By the twenty ninth of Could, 2023, for the primary time in ages, the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesome Wike will get a chance to introspect deeply on his roles, involvements, and actions through the previous seven years as Rivers State Governor. For the primary time since democracy returned in 1999, Wike appears possible to not be on the payroll of any authorities. It positive guarantees to be a defining second.
The maverick Governor of Rivers State who has managed to place his title on everybody’s lips is a poisonous affect on Nigerian politics. Like just about all narcissists, he thrives on applause and adulation from reward singers and sycophants. His outsized presence in Nigerian politics is fuelled by the oxygen of publicity he continuously receives from the media even for his most childish behaviour.
However once more, Wike’s political noise didn’t begin with him. There was already a longtime sample that he solely amplified and messed himself up with. Each Governor that has ever ruled the oil-rich Rivers State has one or two options that have been seen in Wike.
From Peter Odili to Rotimi Amaechi after which Wike, each two-term Governor of Rivers State had since 1999 squandered Rivers State cash, sponsoring wasteful presidential bids both for themselves or for another person which was supposed to profit them later. None of those pricey bids yielded any return on funding to on a regular basis Riverians aside from to make pointless factors.
The brazen, crude, and stupendous expenditure of state sources that all the time characterised the referenced mad pursuit of energy within the state was what Wike inherited and he made each effort to take it to the following stage.
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In 2007, Peter Odili was useless positive he was going to be President after the then-President Olusegun Obasanjo, who didn’t even discover him worthy to be Vice President when he finally settled for the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. For Chibuike Amaechi, a promise of the 2023 Presidency was all he wanted to open up the purse of Rivers State to fund President Buhari’s electioneering marketing campaign in 2015. The remaining is historical past.
Within the case of Wike, he wasn’t even prepared to complete a single tenure earlier than his plotting started. Way back to August 2018, he went cap in hand, begging Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal to come back be a part of the PDP to run for President. Wike’s plan was to run as Tambuwal’s operating mate, get to Aso Rock and finally run for President. That plot by no means noticed the sunshine of the day.
Barely 4 years later, the identical Tawmbuwal to whom Wike donated a leg and an arm was the bullet that destroyed Wike’s Presidential desires when he sought to turn out to be the celebration’s flagbearer himself when he appeared on the poll. After spending billions of taxpayers’ cash on a fruitless train, Wike returned to Porthacourt badly crushed.
The reality is that these monies may have been introduced into the service of on a regular basis Riverians on whose behalf these males obtained the authority to handle state sources.
Blinded by ambition and cheered on by a retinue of charlatans, all of those Rivers State sons, with out fail, selected to behave on their vainglorious impulses. The opinions of others by no means mattered as a result of their egocentric private ambitions have been concerned.
What many Nigerians typically fail to understand or typically are inclined to neglect is that River State’s consolidated income for any given fiscal yr may fund the annual budgets of about ten African international locations put collectively.
River State, with its oil cash, must be competing with Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and even Qatar. However no, it has been with emotionally needy and infrequently erratic political management.
It’s unhappy that Riverians whose sources are being mindlessly squandered have chosen to stay aloof to, or in some circumstances endorse, this close to madness of their elected leaders. It stays to be seen if they’ve been hypnotised or underneath some affect.
It’s the honest hope of many who Wike will mark the top of the insanity. It is not uncommon information that males hardly study from historical past. So the following two-term Governor of River State is nearly duty-bound to proceed the wasteful circus. Who is aware of? He may even be louder and extra brazen than Amaechi and Wike put collectively.
The final days of Wike appear set to be the worst amongst all the boys who’ve occupied the Rivers State Authorities Home. After this week’s presidential election, regardless of the consequence, and after he leaves workplace as Governor on Could 29 and now not controls the sources of Rivers State, Wike appears nearly sure to fade into political irrelevance and finally find yourself within the ‘dustbin of historical past’ quickest.
Amongst all of the Governors within the pack, he was probably the most cowardly and probably the most irrational. He made too many enemies and relatively than construct bridges of friendship centered on constructing pointless flyovers in Porthacourt. After insulting and lambasting the APC for seven years, it was surprising to come back to the realisation that it was the celebration that finally received Wike’s almighty help.
Regardless of being armed with the information that Tinubu’s candidacy was indefensible on grounds of fairness, justice, and equity, he turned out the very best on Wike’s playing cards. Not even his exclusionist Muslim-Muslim ticket coupled with the ethnic and non secular tensions his presidency would engender, not to mention point out his acute character and integrity deficits have been sufficient to power Wike and his group to rethink.
Regardless of spending Donkey years in politics and within the eye of the general public, Wike failed to understand that public life is simply too necessary to be the property of narcissists, of self-aggrandising megalomaniacs, who see all the things by means of the prism of self-promotion and relatively than make amends or retrace his steps, selected to push tougher.
The impact is that as we speak, Wike has burnt all accessible bridges. He has insulted the North away. He has fallen out with many individuals from his area and present assaults on Peter Obi and his supporters are additional alienating him from his Igbo neighbours whose backs he’ll want someway tomorrow.
In conclusion, the individuals of Rivers State should come to the realisation that solely they’ll cease the insanity. They have to get up from their slumber and cease permitting jokers to come back into energy. Hopefully, the insanity will finish with the garrulous Wike.
