"PDP! Power To Wike!!"

By Comfort Obi

I have a strong feeling that many members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, must, by now, be hiding their faces in shame. They must be gnashing their teeth in agony. Shaking their heads in lamentation of the weakness and failure of their leaders.

Some people would dismiss their leaders as men without balls. Even cursed. Or jazzed. These are appropriate. For, they are the corners everything that happened in the past many months dumped them to. Hollow human beings. Empty drums. Full of sound and fury. No substance. No power. No guts. Nothing.

I would give an arm to know, exactly, how true and serious members of the PDP, felt on August 21, 2023, the day one of their rogue members was sworn-in as a Federal Minister.

It was the day Nyesom Wike, immediate past Governor of Rivers State, PDP, was sworn-in as the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Abuja, under an All Progressives Congress, APC, Government. Not many people can imagine how Wike, after everything – the scandalous commotion in the PDP, his abuses and insults thrown at the leadership of both the PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC, still came out smelling of roses. Wike had, on a number of times, dismissed APC in the worst possible terms.

According to Wike, he is still a member of the PDP. He is right in the middle of PDP’s throat. He is comfortable there. But hurting its leadership. And hurting the Party which can neither swallow it, nor cough it out. He is spitting on their faces. He is their nemesis. He has always been. Here, an unsolicited advice and/or help from a sympathizer over their predicament: the PDP should consider changing its slogan from “PDP, Power To The People”, to “PDP, Power To Wike!” This would be appropriate. For, indeed, Wike owns the PDP. He is PDP. And PDP is him.

In the year 2003, I named then Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, the most powerful politician in Nigeria. He was not the President then. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was. Yet, to me, Tinubu was the most powerful politician in Nigeria. Not the most popular. Note the difference.

In 1998 or thereabouts, he returned from exile and, literally, snatched the Governorship ticket of the Alliance for Democracy, AD. He became the Governor, and the many scandals which whirled around him then notwithstanding, he survived. All the States in the South-west at the time were AD. Obasanjo, the PDP Presidential Candidate, lost so woefully, he was defeated in his Ward. But he became the President all the same – a President without a taproot at home.

But in 2003, Obasanjo played a cunning game. He reached an agreement with the SW AD Governors. Or so they thought. He told them to wipe the shame off his face and allow him to win their States in the Presidential election. In exchange, he reportedly, told them, he would leave their States alone, meaning he would give them an easy second term in office. They fell for it. They had no plan B. Only Tinubu had. During the Presidential election which was, as usual, held first, Obasanjo swept the South-west States as agreed. Two weeks later, during the Governorship election, Obasanjo pulled the rug from under their feet. Only Tinubu survived. Others ended up as one-term Governors. Till date, those of them alive depend on Tinubu for patronage. They pander to his whims and caprices.

As the only survivor, he not only withstood all the obstacles thrown his way by Obasanjo, but, he gradually rebuilt the AD. He changed the name to AC, and, in the 2012 General Elections, he took back all the SW States from the PDP. Only a Tinubu could do that. He definitely is not, and has never been Nigeria’s most popular Politician. But he remains the most powerful. You ignore him to your detriment.

Tinubu has always been a survivor. When one thinks it’s over for him, he roars back. Think of how he defeated former President Muhammadu Buhari and snatched the APC Presidential ticket. Let the truth be told, Tinubu was not Buhari’s favorite choice. Buhari’s choice was the immediate past Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan.

When former National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, announced, just before the Party’s Presidential Primary, that Lawan had been endorsed by the Party as its Presidential Candidate, it was obvious he was echoing his Master’s voice – Buhari’s. It was that choice that gave birth to Tinubu’s public revolt in Abeokuta. Like a lion, he roared: “Emilokan”, and went on to explain how he made Buhari President. When he picked the ticket, more obstacles were thrown his way – the sudden Naira redesign and the extreme cash crunch. He said he was the target. He overcame. Many believe it is one of the reasons suspended Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, is suffering today. Yet, he only carried out his Master’s (Buhari’s) orders.

But I have since digressed. I was talking about Wike and the “liverless” PDP leadership. So, back to them.

Wike, without any shred of doubt, is the most powerful politician in Nigeria today, well, after Tinubu. He is the most feared, after Tinubu. The way Tinubu has the APC in his pocket is the same way Wike has the PDP in his pocket. Given the benefit of hindsight, even from PDP’s version of the disaster that befell them, no thanks to Wike, he has always had the Party in his pocket.

Check this out. Since after Goodluck Jonathan’s Presidency, Wike has been the “installer” of all the National Chairmen of the PDP. He has, also, been responsible for sacking them – Amodu Sheriff, Uche Secondus, Iyorchia Ayu. When Ayu thought he could play tough with the backing of Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate, Wike gave Ayu a technical knockout. (By the way, where is that guy these days?) And demystified Atiku.

The questions are: How does Wike do it? How did one man destabilize a major Political Party? How did he push everybody under the bus? How did he cause so much havoc and still walks with a swagger, his shoulders high?

Just imagine the number of big men, “juggernauts, men of timber and calibre” in the PDP, yet, Wike crushed them all, almost effortlessly. He promised to show them pepper. And he showed them more than pepper. He promised he would punish them. And he punished them. He flogged them loke a Headmaster of old would flog a heady pupil. He made them look very ordinary. Powerless. Helpless. Hopeless. Everyone of them was there, and Wike, just one man, threw them into the gutter, and marched on them. He buried them, and spat on their graves.

