Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, the immediate past governor of River State and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, is one Nigerian politician who understands the weakness of the nation’s institutions and has been exploiting it to the fullest. And just like the current President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Wike understands the power of money in Nigerian politics. He knows you need to have in abundance before you can be taken seriously. Wike is gaming the system because since he joined active politics, he saw this. And when opportunity came to become the governor of one of the country’s richest states, he took the gaming further.
On paper, Wike is a member of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP. A party that has seen better days; that has become a shadow of itself and whose some of its leading members are more or less undertakers than resuscitators. At times, as Africans, one might be tempted to believe that the party leaders are under a spell. In fact, perhaps, the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, has cast that spell on them. The kind of politics PDP leaders play is NEVER played by any opposition, especially in Nigeria. One thing the APC did well in 2014/2015 was to do everything humanly possible to ensure that key party leaders put personally interest aside and focused on the job at hand: dislodging PDP.
It is in record that shortly after they achieved their aim, different tendencies within the party that had been suppressed sprouted up and started a vicious battle for the spoils of war. No where was this typified than the National Assembly; especially the battle for the Senate Presidency. There were three major power tendencies in the APC then. They were the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Mohammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and the third was the band of disgruntled PDP members who dumped the party to join APC when they could not prevent the then President, Goodluck Jonathan, from contesting for second term. These elements included former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former Kwara State governor, Bukola Saraki, former Rivers Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, former Governors Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto State.
Even within these former PDP elements, there were very deep divisions. But they patched it on until the election was won and lost. And when the battle for the Senate Presidency came, Bukola played a fast one on the defunct ACN and CPC elements and ensured he emerged the President of the Senate. His emergence so much rankled Aso Rock and miffed Tinubu and his political hirelings, but they were helpless throughout the four years that Saraki spent as the Senate President.
Back to Wike and present PDP. Wike wanted to be President. He never hid it. He battled for the party’s presidential ticket. But the old warhorse, Atiku, beat him to the ticket and that was it. All efforts to placate Wike failed. Sources said Atiku offered him the vice-presidential ticket which he declined before giving the condition that the then National Chairman of the party and former Senate President, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, should be asked to step down since he was from the North just like Atiku.
This is the crux of the matter. It was few months to the presidential election and political commonsense indicated that it would not make sense to drop the National Chairman of any party on the eve of a crucial election. Appeals were made to Wike to let the election come and go before the case of Ayu would be dealt with. He would have none of that. And by this time, he was already flirting with the ruling APC and was playing host to its leaders including serving and former governors. Wike worked openly against his party and delivered Rivers State to APC even if a toddler still trying to walk knew the election was rigged using Wike’s powerful political machinery.
Wike did not only deliver Rivers to the APC, he also singlehandedly installed Siminalayi Fubara as his successor. 49 year-old Fubara was arguably the least qualified, at least politically, among the contestants but he fitted perfectly into the kind of successor Wike wanted. Fubara was Wike’s financial Man Friday. He was at time the director of finance and accounts in the Government House, Port-Harcourt. Anyone who knows the workings (some will call it financial malfeasance) of a typical Nigerian Government House would understand what the job of Fubara would entail. This was as at 2015. He became the Permanent Secretary in March 2020 and by the end of that year, he had been appointed as the Accountant-General of Rivers State and he held this position until May 2022 when he picked the ticket of the governorship ticket of the PDP in the state.
Fubara was and, some will say still, not a politician. And this was the main objection being raised by other aspirants and party leaders in the state. These leaders included Celestine Omehia, a former governor of the state, and one time deputy governor, Tele Ikuru. Others were former Minister of Transport, Dr Abiye Sekibo, and former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Austin Opara, as well as Senator Lee Maeba.
The argument of these party stalwarts was that Fubara could not even be considered an active member of the party as he had not contributed anything to the party as at that time. He was just Wike’s financial alter ego who was watching his back as he (Wike) fiddled with the state’s finances.
But Wike knew what he was doing when he picked him. He knew Fubara had no political machinery unlike other contestants. He knew he could not, on his own, win a ward not to talk of a local government in any election. So politically, Fubara was nobody. But that was the kind of person Wike needed and wanted to succeed him. He wanted a ‘Yes Man’ who would always do his bidding. There was so much at stake for Wike in terms of covering his tracks; especially in the management of the state’s resources when he was governor.
Even before he became governor, Fubara alongside 58 other Rivers State government officials were declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over N435billion fraud. He was personally wanted for N117billion fraud alongside four other Rivers State government officials. Wike was aware of all these but Fubara was still the man to carry on after him.
Fubara won the election but Wike practically made him a lame duck governor. Virtually all his principal aides, including his Chief of Staff, were picked by Wike. According to sources, he even had a limit to what he could approve as a sitting governor.
Cracks that started early in the life of Fubara’s administration quickly blew open and it became a very dirty spat. In the midst of the crisis, commissioners loyal to Wike had resigned, the state House of Assembly was bombed and part of it had been pulled down because, according to the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, the structure had “integrity issues”. Even the lawmakers that were loyal to Wike had moved to impeach the governor even if they could not pin any tangible allegations against him. Wike was at work then and when that would not fly, they backed down.
Now, Fubara’s support base has been expanding in the state as prominent leaders and former governors have pledged their support for him. Wike is not comfortable with this and perhaps, in his seeming political naiveté, he thinks he can eat his cake and have it. Feelers have it that he still wants to have a shot at the presidency in 2027. And that is why he still has one leg in the PDP where he hopes to actualise his ambition. Perhaps, he also knows he cannot achieve this as long as the home front remains a war zone.
And that is why, even if he (Wike) has the nation’s weak institutions at his beck and call, the battle with Fubara is not one he can come out without getting bruised politically. Perhaps then, he will realise that no one wins all. No matter the capabilities.