The subversion that was the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria had a lot of dimensions to it. One of the most telling was that it threw up a character called Nyesom Wike. This fellow was the governor of Rivers State by the time the election held. If the events of February 25 were to be properly characterized, Wike must be given a prominent mention. It was in his state, and under his supervision, that the worst electoral malfeasance took place on Election Day.
Prior to February 25, Wike was embroiled in a drag-out fight with his political party- the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Having lost the bid to fly the party’s flag as its presidential candidate, Wike had hoped that Atiku Abubakar who won the presidential primary would choose him as his running mate. That did not happen. And that got Wike spoiling for war. He suddenly realised, and pretensiously so, that power ought to shift to the south after eight years of a northern president in the saddle. Riding on this self-serving pedestal, Wike gave his party cold shoulders. He was not going to support it to win the presidency. Fully armed with an entitlement mentality, Wike began to flex muscles. He cajoled and blackmailed the party’s leadership freely. He made demands of it. He thought he would get attention from the party, but he was roundly rebuffed. That was how Wike went underground. He began to shop for a political party to support outside the PDP. He flirted with Peter Obi’s Labour Party, but he did not find proper accommodation there. Wike was out to do deals. He could not co-habit with Peter Obi, the straight player.
After weeks and months of subterranean moves, Wike found himself in the bowels of Bola Tinubu’s well-oiled but crooked political machinery. They entered into a deal, to wit, that Rivers State must be delivered to Tinubu, by whatever means. This was regardless of the fact that the state was one of Peter Obi’s many strongholds. With this understanding in place, Wike had his hands filled on Election Day. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which could not take its eyes off Rivers State owing to the brazen electoral roguery that took place on February 25 reported that the presidential election result in the state was falsified and altered to ensure a Tinubu victory. It also presented us with a detailed expose of how Peter Obi’s votes were wantonly suppressed, criminally discounted and, in most cases, fraudulently credited to Bola Tinubu. Even though Nigerians were fully aware of those infractions, the BBC Report lent credence to what they already knew about the February 25 fiasco. Wike, in the final analysis, delivered Rivers State to Tinubu, by all means possible.
But he did not stop there. Instead, he went berserk with his accustomed boastfulness. The victory he helped to procure for Tinubu must be protected by all means. Indeed, Wike was a major arrowhead that got the judiciary to defend and sustain the fraud of the February 25 polls. Today, he is sharing from the spoils of the manipulation that took place.
But if there was anything that could be considered strange about Wike’s dance of staccato, it was the fact that after delivering Tinubu in Rivers State under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Wike returned to his party, the PDP, to deliver the party’s candidate, Siminalayi Fubara. It was normal under their circumstance. Tinubu’s APC could not be bothered about it. The party practically abandoned the governorship election in the state. The slot was simply allotted to Wike. He could do anything he wanted with it. We saw an order or disorder where a sitting governor of a state freely switched loyalties for two different political parties in the same election season. It was bizarre through and through, yet it was meant to look normal.
Having succeeded thus far in the game of subversion that started in February 25, Wike and his gang have been emboldened to do take more daring steps. Now, they are playing ping pong with Rivers State. Having installed both a president and a governor, Wike has become the emperor of Rivers politics. He can try his hands on anything possible. The Tinubu presidency needs him to continue to play the spoilsport. He must maintain a strong grip of Rivers state to the extent that the state will become Tinubu’s own for the asking. That is why Wike is being encouraged and sponsored to take more disruptive actions in the state.
So far, the biggest victim of the show of shame in Rivers State is Governor Fubara. He is being tossed about like a snail shell by Wike and the presidency. Wike is breathing down the throat of the governor he installed and the Bola Tinubu presidency is goading him on. The circumstance in Rivers State is such that the state has lost its autonomy. It is being administered from Abuja. Aso Villa decides what should happen or not happen in the state. The governor is fully castrated. He is in office at the pleasure of Wike and the Bola Tinubu presidency.
But if there is anything that is revolting about all this, it is the garb of sanctimoniousness that adorns the Wike and Tinubu actions in Rivers State. Despite the rape and violation that are being visited on the state, Nigerians are being made to believe that the normal is taking place. The defection of some 27 members of the state House of Assembly to the APC has been passed off as normal. They must remain in a political party other than the governor’s own and commandeer him at will into doing their bidding. The whole idea is to make the governor a lame duck and dispense with him whenever they deem it fit and proper to do so. That is the notoriety that Wike wants to impose on Rivers State. It is in line with the political tradition that the Bola Tinubu presidency has introduced into the Nigerian system. The destructive wind is sweeping through Rivers State, and by extension, the rest of the country. Nigerians, as usual, are watching the drama of misfortune with detachment. But the people , even in their silences, are wondering what is going on. Those who expected that the country would be salvaged after Muhammadu Buhari’s misrule are aghast at how deeper we have sunk into the abyss. They seem to be asking: when will salvation come? But no one seems to know.
QUOTE:
“The biggest victim of the show of shame in Rivers State is Governor Fubara. He is being tossed about like a snail shell by Wike and the presidency. Wike is breathing down the throat of the governor he installed and the Bola Tinubu presidency is goading him on.”
Pix: Nyesom Wike
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