He cost PDP the 2023 Presidency. Until Wike started his destruction of the Party, the 2023 Presidency was PDP’s to lose. From their story, Peter Obi, unarguably, the most popular Politician in Nigeria today, allegedly, quit the PDP because of Wike. Obi was a Presidential aspirant under the PDP. He quit when he found out he had been targeted to be messed up at the Primaries. He quit when he found out the goal post had changed in the middle of the game. He quit when he found out that again, the South-east, was going to be denied of the Presidential ticket by the PDP. Not a few people put that down to Wike’s miscalculation and scheming. Wike, they allege, wanted to pick the ticket, and so, he began early to weave his basket.

He befriended the then Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, and easily made him his core loyalist by extending a lot of patronage to Benue State. He made sure Secondus was removed as the National Chairman of the Party to pave way for his (Wike’s) Presidential ambition. Both are from same State, same zone. Wike wanted, from onset, to avoid the argument he later put forward against Ayu after Atiku Abubakar picked the ticket.

He, according to reports, made sure Ortom was the Chairman of the PDP Presidential Zoning Committee which threw the ticket open. That, it is said, was Wike’s handiwork. He thought he would pick the ticket. He was confident. Over-confident. Which was why, in shock, when he lost it, he hit the roof and his anger rose to high heavens.

But, smart man, he quickly gathered himself together, and went for the Vice Presidential slot. He had earlier said he would never aspire to the office of a Vice President. But as the saying goes, “atall-atall na im bad.”

Dino Melaye has since told recounted how desperate Wike was for that slot. And, when he lost it to his Delta State counterpart, Ifeanyi Okowa, his bitterness was boundless. He decided to throw away the baby with the bath water.

What surprises is how Wike was able to reduce PDP to nothing. How was he able to defeat the party and all its big men and women? He simply used them as a pawn in a political chess board. And they were looking. Did nothing. They could neither expel him, nor suspend him. As they watched as if somebody swore for them, he tied them down with Court judgements. The Courts, surprisingly, forced them to live and sleep with their enemy. When people say Wike succeeded because he had a lot of money to throw about, my answer is: perish the thought. Rivers State does not have more money than Akwa Ibom State. Even if it does, a combination of the treasuries of Akwa Ibom and Delta State, both huge oil producing States like Rivers, would have given Wike a run for his money. He was just more calculating. Courageous. And cold. And fighting spirit

So, they kept quiet and watched one man “pepper all them”. When I think of the big names in the PDP, I am forced to clap for Wike’s guts, temerity, and brazen attitude. And, I ask again: How did he do it?

In Rivers State, when I think of the big names, I marvel at how he subdued all of them, not just in PDP, but in APC. In Rivers, both parties are under him.

Wike saw his predecessor, and immediate past Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, out of the PDP. Now he has, also seen him out of the APC which foundation member Amaechi is, and which leader he was in Rivers State. He subdued Amaechi to the extent that the once powerful Minister has become as quiet as a graveyard. Nobody hears any “pim” from him. Who remembers him? Wike has set a record by being the leader of two major political parties in Rivers State – PDP and APC.

During the 2023 General Elections, Wike did the unprecedented. He gave the APC a controversial victory during the Presidential polls, gave PDP National Assembly members victory in an election that was held same day as the Presidential election, then, he went ahead to install a PDP Governor and PDP House of Assembly Members! Unprecedented. Both parties, in Rivers State, are in his palms.

As a final slap on the face of PDP and the APC founders in Rivers State, Wike, still mouthing membership of PDP, took the Ministerial slot of the State.

What surprises most is the helplessness of the PDP. In the face of all Wike’s insults thrown at the Party and its leadership, they still pander to him. This other day, even when President Bola Tinubu had nominated him a Minister, the PDP, in one shameless decision, nominated Wike a member of the PDP Bayelsa Governorship Election Campaign. This is a man who had, for months, stopped associating with them, cut off all relationships with them, and reduced them to nothing.

Just two days ago, Wike dismissed members of the PDP leadership as “reggae dancers.” He said they permitted him to serve as a Minister under an APC Government. He said he wrote to them. And they permitted him. The question is: When did Wike start consulting PDP?

The icing on the cake for Wike is the FCT Ministerial portfolio given to him. In that position, there is no doubt what Wike will do to the PDP if the Party puts a foot wrong in Abuja. When, in his first media chat after he was sworn in as the FCT Minister, he spoke about demolition of properties, my heart sank for PDP.

The Party needs to make sure its papers, anywhere their offices are located, are correct and that it has paid all the fees. Else…

For PDP, the bad news continues. Your lord and master, your nemesis is in Abuja with your National Leadership. And, until he completely wipes you off the political face of Nigeria, he will not rest – unless a miracle happens. Unfortunately, miracles don’t come easy. The only grace: Hand over the Party to Wike. Change the slogan to “PDP! Power To Wike!!” Even then, he is not likely to keep it alive. He will make it a branch of the APC, a Party he had said was suffering from cancer, stage four, had sworn not to have anything to do with, and mocked his colleagues who earlier defected to it. Politicians! Shameless lot, most of them. Going back to their vomit, no matter how shameful, is nothing to them. After God, fear politicians.