Nyesom Wike: The Dance of a Man
By Onjefu Okidu
Millions across Nigeria get palpably entertained virtually every day by the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike.
His project commissioning-based methodical dance steps cutting through the treacherous Nigerian political pathways speak so much to the present predicaments of the nation.
Much more than that, the sound of his astute live band with its sprawling, rich jibe tunes associated with project completion has constantly brought him forth as an enormously courageous man who has all it takes to pull the nation through the predicaments.
Undoubtedly, the 57-year-old FCT Minister has made history as the most courageous man in modern Nigerian politics. His relentless focus on official performance, justice, fairness, and equity in recent times therefore deserves some kind attention.
As the late American congressman, John Lewis had put it, “you can’t love getting into good trouble, necessary trouble to bring progress, equity and fairness to a people and not be celebrated loudly.”
All people of good conscience would agree that the man’s excellently organized vocal intra-PDP protest via the famous G-5 has contributed immensely to securing the unity of Nigeria after the 2023 elections.
Not minding partisan media hacks such as Arise TV, most fair minds savor the fact that the fragile Nigerian unity would have been shattered if a Northerner had taken the mantle of presidential leadership from another Northerner after the 2023 elections.
Furthermore, in a clear show of capping the unity of the nation, his sprawling methodical dance steps across the landscape of the FCT since assumption of office has put paid to the bragging of northerners who had laid claims to the FCT since the tenure of the late Lagos dude, Mobolaji Ajose-Adeogun who served from 1976 to 1979, thereby, cementing the oneness of the Nigerian people.
In fact, in breaking the 45-year-jinx, President Tinubu seemed to have considered Wike’s past dance moves that had the potential of bringing unity to the diverse people of the country.
His penetrating sight of fairness into the fragile Nigerian state has continued to encourage Wike’s live band to put up constant unification performances.
Even though Wike has been an important unification voice and sight in the ear and eye of every Nigerian, stabilizing the polity and the nation, pathological haters have shifted the conversation to how his obsessive urge to continue to govern Rivers by proxy has left the state in fiasco.
To use the analogy of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the case of Fubara and Wike in the Rivers leadership crisis “is like the case of two armed robbers that conspired to loot a house, and after bringing out the loot the issue of fair play among them has become an issue. The two robbers must be condemned.”
But, all along, Wike has been consistently condemned while Fubara has been puritanically absolved and eulogized. The fact of the matter is that Fubara should be thrown into a universal garbage can of traitors for accepting Wike’s Greek Gift.
After all, as Wike has always asserted, “agreement is agreement.” The same applies to political investment, return, and structure. As Les Brown has succinctly put it, “life is a struggle for territory.”
Although Wike is still a member of the PDP, his implied assessment of the party aligns with the general impression of the party that since the chairmanship of Chief Audu Ogbeh, the party has lost its way, and its bearing, and is starkly in tatters.
And so those who have continued to argue for the declaration of the 27 Rivers State Assembly members’ seats vacant have no iota of fear of God. The activities of the G5 and the party’s leadership tussle at the national level have been very visible.
Read Also:
Even the Rivers State branch has been balkanized, and groaning. How else would a party be in crisis to warrant decamping of its members? The truth is that some feel that the Assembly members are Wike’s supporters, and so should be thrown away with the bath water.
One thing is very clear, Wike’s authenticity has made him very vulnerable. Hence, he has been intensely misjudged, misunderstood, vilified and denigrated.
Accordingly, his adversaries have repeatedly engaged in disrespectful and demanding communications. And so, you hear comments like Wike is a proud, loud, wide, and big-mouthed individual.
For example, live in July, Reuben Abatti of Arise TV, sarcastically pointed out, “you know Wike likes to talk,” reflecting himself in every way as a former presidential media Adviser and media power abuser who has contributed immensely to the present Nigerian predicaments.
Invariably, the national hatred of Wike by unfair media power abusers like Reuben Abatti is worsening, but the sound of his dance steps, and live band has continued to overshadow the hate noise.
It is a stark reminder that those who are out to destroy the country are neither authentic nor want anybody to be their true self. Virtually the entire Nigerian bigots have joined Wike’s gas-lighting bandwagon created by some abusive Nigerian mass media, especially Arise TV.
Even when he is visibly seen righting past wrongs like completing abandoned projects, the nation’s destroyers must find a negative angle to such positive acts. They are neither forgetting nor forgiving for perceived political undoing and personal axes. They don’t see anything good in anybody except themselves.
But, that has not deterred the man from putting up his incredible dance steps of national unity. His continuous open and honest conversations on national equity and fairness have continued to prompt God to grant him political leeway.
Unlike many Nigerians, Wike says his mind, and what he feels on any given issue not minding whose ox is kicked, and the good thing is, God has also given him the capacity to actualize what he feels is right for the nation.
For the decent, honest, and sincere mind, Wike has been very authentic, fermenting some good troubles as well as making some good music of unity. Many Nigerians don’t know him, some just had a glimpse of him on TV.
Yet, typical of Nigerians, they have decided to ignorantly hang on to his hate bandwagon so much so that their mental conditioning has driven them to the universal garbage can of emptiness without them even knowing.
Any Nigerian with a public profile like Wike has a profound duty to protect Nigerian unity as Wike who has never spent any minute without being his true self.
As Jeremy Miles has rightly pointed out, “any minute you spend being someone that you are not is a minute you have lost being the person that you can be.”
In truth, the media have depersonalized many Nigerians to the extent that they genuinely believe that Wike is a rabble-rouser – very cheap blackmail of the man. When they are dried of what to say, they would preoccupy themselves describing Wike’s expensive whisky.
While Wike hasn’t had the easiest political life path, he has managed to overcome many obstacles again and again through being his true self.
In his true being, there is a lot he has been able to process, contend, and contain. His carryover of the dance to a live band from Port Harcourt to Abuja is clear evidence of the potency of his manhood.
As Frank Sinatra has musically educated, ‘for what is a man, what has he got if not himself to say the things he truly feels.” The records show, that Ezenwo Nyesom Wike has been taking killer blows since his LG chairmanship days but to these days he has grown tall through it all.
He has continued to do things in his own creative and innovative ways to help fix some of the Nigerian predicaments. He is a man, and has continued to address Nigeria’s downward trajectory with the dance of a man!
Dr Okidu writes from Ilorin.
He can be reached through:
E-mail – [email protected]
Phone – +2348036636139
