It is safer to begin this piece by stating one fact: No one that I contacted in Rivers State, particularly in Port Harcourt, questioned the eligibility of the Honourable Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, to nurse or pursue an ambition to govern Rivers State from May 29, 2015. His ambition to occupy Brick House Port Harcourt, the seat of power in Rivers State, next year is legitimate. He is eminently qualified to contest for his party’s ticket.
Why not! After all, he demonstrated commitment to the party, along with others, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was under siege, as its leader in the state began an open warfare against perceived enemies in the state and at the Presidency.
Wike who, as the highest ranking politician from the state in President Jonathan’s cabinet, rose to the challenge, along with other silent but effective Rivers leaders who stood firm with him, to checkmate what they considered “the excesses of Governor Chibuike Amaechi and his agenda to ambush President Jonathan’s second term prospects” – an agenda that was particularly unpopular with the people of Rivers State.
Wike, it must be remembered, was Amaechi’s former Chief of Staff and he knew, some say, how to handle and tackle Amaechi’s rebellion against the party and the presidency. But as the battle to subdue this rebellion raged in Port Harcourt, Wike the arrowhead of the campaign, began surreptitiously to develop a political agenda to succeed Amaechi. Accordingly, every action taken either in the courts to retrieve PDP structures from those that seized it, or at political rallies, were cleverly cornered by Wike’s newly formed Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI). This new body claimed credits for the ‘successful battle to retake the leadership of the party from a group too loyal to Amaechi’. Today, aspirants to the number one office in the state, suspect that there would be no level playing field at PDP primaries because of ‘Wike’s total colonization of party structures in the state’.
This may explain why Wike recently boasted that he can “win any of the aspirants even in their own wards”.To his credit, Wike worked hard to fully secure the support of Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.
Unfortunately, as specific evidence of Wike’s ambition became clearer, an eruption of protest voices became common place in the state, certainly not against his style of bold leadership and sacrifices in the raging political battle, but more out of fear of the catastrophic consequences his succession to his fellow Ikwerre brother, Amaechi, portends for a fragile, currently-healing and economically strategic state like Rivers State. Those who have had the patience to consult the books, or re-visit the post-civil war history of Rivers State have discovered two critical matters that Wike and his team should carefully re-examine and promptly consider, if they really love Rivers state. One is the age-long understanding that exists between the two areas of the state. Some Rivers State intellectuals I met at the university town of Choba euphemistically refer to this understanding as ‘Upland/riverine sharing formula’. This arrangement was championed and secured by the ‘Uplanders’ in the 70s to ensure equitable access to critical political offices in the old Rivers State.
The second snag is simply that since May 1999, the state has been governed by three persons : Dr. Peter Odili, Celestian Omehia and Chibuike Amaechi, in relay, and they are all from the same upland geo-ethnic portion of the state. The argument now is that Wike’s ascendancy as the next governor of Rivers State would add one more from the same upland geo-political area, a case of 24 unbroken years of political monopoly by section. This is now considered to be unfair and unjust to the riverine people who have not produced a governor for the state since May 1999.
The big question is: what should Honourable Nyesom Wike do now? Should he brave the odds and swim against the tide of public opinion? Or should he pursue a win-win model to preserve his relevance by respecting the existing charter of equity, and throw his weight behind a riverine candidate? These are the million dollar questions that moved the ball squarely into Wike’s court. And many people are eagerly watching to see his ability to manage this very complex situation. I sampled many opinions in the state, and two clear tendencies emerged. The first school submits that the President who wears four related caps at the same time – the president of the country, leader of the ruling party, a son of Niger Delta/former indigene Rivers State and finally, a son-in-law of the state, must not abandon the political future of the State without having a say or making a strategic input.
The second group, which is more widely representative of the state, reject Wike’s bid to govern the state, but accepts that he should remain relevant in the politics of the state. They favour a formula that gets him into alliance with a time-tested technocrat who would not be politically contentious and can help heal the wounds, reduce the Amaechi-Wike tension and focus on the critical areas of development. This, in my view, was what took place in Lagos State in 2007 when Bola Tinubu chose a non-contentious technocrat, Babatunde Fashola, to drive the state’s development process, while he (Tinubu) held and closely managed the political terrain. Lagosians, Fashola,and Tinubu, all came out winners with a booming economy boasting of an internally generated revenue well in excess of N25billion per month.
This appears, in my view, the best and smartest option for Wike. Luckily, among the aspirants angling for PDP ticket from the Riverine area are such tested technocrats as Rtd General Obene, Engr Beks Dagogo-Jack, Mr Lancelot Anyanya, Mr Georgewill, etc. Wike has fought a good fight, so to speak; but wisdom tells us that there is time to fight, and time to apply wisdom.
In the battle to preserve and protect the party, Wike must admit that he was not in the field alone, and that the credibility of the campaign was built on the support of other stakeholders to halt the Amaechi agenda. The time has now come for Honourable Minister Wike to once more rise to the political challenges of his party. The reality, painful to him I believe, is that there is a ground-swell of citizen sentiment against an Ikwerre succeeding an Ikwerre in a state that is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, and one where a sharing formula, long agreed and ratified by the founding fathers has operated for thirty seven years now. He should put his governorship ambition on hold, and once again smartly cease the opportunity of the moment to put his impressive political weight behind a reliable and dependable riverine aspirant, a technocrat, who he believes, can deliver the mandate as well as can cooperate with him. Happily, age sweetly is on his side.
That would define him as a fore-sighted political player, a loyal party man and a man who respects the true wishes of Rivers people.
Like our lawyers would say, and Wike is one of them: May it please your honourable
to so consider.
Source: http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=81482
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