Mercurial Governor Nyesom Wike

Politicians yo-yoing in their relationship with fellow politicians is hardly novel around here. Forming and breaking alliances is part of the game of politics. So, it is no surprise that in Nigeria’s current political space, former foes have suddenly become political bedfellows while relationships built over the years have crumbled overnight. No one exemplifies this more than the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike. THEWILL considers the mercurial governor’s latest romance with those he would not have dined with for any reason. Michael Jimoh reports…

If any clairvoyant in late 2020 had suggested to one-time governor of Edo state and former party chairman of All Progressives Congress, Adam Oshiomhole, that he would one day be a guest of Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, the ex-union boss would have thumbed his nose at him. He would have had ample reasons to doubt him. But it has come to pass.

Last week, Oshiomhole himself was in Rivers state as a guest of Wike, the man who singlehandedly prevented his anointed APC candidate, Pastor Ize Iyamu, from making it to Government House in Benin.

Prior to that election, Wike relocated to Benin from his base in Port Harcourt, had a royal reception in the ancient city, worked hand in glove with his Edo state counterpart, Godwin Obaseki, who had defected from APC to Peoples Democratic Party. The governor of the state with the motto “Heartbeat of the Nation” had a run-in with Oshiomhole, who was chairman of APC at the time. With Wike’s support for Obaseki, the incumbent defeated his rival hands down. A strong bond developed between Obaseki and Wike from then on. But on the day Oshiomhole commissioned one of the projects in Port Harcourt, his former nemesis, Wike, duly apologised to the former governor.

With a retinue of senior government officials in tow, complete with his deputy, Wike began by telling Oshiomhole that Obaseki is a betrayer.

“If you check the DNA of Obaseki,” Wike declared publicly, “what you will see in that DNA is betrayal, serial betrayal, and ungratefulness.”

Continuing, the governor went on to tender an apology to Oshiomhole.

“Let me stand today to apologise to Adams Oshiomhole who has been vindicated by telling us that we will see the true colour, the insincerity, the ungratefulness of Governor Obaseki. We have voted for PDP since 1999 till now; ask Governor Obaseki if he has done anything for PDP (or) voted for PDP. The only election he voted for was his own election, where we gave him an umbrella.”

One politician Wike has also made up with is Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi state. In the same year as the governorship election in Edo state, Umahi defected from PDP to APC. To Wike, it was some kind of betrayal and he didn’t mince words saying his mind. But just last Tuesday, Umahi was in Rivers state capital to commission Akpabu-Itu-Umudiogha road in the Emohua local council.

As a sign of reconciliation, Wike received Umahi in his private residence where both of them had a closed door meeting that lasted for hours.

Wike has also made overtures to rival political party leaders. Last August, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state was in the littoral state to commission another project in Port Harcourt, thus leading analysts to conclude that the best word that best describes him is just that: mercurial.

Even the presidency has had positive vibes from a previously combative Wike. Last week, too, President Muhammadu Buhari sent his Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to commission the Graham Douglas Law School in Port Harcourt. It would have been unthinkable some months ago. But then, that is politics for, as the saying goes, there are no permanent friends or enemies only permanent interests.

As some analysts now see it, it could be that the ruling APC is trying to woo the Rivers state governor since his loss to Atiku Abubakar the presidential candidate of PDP. But Wike has maintained that he will never leave the party he has belonged to since 1999 when he emerged Executive Chairman of Obio Akpor local government area.

From then on, Wike has had a smooth run in government in the state and national level, making him one of the few Nigerian politicians who has held and is still holding political office. Dubbed Mr. Project for his numerous projects dotting his riverine terrain, Wike has lived up to his cherished moniker. Nothing suggests that more would not follow. Of course, the state he governs is one of the richest, perhaps, second only to Delta state.

At about the same time of commissioning the projects, Wike let it be known that it was the accumulated sums of money since 1999 (13 percent) paid by PMB to South-south states that has come handy. What, he asked some of his counterparts in the other states, have the governors used their money to do? What projects have they begun, let alone commission, in their respective states?

Chest-thumping about projects – whether a hospital, roads, bridges or schools – completed by governors is a plus any which way you consider it. It is also a kind of boast, challenging other colleagues to show, if they can, what they have on the ground.

“My name is Ozymandias,” the narrator in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem of the same name tells us of the inscription on the pedestal of the statue of Rameses II. “Look at my works ye Mighty and despair.”

Though the statue of the Egyptian pharaoh crumbled in the sand in the end, the various structures cropping up here and there in Rivers state now are sure to stand for some time to come.