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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the one-time ruling party in Nigeria, appears to be under the spell of a Nyesom Wike. The party always looks powerless and castrated in any matter in which Wike is involved. Why is it so?
Why is a renegade member of a political party who should be given the hammer prancing about with arrogant swagger? What is incapacitating the party? Is there anything about its leadership that always makes it grovel before Wike? These questions will continue to pour in in torrents until we find the answer to the Wike menace in PDP.
As we strive to get a hang on this matter, concerned Nigerians are no longer certain that the party still has a leadership. The obvious leadership vacuum that the party suffers came to the fore in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election. The then national chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, a northerner, under normal circumstances, was supposed to step down for someone from the South of the country, given the fact that he is from the same region with Atiku Abubakar, who was then the party’s presidential candidate. In Nigeria’s Fourth Republic politics, it is incongruous for both the national chairman and presidential candidate of a political party to come from the same region. Faced with this anomalous situation, Ayu was prevailed upon to step down for a southerner, but he remained adamant. In the absence of a leadership that could enforce the preferred position of the party, Ayu held on to his office in defiance of the popular position of most party faithful. It was after the party lost the presidential election that Ayu sneaked out of office, pretending to have done so in deference to a court order that asked him to vacate his office.
But the party’s inability to get Ayu to do its bidding was just a tip of the iceberg. The real thorn in the party’s flesh is the Nyesom Wike factor. As governor of Rivers State, Wike was known to be anything but humble. He was often reckless in speech and in action. Not many people knew what drove him into spasmodic actions. It was largely believed in closed circles that Wike’s power lay in the volume of cash he controlled. As governor, Wike was believed to be generous with funds. He was said to have constantly deployed the weight of cash to dismantle any opposition to whatever he stood for.
Whereas Wike’s growing influence within political circles cannot be discountenanced, little did anybody imagine that PDP, once the ruling party and now the major opposition party in the country, could end up in Wike’s hands as a toy. Were party discipline to be an issue within the PDP, Wike would have been booted out of the party long before now.
It all began with Wike’s failure to clinch the presidential ticket of the party at the primary. Having failed to secure the ticket, Wike went into wheeling and dealing. He got the zoning committee of the party chaired by the then governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, to endorse him as the vice presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 presidential election. But the plot failed. Atiku was not persuaded by the underhand tactic. He chose his running mate without allowing the interlopers within the party to influence him. Atiku did not choose Wike, and that set the stage for the staccato dance that Wike engaged in. Having failed to emerge as PDP’s vice presidential candidate, Wike went on a de-marketing binge. He dressed the PDP for the slab and slaughtered it in the full glare of the watching world. He did not just present the party in bad light, he defied everything it stood for. Wike’s utterances and actions were poisonous enough to earn him suspension or expulsion from the party. But he did not get even a reprimand from the leadership of the party. They watched him with astonishing dumbness. The party did not invoke the provision of its constitution that borders on anti-party activities. The leadership simply moped while Wike raged with venom.
Wike’s defiance of everything PDP stood for came to a head when he openly worked against the party in the February 25 presidential election. Wike helped to rig the election in Rivers State in favour of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Wike made no secret of it. He did it and stood by it. He even went ahead to mock the PDP for losing the election. In all of this, nothing happened to Wike. The leadership of the PDP continued to watch him morosely.
Now Wike has taken up appointment with Tinubu’s government. Meanwhile, his party, the PDP, is in court, contesting the election result that returned Tinubu as winner. But if you thought Wike will quietly resign from the PDP since the party is unable to expel him, you got it all wrong. Wike is working with an APC administration and at the same time dictating from there what should or should not happen in PDP.
A few days ago, Wike joined issues with the Acting chairman of PDP’s Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara. Wabara had asked the party’s national secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, to resign , citing certain provisions of the party’s constitution. Wabara’s argument was that it was wrong for Anyanwu who holds the party’s gubernatorial ticket for the November 11 election in Imo State to also continue to serve as the party’s national secretary. Our concern here is not the merit or otherwise of Wabara’s argument. It is up to the leadership of the party, if there is still any, to delve into the matter and resolve it in the best interest of the party.
So far, no PDP member has taken a position on this matter. Rather, it is a Nyesom Wike, an outsider, who has challenged Wabara’s authority to make such a declaration. When Wike interjected, my expectation was that a person of substance within the PDP would shut him up. But no one has said anything. Instead, Wike has seized the stage, dictating to PDP who should speak on this matter and what must be done if Anyanwu should step down. I even thought that Wike’s shot at Wabara was an opportunity to tell Wike where he belongs. But that did not happen. Wabara dodged the Wike missile but did not throw any in return. He fought shy. One is then constrained to ask: Is the leadership of the PDP afraid of Wike or is it driven by considerations that we do not know about? Someone within the power bracket of the PDP needs to clear the air on the Wike factor. It is getting more nauseating by the day.
