Wike: The Underated Bulldozer who may Shock Atiku Tonight
By Mahmud Abdulsalam
POLITICS DIGEST- Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has a reputation perhaps only him is endowed with – and that is the fact he is a no-nonsense politician.
The assertive Wike brooks no opposition to his fiery and magesterial authority, even as he minces no word in his assertions.
Ever since it became the main opposition, no thanks to the epic defeat it suffered in the 2015 general election, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has find in the Rivers State Governor a voice so ‘powerful’ to be silenced.
Through the instrumentality of his caustic tongue, Wike, on several occasions harangued the Federal Government over some national issues and perceived ‘meddlesomeness’ in matters affecting Rivers.
Unfortunately, the swashbuckling Chief Executive Officer of Rivers State is also not ‘taking it easy and likely’ with political heavyweights in the PDP. He appears to be cutting them to sizes, or so it appears.
In recent times, many influential leaders of the PDP have been demystified by the Wike Tsunami, whose ferociousness appears to be ravaging.
Sometime in 2017, the Rivers State Governor, single-handedly ‘foisted’ …. as National Chairman of the main opposition. But Wike and … will soon part ways four years later.
Buoyed by his overwhelming influence on PDP, the Rivers Governor single-handedly influenced the erstwhile Chairman’s ousting from office, in October 2021.
Wike may find it difficult to spur the Edo Assembly lawmakers to impeach Governor Godwin Obaseki. But he has more than anything ‘rubbished’ Obaseki and the Edo Governorship office. Before shunning Obaseki when he visited Edo State recently for his presidential campaign, Wike had in a video blasted the Edo State Governor, who tagged him a political bully.
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Alh. Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President of Nigeria, is another bigwig of the PDP Wike appears to be cutting to size. Just recently a candidate supported by the Rivers Governor against all odds defeated Sen. Dino Melaye in the PDP Senatorial primaries for Kogi West.
Melaye, who has been vocal in preaching the gospel of the Atiku Presidency in 2023, lost his bid to return to the Senate, after losing to Hon. Tajudeen Yusuf, a three-term Reps members, whose senatorial ambition was allegedly bankrolled by Wike.
It is not in Kogi only that Wike appears to have mauled Atiku. There is Benue and Oyo State, whose Governors, Samuel Ortom and Seyi Makinde, have since pledged their support to the Wike 2023 Presidential project.
In fact, it was in Ortom’s Benue that the Rivers helmsman declared his presidential ambition. Makinde, on the other hand, recently reiterated his support for Wike in the 2023 presidency race, when he accompanied the Rivers Governor on a consultation visit to former Presidential Olusegun Obasanjo, at his Otta Farm, in Abeokuta.
Having captured the Rivers PDP structure for a long time, Wike is extending his frontiers to other States. Loyalists of the Rivers Governor, Politics Digest learnt, were responsible for the defection of Peter Obi, a former Anambra Governor, from the PDP to the Labour Party recently.
At the moment, they have successfully frustrated the Senatorial ambition of PDP’s gubernatorial candidate in last year’s Anambra governorship election, and other notable politicians of the main opposition, in the Southeast State.
Wike’s warning that the PDP should not hand over its presidential ticket to Internally Displaced Politicians, IDPs, who left the party at some points and have returned to pursue their individual political aspirations is one that has sunk with some delegates.
But the de facto Lord of the Manor in the PDP will need more than rhetorics to defeat Atiku, his colleague Governors Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and Bala Mohammed, together with former Senate President Bukola Saraki, in the Party’s presidential convention holding in Abuja today.
Indeed, only by failing to emerge as PDP’s presidential candidate will the Rivers Governor agree and believe that his valiant attitude, and political braggadocio have been demystified.
