Wike-Tinubu Tango: A Leopard-Cameleon Dance?

Among whatever was achieved in the recent outing to Rivers State by the campaign train of Ahmed Bola Tinubu – presidential candidate of the APC, his talk-down to his host and governor of the state Nyesom Wike, during a reception at the Government House Port Harcourt, must rank as the icing on the cake.  With […]

Among whatever was achieved in the recent outing to Rivers State by the campaign train of Ahmed Bola Tinubu – presidential candidate of the APC, his talk-down to his host and governor of the state Nyesom Wike, during a reception at the Government House Port Harcourt, must rank as the icing on the cake.  With characteristic didactic style, the ‘Jagaban’ delivered what will easily rank as perhaps one of his most pungent responses to a host, in the course of his nationwide campaign to become the president of Nigeria. In comparing himself with Wike during his speech, Tinubu alluded to the difference between them as politicians, as that between the leopard and the chameleon, and he referred to himself as the leopard whose spots never change colour. This implied that Wike was the other creature whose color changes with any comfort zone.

Meanwhile, thanks to the handlers of the governor that much of the significant, veiled vitriolics in Tinubu’s delivery may be toned down in transmitting same to the public space. Yet, the sheer potency of the speech will not be lost to the discerning. For hardly will any other delivery capture in graphic terms the long journey Wike has to travel in order to win an accommodation with Tinubu and the APC, which he is widely believed to be searching for.

Even without the benefit of clairvoyance, every observer of the political fortunes   of Nyesom Wike – especially in recent times, will not fail to see the connection between Tinubu’s allusion to the high drama that has featured in the political outings by the Rivers State governor at every turn of his tenure. Of particular relevance in Tinubu’s allusion is the consistent saber-rattling disposition which Nyesom Wike had adopted towards the leadership of his political party—the (Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Atiku Abubakar its flag bearer in the forthcoming presidential polls.  Following his loss to Atiku during the May 28-29, 2022 PDP presidential primaries, and subsequent rejection as the Vice Presidential candidate of the party, Wike had adopted a spoiler’s disposition towards Atiku’s and by implication the PDP’s bid for the Presidency.

To accentuate his anti-Atiku grouse, Wike launched a rather belated campaign for the balance of regional interest between the North and South in the PDP hierarchy, by clamouring for the resignation of Dr Iyorchia Ayu a northerner, as the National Chairman of the PDP, who should be replaced by a Southerner. This he claimed was the understanding of the party hierarchy with respect to the distribution of offices in the party’s power structure. Valid as the argument may be, its timing however constituted an issue as the party was already enmeshed in the thick of a critical electoral campaign exercise, when Wike’s demand came.

The reluctance of the party leadership to comply with this in-house restructuring of the PDP was adopted by Wike and his co-travelers as the alibi for their grouse. This situation eventually snowballed into Wike mobilising four other governors to formally constitute an in-house renegade team in the PDP family who adopted the moniker of G5, with the agenda of bringing the party down, except their demand that Ayu must resign, was met.

A lot of water had passed under the bridge since then with the last count before Tinubu’s visit to Rivers State being a marked detoriation in relationship between Wike and the G5 on one hand, and the PDP hierarchy and a group of Atiku loyalists in Rivers State on the other, with instances of face-off between the governor and the Rivers State wing of the PDP Presidential Campaign Committee. This was just as Wike, fearing for his political fortunes also sought relief from the court to save him from any disciplinary action by the PDP leadership against him for patently anti-party activities.

Meanwhile, as Wike – claiming to pursue the agenda of the G5 was tormenting his own political party, his body language was signposting a desperate search for a comfort zone outside the PDP clutches, including the prospects of a dalliance with Tinubu’s APC. However the talk-down by Tinubu during the recent reception has placed in bold relief the thorny issue(s) which Wike may have to resolve, in saving not only his political fortunes but even those of all his core loyalists who subscribed to his cult figure image, and had been blindly following his now questionable leadership.

This is so because, stretched out before him and his political family – as the way out, are the dour portends of seeking a fresh accommodation with the APC at both the national level and the Rivers State chapter.  However while a deal with the national level of the APC may seem problem free with Tinubu’s likely intervention, the same cannot be said about the Rivers State chapter of the party where a Wike nemesis in the person of Chibuike Amaechi holds court.

Chibuike Amaechi, a former Minister of Transportation and Wike’s immediate predecessor as governor of Rivers State, has had a running battle with his successor, with the specific instances of such too numerous to mention in this piece.

That is why in trusting the surfeit of discretion within the Wike political family, this author joins his faith with other well-meaning Nigerians, to urge them to return to the drawing board and restructure their political agenda for the future.

By the way, was it not renowned playwright Professor Ola Rotimi who wrote the play ‘Our husband has gone mad again’?