Wike and Rivers 2015 governorship race

Even when he was reportedly abdicating his responsibility of superintending the fortunes of the nation’s embattled education sector to sneak into the Rivers State for the purpose of building a structure, the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), as an alternative platform to push his agenda, in case the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fails him when it […]

Even when he was reportedly abdicating his responsibility of superintending the fortunes of the nation’s embattled education sector to sneak into the Rivers State for the purpose of building a structure, the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), as an alternative platform to push his agenda, in case the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fails him when it would matter, there was still no reason for splitting hairs over a so-called Wike governorship agenda.
The reason for that is simple. A juxtaposition of Wike’s political antecedents, leading to his emergence as a minister of state for education, and a reported surreptitious aspiration to govern Rivers State come 2015, constitutes a classical paradox. And if all paradoxes are seeming slices of reality where in actual fact they are patent fallacies, then Wike’s gambit shall not fare better.
In Wike’s Daily Trust interview mentioned earlier, the gentleman was actually gloating over his notional conquest of the political terrain of Rivers State, especially as he sees the position of the next occupant of Brick House, Port Harcourt, as his for the asking. That is not surprising as the interpretation of his political fortunes by his camp unmistakably lead to such contemplations.
Without doubt, Wike’s political credentials in Nigerian context are intimidating. This is a man who had served two full terms as the Chairman of Obio Akpor Local Government Council, one of Nigeria’s richest. From there he served as Chief of Staff to the Governor of the Rivers State Chibuike Amaechi. He was later to serve as the Director General of the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Organisation for the 2011 general elections, in which capacity he built considerable political capital for himself as the direct “husbandsman” who planted, in the Nigerian sense, virtually all serving political office holders in the state, including the governor – Chibuike Amaechi himself.
His eventual emergence as the occupant of the plum office of Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria – filling the quota of the Rivers State is therefore not unexpected. What is interesting is how he has conducted himself with the powers and appurtenances of office at his disposal as a minister.
Not a few Nigerians believe that his aspiration to add to his rich haul of political victories the tag of His Excellency has distracted him from focusing on the onerous challenges incumbent on the office of any administrator of the nation’s crisis-ridden educational sector, which is his lot today. Such observers are inclined to believe that Wike sees himself as being the governor-in-waiting with the ministerial appointment serving only as a waiting bay for him to arrange himself for launch.
However, while that may be quick thinking by his camp, it would still be advisable for them to heed two factors that will play up in a Wike governorship dispensation, each of which has the potential to puncture his balloon of expectations or vitiate the peace in the state, if he emerges governor by any means.
Firstly is the no love lost relation-ship between Nyesom Wike and his erstwhile boss and political soulmate – the state governor Chibuike Amaechi.  Given the deep seated acrimony that has brewed between them and kept them at daggers drawn, it needs to be seen how peace can reign in the state with Amaechi and his network remaining complacent in the face of a Wike ascendancy to power in the Rivers State.
Secondly is the traditional political zoning formula that has guided the calculus of governance in the state which even Wike alluded to in his interview. Given his association with the politics of the Rivers State, he is expected to be more sensitive to such a social fact; that is, if he is interested to govern the whole state, and not a part of it.
In the final analysis, Wike’s gambit has raised the need for the electorate in the country to be encouraged, ostensibly by the media and the electoral umpire, to consider objective appraisal of the strengths, weaknesses, accruable opportunities and likely threats to public good associated with the aspirations to political office by politicians in the country.
Political offices should be seen for what they are: as opportunities for rendering service to the trusting public, and not symbols of conquest for booty hunters.  

Daminabo lives in Abuja