BY AUGUSTINE AVWODE
The raging crisis of confidence buffeting the opposition Peoples Democratic Party is gradually taking a life of its own in the oil-rich Rivers State. Here, Governor Nyesom Wike wants everyone to know that he is in charge and he acts it without pretentiousness.
The outcome of the recent May 28 National Convention during which former Vice President Atiku Abubakar won the right to fly the party’s flag as its Presidential Candidate at the expense of Wike in next year’s election has suddenly provided many chieftains of the party from the state the courage to erupt back to life like a hitherto ‘dormant and passive volcano’.
Whereas Wike would want to see everyone fall in line and give maximum support to ‘his struggle,’ those who feel a bit uncomfortable with his leadership style have seized the opportunity to align with those the Governor referred to as ‘our enemies’.
Two weeks ago, a former lawmaker representing Rivers State South-East constituency, Senator Lee Maeba, took on Governor Wike over his hardline posture in his face-off with Atiku. Maeba told the governor in clear terms that he was being over combative and he should stop working against Atiku and by extension the PDP. He urged him to stop seeing himself as a superhuman.
The defeat of Wike by Atiku did not initially incense him as much as the decision to overlook him as the Vice Presidential candidate for the 2023 election. Atiku chose Delta State Governor, Sen Ifeanyi Okowa, notwithstanding the fact that Wike was recommended by a Committee set up for that purpose.
In a bid to broker peace and effect total reconciliation, Wike and those sympathetic to his cause demanded the resignation of National Chairman, Iyorcia Ayu, as a pre-condition for him to work for and with Atiku to win the election. But some leaders in the party kicked against the idea, arguing that it was a most inauspicious time for such a thing to happen. They offered that if at the end of the election next year and the PDP wins the presidency, there would be ample reason for the Chairman to resign such that both Chairman and President won’t be from the same zone. But Wike would not have any of that.
And, in what appeared to be a calculated move to deal with those from the state that are seen to be close to the former Vice President, Wike ordered the sacking of the Governing Council of the Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Rumuola, Port Harcourt led by Maeba.
Maeba, would later confirm that he was removed as the Chairman of Elechi Amadi Polytechnic because of his closeness to Atiku. He told newsmen that what Wike was doing was anti-party activities and that he should stop it.
“We have a candidate of the party who has the capacity to lead Nigeria out of the crisis. So nothing can deter us from supporting Atiku to save Nigeria.
“Wike is not hiding that he is fighting Atiku. Yes, he said so. He called a meeting of Ogoni people who are with him and told them to tell me that he will see how I will campaign for Atiku in this state and he is ready to fight to the finish.
“We don’t know what he (Wike) is planning to do because when campaigns start we are qualified to campaign too. We are waiting to see how he will do it. This is a joke taken too far.”
“The state may become a major theatre of war if the party doesn’t move to sort out the face-off arising from the May 28 National Convention. I am saying this because I know what can happen in the state. Rivers State is unlike any other state”
Maeba also alleged that Wike removed former Governor Celestine Omehia and a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara, as leaders of their party in Ikwerre and Port Harcourt City LGAs respectively.
The former lawmaker then accused the Rivers State governor of humiliating the duo before their people because they went to pay a solidarity visit to Atiku Abubakar.
“All of us knew Atiku before him. Austin Opara has been in the House of Representatives since 1999. He was the Deputy Speaker when Atiku was Vice-President. At that time Wike was struggling to be local government chairman. So, if Austin Opara has to take permission from him today to go and see Atiku, then something is wrong,” he stated.
He equally made it clear that no single man can be it all and end it all. “Why are you in charge of votes? You cannot be in charge of votes, because everybody has individual votes to cast. If Adegboyega Oyetola was in charge of votes in Osun, he wouldn’t have lost the election.
“So, for somebody to be boasting he is in charge of votes, people should ask him where do you want to get the votes? How many voters cards does he have?”
“Let me tell you something. When you apportion so much right to yourself, then you are superhuman. Austin Opara was the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives when Atiku Abubakar was the Vice President. They attended caucus meetings together and National Economic Council Meeting.
“So, does it mean that Austin Opara who has been friends with Atiku for over 20 years ago will now start to beg Wike to go and see Atiku?
“So if you don’t have respect for the rights of senior citizens of the state, you don’t have respect for their right to survive and self-sustenance, then something is wrong with your own system.
“He clearly told them ‘let me see how you can campaign for Atiku in this state. You cannot campaign for Atiku without my permission. No one in this state can work for Atiku.
“If you stop us from working for Atiku, that is the height of anti-party activities. I stand to be corrected. This is the middle of our campaign and you line up Bola Tinubu’s men to commission projects in your state.
“Why is he lining up Tinubu’s men? After the commissioning, they go inside to talk. What are they talking about? In the middle of our campaign, he’s highlighting the APC and Tinubu above our own candidate. I don’t know what you call that,” he argued.
A chieftain of the PDP from the state told The Point on Sunday on condition of anonymity that he would have preferred that the Governor tread with caution. He argued that “a time will come when people would begin to say he is too full of himself. And I tell you, people are already saying it. Whether opposition politicians that he is bringing to the state or members of our party. I think he must let sleepy dogs lie at this moment and retain some respect. First, he is talking too much. Second, you need to keep your base intact. Atiku is an old war horse. What I don’t want to see is a situation where Atiku will raise an internal insurrection against him. What I mean is that if your people start to revolt against you then that will be the beginning of the end.”
Already that is happening. On Saturday, former chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, did not take Wike’s ‘guided missiles’ lying low. He wasted no time in responding to his boast to “crush” all those who may be working with “our enemies.”
Wike, while flagging off the construction of internal roads at Omagwa in Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state, had vowed to “finish” anyone who pitches his tent with the “enemies of the state.”
In his words, “If anybody fights our system, we will fight the person back. Let me tell you what you don’t understand in politics. The moment you claim to be working with us and tomorrow you shift to our enemy, we will take every might we have; we will even leave our enemy and finish you first.
“So, all of you who are going back to Abuja to hold meetings with our enemies in the state, I am going to finish you to the last.
“We removed a national party chairman who was not doing well. All of them were here; we all agreed; now they are going to Abuja to hold meetings with the man we removed, thinking that you will use that to fight us; we will crush them.”
Secondus, without a waste of time promptly fired back, telling Wike he is not God. And that it is God who could crush anybody at will
The former national chairman of the main opposition party, in a statement by his media aide, Ike Abonyi, said his attention “has been drawn to the haughty and disdainful threat from Governor Nyesom Wike that he will crush anybody who works with him (Secondus) in support of the PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
“The simple responses of Prince Secondus to the empty threat are: ‘Wike you cannot crush anybody, I cannot fight, only God can crush”
Secondus also drew the attention of Wike to the advice given by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who told public officers that ‘no condition is permanent,’ reminding the Rivers State governor that nobody can become the governor of a state or President of this country forever.
Our source expressed apprehension that “the state may become a major theatre of war if the party doesn’t move to sort out the face-off arising from the May 28 National Convention. I am saying this because I know what can happen in the state. Rivers State is unlike any other state. It would be best for the party to resolve the issue so that it doesn’t degenerate to a level where brothers would become canon folders. It will be bad if it gets to that level”, he stated.
