The Wike-APC tango

The love that once existed between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) appears to be over. What is brewing at moment between them is distrust and antipathy. Each is disgusted with the other. While APC is mobilizing the lynch mob against Wike, the minister is, in turn, mocking his APC traducers for their naivety; for not rising to the occasion early enough.

The bone of contention is the strangeness that defines Wike’s politics. This man is a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yet he is the bold face of the APC-led Federal Government. It has been so since the advent of the Bola Tinubu Presidency. Strange as the situation is, the APC has, all the while, been enjoying whatever that Wike represents. But it has woken up, after more than three years, to realize that it is harbouring a protean personality.

Everything about the Wike-APC romance that has gone sour borders on strangeness. It all began when Wike was still serving as the governor of Rivers State on the platform of PDP. As PDP governor, Wike defied his party’s presidential candidate and, instead, supported the candidate of the rival APC. Somehow, the candidate that Wike backed and worked for emerged as President. Wike was handsomely rewarded with a juicy ministerial position. He has been savouring the perquisites of that office since then. That is Wike’s Original Sin in politics.

But it was strange, however, that the PDP, the party that made Wike, fought shy. It could not confront the oddity that the Wike arrangement represented. While Wike was bestriding the two possible worlds like a colossus, watchers of the Nigerian polity thought that PDP would invoke the anti-party clause in its constitution against Wike. But it could not. The party was livid. It could not confront Wike and his effrontery. It looked on morosely as Wike inflicted incalculable damage on it. For the first time in the history of political party organisation in Nigeria, a political party could not deal with or rein in its erring member. Because the PDP leadership allowed that strangeness to fester, Wike ended up seizing the full levers of the party, leaving those who were initially up in arms against him stranded. In the end, Wike hounded everyone that was opposed to him out of PDP. He now owns the party whole and entire.

But to what end? That is the dilemma that APC, the party that has benefited from Wike’s transgression, faces. Wike has worked very well for APC. He has given President Tinubu the support that none of the President’s party members could boast of. Yet, he did not join the President’s party. Why was it so? Why was Wike not enthusiastic about becoming an APC member even when he was reaping bountifully from the spoils of the party? Apparently, APC stalwarts who benefited from the strange Wike order did not raise objections because it suited them. But now, things are changing. The strange happenings that were conveniently glossed over are now being repudiated and questioned. This is manifesting in the brewing cold war between Wike and some elements in the APC.

If Wike’s deviancy stupefied PDP, you could say that his political deftness has left APC gaping. For some three years, Wike has been luxuriating in APC’s courtyard. He has been the most vocal in the party’s affairs. He has conducted himself in ways and manners that suggested that he was more APC than any of its card-carrying members. Yet, despite Wike’s celebrated romance with APC, he never joined the party. Strangely, nobody asked the pertinent question. Why does Wike love APC so much and yet detest being enrolled into the party’s membership register? Now, the cat has been let out of the bag. Wike has said in clear terms that he has no special attachment to APC. His interest, instead, lies in his support for President Tinubu. While he keeps insisting that he would support Tinubu’s re-election plan, he has planted PDP candidates for other elective positions across the states. Wike and his supporters call this Rainbow Coalition.

But APC, represented by its governors, finds this arrangement revolting. There has been nothing like it before in Nigerian politics. Politicians who support candidates that are not of the same political party with them do it discreetly. Those who get caught face consequences bordering on suspension to outright expulsion. But Wike is playing that strange game and is doing so with a bold face. He shouts it from the rooftops. This is his point of departure with APC. The party is crying why. Yet, it cannot go beyond shouts of disapproval. The President, who appointed Wike into his cabinet, is silent. He is looking the other way while his appointee and governors of his party tear themselves into shreds.

The President’s devil-may-care disposition to the growing antipathy between Wike and APC governors is as confusing as it is suspicious. Who, between the warring sides, does the President have sympathy for? It is not easy to pigeonhole this issue. But those who are interested in hazarding a guess will say that the President is trying to play safe. He may not like the Wike arrangement, but he appears too incapacitated to tackle it. If he does not tread cautiously, it could bring about a crack in his relationship with the minister he appointed. The President seems to believe that his success in Rivers State in the 2027 presidential election will depend so much on Wike’s support. He is afraid that he would lose woefully in the state, if Wike withdraws his support for him. This is one side of the coin.

The other side is that the President is tacitly supporting APC governors’ rejection of Wike’s rainbow coalition. He may have seen the sense in their anti-Wike campaign. That is why he is doing nothing to stop them. The President is obviously in a dilemma. He is caught between Wike’s self-serving politics and the governors’ rejection of one man’s dictatorship. But silence, the destructive type that the President is engaging in, will neither serve his interest nor that of the APC. The controversy is raging and could hurt the electoral fortunes of the APC, if it is not properly managed.

But will Wike, in the face of the ongoing storm, work for Tinubu’s victory in Rivers State? That is doubtful. Wike, from the look of things, can read the writing on the wall. His support for Tinubu’s second term bid will not earn him anything if Tinubu wins. Neither the APC nor Tinubu will feel comfortable around Wike any longer. Therefore, no matter what Wike does to secure Tinubu a second term, he is not likely going to be recognized by the President once the election is won and lost. The goodwill that Wike is enjoying from the Tinubu presidency is over. Of what use then will it be for Wike to throw his weight behind an arrangement that will shun him like a plague thereafter? That is the question that Wike must be pondering over.