There’s some method to Wike’s ‘madness’

Gruff, a voice so husky, raspy and hoarse you could slice it with a knife, brusque mannerisms, beastly politicking, perpetually mired in controversy, and sartorial choices that border on the gaudy and garish.

Yet Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has dominated Rivers and national politics discourse for the better part of two decades now. He prowls the land like he owns the damn place. And just maybe he does.

These days, he even summons the leading television networks in the land to his office in the federal capital every other month, lectures them on their jobs, while lobbing invectives at his political foes or whoever catches his fancy — on prime time TV no less. Minutes later, the rest of the press and social media are falling over themselves to debate what Wike said or didn’t say. He trends when he wants. He’s good for television, radio and clicks. He’s like a wrecking ball.

Let’s admit it: Wike now has us all eating from his palms. We have all been Wiked. This is Wike’s world and we are all now simply living in it. We are just so embarrassed to admit it. And that’s okay.

Circa 2018, I sat across from Wike in Port Harcourt during his first term as governor of Rivers state. It was dinner time inside Government House and I was one of a handful of journalists invited from Lagos to assess firsthand what Wike was up to in the creeks. He came across as genially unsophisticated, brusque and affable all at once. Hindsight says that is all part of the man’s choreographed, deceptive mien. He dug into his meal of pounded yam and vegetable soup voraciously and devoured his chunks of meat to the last bones. He spoke eagerly between mouthfuls and characteristically made jokes about my governor and the Lagos governor, while dissing his political foes. On the bus tour across Rivers, residents were falling over themselves to catch a glimpse of their governor. They cheered as he waved during the brief road inspection walks, and sang his name to the rafters.

And maybe this is what makes Wike tick. This is Brand Wike. He knows what he’s doing.

Love or loathe him, you would grudgingly concede that he is a people’s man. His politics may be crude, but he looks in touch with the grassroots. Which may just be why that famed “political structure” in Rivers is still his to command and deploy. Which is why he made life difficult for a sitting governor who wasn’t doing his bidding. Which is why the Rivers assembly still hangs on his every word and kowtows to “Mr Projects” like the vassals they have become. Which is why some members of his family have been accused of land grabbing and illicit deals in the nation’s capital. Which is why he still allegedly has the judiciary in Rivers and elsewhere in his back pocket. Which is why the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has become a footnote in yet another general election. Which also explains why he has sung and danced his way to Abuja after “delivering Rivers” to the APC and Tinubu in 2023, while promising to repeat the feat in 2027.

He’s practically won most of his battles. He handed Rotimi Amaechi a bloody nose in the politics of Rivers, played a part in Godwin Obaseki not producing a successor in Edo, and fought Atiku Abubakar, Seyi Makinde, Bala Mohammed and PDP chieftains to a standstill. Governor Siminalayi Fubara is still licking his wounds. Dele Momodu wouldn’t go into the ring with the man any longer because he’s become battle weary. They all have Wike scars imprinted on their minds.

Wike’s ‘Rainbow Coalition’ has expectedly not been welcomed by Hope Uzodimma and his co-travellers in the so-called ‘Progressive Governors’ Forum’, but they would eventually come around and sing from his hymn sheet, because Wike is President Bola Tinubu’s handyman and lynchpin in the south-south and FCT. For this politics is actually Wike’s bread and butter, warts and all. He was born to play politics. And in Tinubu, Wike sees his own brazen reflection. It’s a marriage made in heaven for both men who are adept at bending the electorate to their capricious will.

There’s an alternate universe post-2027, in which Tinubu decides to cut Wike loose after deeming him no longer useful or fit for purpose. In that hypothetical world, Wike is axed from the federal cabinet, returns to the PDP, from where he tries to relaunch his political career from the streets of Rivers and the rest of the south-south… and gives the APC hell in future polls. But crystal balls have ceased becoming a thing.

For now, Wike’s live band would be at Tinubu’s beck and call. As would his cutthroat, underhand politicking, because “as e dey pain dem, e dey sweet us”.

•Written By Jude Egbas