Of PDP’s convention,Wike and Port Harcourt venue

OPPOSITION by former governor of Rivers State and current minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, to Nyesom Wike succeeding him as governor of the oil-rich state, reflectively, is explicable. If all had been well between him and former President Goodluck Jonathan and he had remained in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, I can bet my life that Amaechi would not have allowed Wike to pick the party’s governorship nomination ticket, let alone win the governorship election. As a result of his smoldering disagreement with Jonathan, Amaechi had left the party for the All Progressives Congress, APC, where he played a leading role in the general election that upstaged the applecart of Jonathan’s presidency. But Wike made his way to the leadership of the PDP in the state and took over the entire structure, using his politically-correct relationship with Jonathan and his wife, Patience, an indigene of the state, for a gambit that paid off.

No sooner had his election received the validation by the apex court than Wike manifested his manner of speaking that sometimes portrays him as arrogant and unsophisticated.  I have, in my solitary moments, whenever I consider the PDP trajectory since 1999, wondered how star-crossed the party has been. Reminiscing on the politics of Rivers from 1999, I have also wondered why etiquette in governance, especially in pronouncements by successive Rivers governors, has been on the decline.  Governor Peter Odili was evidently an exemplar in elegant communication, charismatic poise and consistent gravitas.

Wike should remember the Igbo proverb that those whose palm kernels had been cracked for them by the benevolent spirit should learn to be humble. With a chequered political odyssey that, perhaps, began with his chairmanship of the very rich Obio/Okpor Local Government, it is unfortunate that from the majesty of his Rivers governorship position, he now talks magisterially to the party and its leadership apparatchiks. Much as he has the right to speak, he should have been decorous and allowed mutual respect to preponderate such interface. His recent and widely publicised threat to destroy the PDP if the presidential primary election, earlier fixed to hold in Port Harcourt, was shifted, smacks of sheer political intimidation and brinkmanship. His reason of economic benefits derivable by Rivers would initially appear convincing when one considers the principle of quid pro quo in his heavy funding of the party, but his retort was crude.

For God’s sake, must Wike threaten to bring down the roof of the party on top of everybody just because some presidential aspirants were pushing for a change of Port Harcourt as venue of a presidential primary election in which he is not a participant? That raises the genuine concern that, beyond what Rivers State stands to gain economically, that there is more to his outburst and incendiary statements than meets the eye. Although he had reportedly apologised to the party at its last National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting that ratified Port Harcourt as the venue, he had already unraveled as a potential bull in the China shop. In fact, the rumour doing the rounds is that Wike is interested in the emergence of one of the presidential aspirants as the candidate of the party.  He is said to be supporting and promoting the aspiration of former speaker and governor of Sokoto state, Aminu Tambuwwal. Having installed Prince Uche Secondus as national chairman, he may wish to anoint the presidential candidate of the party.

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Certainly, it is not too difficult to understand how the PDP came to this sorry pass of having some minds playing the Alpha and the Omega in its affairs. In any case, had the former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, smartly run his government and managed the party well, it is doubtful if Wike and his team would be in a position today to impose their diktats on the party. The party has yet to recover from the scheme that produced Secondus as national chairman at the expense of aspirants like the politically sagacious Chief Bode George and intellectually-grounded Professor Tunde Adeniran from the South-West zone. He had his way and his sense of hubris has since been evident.  I guess that northern leaders of the PDP decided to watch Wike run rings round the South-West and the South-East on the issue since it was a southern affair.

But now that it is about the presidential slot ceded to the North, the much more strategic North is standing up to Wike. Wike has the right to complain but the party leaders in the North should be single-minded enough to decide on what is right and in the interest of the party. Even if the primary election is held within the Rivers Government House or in the governor’s bedroom, the North can be trusted not to allow an outsider to impose his will on the region.  It is expected that the northern leaders, both in and outside the PDP, would do the needful in the circumstance to shift attention to an alternative that enjoys more acceptability in the North.

• Ojeifo, an Abuja-based journalist, writes in via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com

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