Rivers: Wike’s begrudged loyalty for Tinubu

Whoever has been faithfully following the power struggle in Rivers State between the Minister of the Federal Territory, Nyesom Wike, his successor as governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, and President Bola Tinubu as the unseen grandmaster and ultimate enforcer, cannot miss the major shifts in the alignment of interests between them in recent times. What many observers are waiting for is how the end games will play out, firstly, between Fubara and Wike, as well as Tinubu and Wike, especially given the new twists and turns in the multidimensional power game between them.

Of peculiar interest is the disposition of the Wike camp towards the other two, as it may be demonstrating a discomfiture over witnessing a diminution in its sway over the politics of the state, from its hitherto preeminent position. A pointer to this is the growing frustration by his camp over a newfound wave of political capital for Fubara (for whom Wike has served as a major traducer), and the effect of which is the resurgence of a political foe Wike would have wanted vanquished.

Not only is Fubara gaining more strength by the day, but even plans to remove him from office through a recent, well-hatched impeachment plot by the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA), and thereby scuttle his chances of securing a second term in office come 2027, has hit the rocks, courtesy of a mix-up in the judicial processes associated with the initiative.

In the other vein, the Fubara camp is also smarting from a newfound assertiveness, courtesy of the new romance it enjoys from his switch of party loyalty from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). With its switch of loyalty, it is now on the same page with Wike’s camp in the enterprise of delivering Tinubu come 2027. Meanwhile, the Tinubu camp is waiting in the wings to pick up the spoils of war from the enterprise of these two camps, who are now competing with each other to deliver Tinubu come the 2027 polls.

Yet, closer observation of the parley between Wike and Tinubu camps reveals that all may not be well in their mutual disposition to each other. While both camps may be struggling to maintain a public face of continued amity with each other, the real state of affairs between them is one of mutual uneasiness and suspect loyalties. The main factor for this situation is a sense of betrayal in Wike’s camp over its failure to continue deploying Tinubu to do its bidding with respect to cutting Fubara to size.

Not surprisingly, in recent times, Nigerians have witnessed a diminishing tempo in Wike’s fawning disposition towards Tinubu, accompanied by a tendency to assert himself in a manner of publicly expressing his growing disappointment with the former. Since Fubara’s defection, Wike had been identified with sporadic verbal assaults on Fubara and even the APC hierarchy for availing the latter a platform for political resurgence. It is also for good measure that Wike had also received matching talk-downs from several top guns from the ruling party.

Tinubu, on the other hand, has also kept his plans close to his chest, apparently in wait for an endgame with Wike. Given the antecedents of these two established political gladiators, a face-off between them may only be a matter of when.

Meanwhile, close observers of the current state of affairs featuring a growing but muffled disenchantment between their camps easily weigh the situation against the comments by Tinubu in February 2023 at a reception in Wike’s Port Harcourt residence during the former’s presidential tour of Rivers State. At that occasion, Tinubu had wondered aloud over the prospects of working together with Wike, even as he hoped that the latter would deliver Rivers State in the 2023 general polls. At that meeting, Tinubu had acknowledged that a partnership between himself with Wike was comparable to a leopard working along with a chameleon. While Tinubu acknowledged that many saw his politics as cast in the mould of the tactics of a leopard, he had alluded that Wike’s disposition was towards the chameleonic. Incidentally, that was when Wike was engaged in a spoiler’s game against his party, the PDP, and formed the G5 renegade group comprising four other governors to frustrate the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar in the polls.

With the run of the polls, Wike eventually delivered Rivers State to Tinubu, who, on assuming office as president, promptly appointed him as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the political party differences between them notwithstanding. Since then, the Nigerian political space has witnessed a unique alchemy, whereby Wike served in Tinubu’s cabinet, who allowed the former significant concessions to act as the star boy of the administration, with the caveat of retaining his structure in Rivers State for Tinubu’s 2027 electoral gambit.

However, in the light of recent tendencies coming up, the fact remains that the Wike who helped Tinubu win the presidency in 2023 is not the same Wike as at today.  The Wike of today is an aggrieved partner to Tinubu, who is discomfited by the president’s reluctance to be dragged further into the former’s parochial bidding in the Rivers State political turf, with the circumstances of the stalled impeachment move by the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) to remove Fubara serving as a major factor.

With the latest turn of events in Wikes camp, whereby his anti Fubara agenda is floundering, it would be disingenuous to assume that the assaults from his camp are over. Rather, the new dispensation will feature more desperate moves by his camp with heightened lethality against any real or perceived obstacle to his desire to discomfit Fubara and prove his point of being the man to beat in Rivers State politics. And from the expressed personal disposition of Wike, the fight to bring Fubara down may actually supersede the agenda to return Tinubu to office come 2027.

This is food for thought in Tinubu’s camp.

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