Wike And The Illusion Of Power And Bilocation -By Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

Nyesom Wike the erstwhile governor of Rivers State and the current FCT Minister is always in the news and most times for the wrong reasons. His braggadocio style and his apparent domineering tendencies always tend to make him be in constant confrontation with others. I have written a number of published essays on Wike and his actions like: Wike, Officer Yerima and the Show of Power, Nyesom Wike and the Alleged Corruption, Atiku, Wike and his Implacable Team, Between Wike’s Self-Delusion and Atiku’s Legacies, Atiku and Wike’s Strategic Peace Initiative, Wike and His Game of Self-Destruction, Still on Wike and the Act of Misplaced Aggression, Wike and the Exegesis of PDP Crisis, Wike and the Destructive Godfather Politics. In most of these articles I tried to analyze Wike’s political behavior which tends to brew crisis in his party, his state and in the country and I have always predicted that his aggressive and selfish tendencies may lead to his political self-destruction. And everything seems to be playing out with the situation in Rivers State now.

People like Wike who seems not to have any job other politics are usually short-sighted and desperate to hang on to power at all costs. And because of these, they throw their weight around, trying to intimidate others and bulldoze their way through in order to remain relevant. To them politics is a zero-sum game and winning must be by any means necessary. In their desperation, they usually forget that power is transient and what goes around comes around. They forget to learn the lessons of history. And while they betray, intimidate and suppress others, they grovel at the foot of powers that be for the crumbs that fell from their master.

Unarguably, Wike has established himself as the most controversial and desperate politician in Nigeria today. A registered member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) since 1999. He rose through the ranks becoming local government chairman, chief of staff in Rivers State, minister, governor of Rivers State. And for selfish reasons, he chose to work against the party that made him. While he was in the party destabilizing the party, creating obstacles and divisions, he was working for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) where he accepted to serve as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. When the PDP got tired of his anti-party activities, they expelled Wike and his group.

Wike is not content with being the minister of the FCT, he also wants to govern his home state, Rivers, by proxy by dictating to the incumbent governor Siminalayi Fubara. The altercation led to Tinubu, who has been desirous of having a firm control of the oil-rich state, to intervene obtrusively by suspending the elected governor for six months and appointing an interim administrator in the person of Vice-Admiral Ibok Etteh. And upon his recall, the governor defected to the APC, something that Tinubu wanted, thereby becoming the leader of the party in Rivers State. The move startled Wike who had one leg in PDP and another in APC before then. Having been expelled in PDP and Fubara having taking over in APC, Wike is like a displaced person without a base, his illusion of bilocation and power seems disappeared. Wike is obviously in a dilemma situation caused by greed and selfish ambition. He is like what Ndigbo would liken as corpse that is not properly mourned that is hovering between the land of the dead and the living.

It is said that he had made moves to drift to the APC but was rejected. There was a protest in Abuja last week and in Rivers State against his admittance into the party. That is always the case, when you betray others, even those whom you worked for will not trust you. Wike has destroyed the PDP for the APC but those in APC that he worked did not trust him. Of course, nobody would tolerate Wike’s cantankerous and aggressive attitude that will be a threat to peace, unity and cohesion in the party.

There is a twist now. The obviously dissatisfied and frustrated Wike is said to be threatening fire and brimstone. He is alleged to have threaten the ruling party, threatening implosion, threatening to reveal the real winner of the 2023 Presidential election. And now, on the 8th of January 2026, the Rivers State House of Assembly led by Wike’s political ally is said to have begun an impeachment proceedings on Governor Fubara on the orders of Wike for violating the pact they entered into before his recall from suspension. In the said agreement, It is alleged that the embattled governor was given impossible conditions to work which has been rendered invalid by his move to the ruling APC and hence the reasons for Wike’s fury. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Tinubu has ordered the Rivers State House of Assembly to drop the impeachment move.

The last is yet to be heard of this saga. Is Wike political relevance coming to an end? Wike should learn that nobody is capable of quantum superposition. But whether Tinubu and Wike a playing games with us by pretending to have a rift, only time will tell.

Hajia Hadiza Mohammed
hajiahadizamohammed@gmail.com
An actress, social activist, politician
London, UK