Wike and the future of Rivers, South-South politics

With the confirmation by the Supreme Court of the election of Nyesom Wike as the governor of Rivers State in the last gubernatorial election, the apex court has once again provided a governor for the state when the combatants contest polls result beyond the polling booth. The first was in the case of Rotimi Amaechi […]

With the confirmation by the Supreme Court of the election of Nyesom Wike as the governor of Rivers State in the last gubernatorial election, the apex court has once again provided a governor for the state when the combatants contest polls result beyond the polling booth. The first was in the case of Rotimi Amaechi in 2007 when the apex court granted him the post for being the  nominated candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) even as his face was not on the ballot papers. Although the court has reserved its reasons for the Wike ruling for February 12 2016, it is difficult for ordinary folk to see what material change that will bring to the situation. Rather the focus of all now is to look forward to how a Wike led administration in the oil rich state will play out.
It is significant that the leaders of the governorship tussle on both sides have called for their supporters to sheath their swords and embrace the path of peace in order that the state shall move forward. Easily recalled are the stark realities of the serial violence that surrounded the run up to and actual conduct of the polls leading to avoidable heavy casualties. Hence while Wike’s call for truce is noted, the acceptance of the Supreme Court verdict with equanimity by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) through Dakuku Peterside its gubernatorial candidate in the polls, remains commendable, as it providesa key ingredient for lasting peace in the state, and by extension the entire South South geopolitical zone.
Yet welcome as the homilies on peaceful coexistence are, the onus for sustaining the peace rests more on the governor as the pilot of the affairs of the state. Given his antecedents in the affairs of the state, this lesson cannot be lost on him. A former two time chairman of Obio-Akpor Local Government Council, Chief of Staff to ex-governor Chibuike Amaechi, (now Minister of Transportation), Director General of the PDP 2011 Campaign Organisation, former Minister of State for Education and later Supervising Minister of the same ministry, Wike‘s trajectory to gubernatorial glory is well strewn with impressive landmarks. 
This is just as his quest for the coveted governorship seat was enmeshed in circumstances that will interest historians for some time to come. From the grudge of sections of the state that his ambition violated the time honoured zoning formulae for the governorship slot, to his revolt against and acrimonious battle with his former principal Amaechi, Wike’s tenure may remain a nightmare for many people in the state, until he puts their mind at rest that he has no ill feelings towards them.
Hence if he finds himself confronted by frosty responses by sections of the state, he is expected to take such in his stride and carry on with the pressing challenge of providing for all, the dividends of good governance – his only ticket to widespread acceptance. Because hardly has anybody emerged governor of the Rivers State through such a convoluted process as his, even as every other governor’s story remains unique to the individual’s circumstances. Yet just as the cliché goes that it is not what happens to a man that matters but how he takes it, Wike’s experience on the path to power, can and should provide him with the necessary insights into how to earn for himself a valued place in the pantheon of statesmen. Who knows where the swing of political fortunes will take him to next, in his blossoming public service career?
The starting point in this enterprise however remains an effort to win the hearts and minds of all Rivers people both at home and in diaspora. This expectation goes beyond the regular indigenes of the state but includes all residents and others who identify with it as the fountain of their identity. It is therefore how he addresses the collective tendencies of their expectations of him,that will determine how far he succeeds or fails in his tenure.
In this respect a defining feature of his tenure shall be the relationship he initiates and sustains as the governor of all Rivers State with his former boss Amaechi, who is now representing the state in the federal cabinet as the minister of transportation. While the duo had engaged in a wasteful battle of supremacy all along, the paradigm of precedence has changed, placing Wike in a position that offers no plaudits for vindictive tendencies. Even if Amaechidid not seize any chance to make peace with Wike when the formerwas governor, there is no law that says the latter cannot sue for peace and turn the tables for good, now he is in the saddle.
In fact in a more profound context there are many factors that define for Wike a critical path to excellence in office, only if he adopt the route of peaceful interaction with all his constituents, including Amaechi, and any other persons who may have identified or is still identifying with an opposing political leaning. Firstly he is coming into office historically as the first governor of Rivers State whose political party PDP is in opposition to the APC that controls the government at the centre. As an ethnic minority state, politics in the state had always gravitated towards an alignment with the ruling interest at the centre. Even at that the state had not always enjoyed its full rights in the sharing of the national patrimony, as whoever was governor often went to Lagos and later Abuja, begging cap in hand for the peoples rights.
The implications of this dispensation forthe administration in the state being in opposition to the centre, are not benign. Given the tradition in the country where the winner takes all in politics, when shove comes to push, equity may not always smile at the underdog. It will therefore require deft skills in diplomacy for Governor Wike to always win the centre-controlled dividends of democracy for his state.
Meanwhile there awaits him the long expected transformation of the basic infrastructural map of the state. A year short of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the state by General Yakubu Gowon in 1967, and as endowed as it is, the Rivers State is still a one city state with the capital Port Harcourt serving as the only jewel in the swamp.
Meanwhile there are strategic communities that are yet to be linked by motorable roads. For instance, Bakana which is a river breadth away from Port Harcourt cannot be reached by road. Just as well, travellers to the strategic oil town of Bonny, with billions of dollars worth of critical,oil sector investments including Nigeria’s topical Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant,still have to contend with the vagaries associated with crossing a section of the often dramatic Atlantic Ocean to reach. Other towns like Opobo, Andoni still remain ‘water locked’ and unreachable for the sea sick and hydrophobic.
This is the terrain Wike has to dominate and improve uponin the next four years at least, barring any successful impeachment proceedings against him by the Rivers State House of Assembly.Therefore the choices he makes in the next four years will define the future of the politics of the Rivers State, and the entire South South geopolitical zone, given the pivotal role of Port Harcourt in the economy and politics of the Niger Delta region.