards Rivers State and her people are real.

“We still maintain that his emergence is against the principle of zoning after the upland section of the state has ruled for 16 years through Dr. Peter Odili and Rt. Hon. Chi­buike Amaechi to the detri­ment of the Riverine section of the state.”

Apart from the APC lamenta­tion, pundits of the politics of Rivers State knew that Wike was living in the past, because he could not match even the unpopular APC candidate, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, in any election.

Hardly do notable citizens of the state want to associate their names with Wike’s.