Does Wike really wish PDP well?

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has benefitted immensely from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since its formation in 1998. He became a local government chairman on two terms, a chief of staff to a Rivers governor, a minister and rounding off his two terms as Rivers State governor, all on the platform of the PDP.

By 2023 when his tenure as a governor will elapse, Wike will have been in office, from one political position to the other, for a cumulative period of 24 years. There’s also a possibility of him getting another political position through appointment depending on how he plays his politics before, during and after the 2023 general elections. 

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There are very few politicians in Nigeria as lucky as Wike. Overweening or too much success sometimes makes politicians haughty and arrogant. Wike has remained implacable since he lost the presidential primaries and was not chosen as the vice presidential candidate of the party. His primary focus now is the removal of the national chairman of the party, Sen. Dr Iyorchia Ayu.

If Wike had emerged as the vice presidential candidate of the party, I believe that this call for Ayu’s removal wouldn’t have arisen. Of course, if Wike had emerged as the presidential candidate of the party, Ayu would have been celebrated as the best human being on earth by Wike and his supporters. 

Wike’s call for the position of the national chairman to shift to the South is altruistic and equitable, but the timing is very wrong. The general election is four months away; what impact would a southern national chairman make to the fortune of the PDP in these few months? 

If Wike had any issue with his loss of the primaries, it should have been with Tambuwal who made a deft political move at the eleventh hour which made Wike lose the primaries; it shouldn’t be with Ayu.  

From all indications, Wike’s insistence on Ayu’s removal and emplacement of a southerner implies that he does not wish the party success at the general election. It does appear that Wike is already planning a post-2023 general election, otherwise, how does he expect to control the party with Atiku as a sitting president of Nigeria if PDP wins?  

Political deductions from the current impasse in the party is that Wike does not wish the party well. He does not want Atiku/ Okowa to win the presidency so that he can control the party post-2023.  

But, can PDP survive another eight years in opposition? If Atiku could defeat Wike as a sitting governor on two occasions, that is, the primaries of 2018 and 2022, he will also defeat him when he becomes a former governor as long as the control of the party is concerned. With Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC as the president of Nigeria, it will be a requiem for the PDP.  

If Wike wishes the PDP to survive, he should soft-pedal on his call for Ayu’s removal. The position of the national chairman should shift to the South when Atiku assumes the presidency. That was the situation during late President Yar’Adua’s tenure. Everything must be done to ensure that the APC does not elongate its stay beyond 2023. 

Ifeanyi Maduako, wrote from Owerri via [email protected]