We’ve all been there before. Sitting in front of the TV, waiting to view what promises to be a sumptuous game. You have a personal interest in the outcome of this one. You’ve been waiting all day, and with a cold drink in hand, you can think of no better way to enjoy the evening. But upon pressing the little remote control device in your hands, nothing happens. You press some more, each time more aggressively. But not even a blink on the screen. Realization dawns on you. Your favorite handy device has failed unexpectedly and at the worst possible time. You toss it away in frustration, rise reluctantly from your seat and make the long journey across the room to try to manually select your channel. You realize you must now make this trip each time you want to flip channels, adjust volume or browse info. You can no longer enjoy the luxury of flipping controls from the comfort of your seat – at least for now…
This must be how FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, feels nowadays. In trying to remotely control from Abuja the political “structures” he built in Rivers State for eight years, he has recently run into serious technical hitches. And the prospects of a fix are not looking too good.
He had built those structures with great care and attention to detail. Now they don’t even respond to simple commands from him. The Emperor of the Niger Delta now has to suffer the indignity of rising from his seat in Abuja (literally) and traveling all the way to Port Harcourt to run routine political errands. Such inconvenience for a man now so accustomed to the easy life of command and control!
In the course of Wike’s remote control malfunction, the Rivers State House of Assembly went up in flames. It was subsequently demolished by the new state Governor, Simi Fubara, on “advice” from building experts to avoid “future structural failure.” A new assembly complex will have to be built from scratch by Governor Fubara, Wike’s protege and now arch enemy. Meanwhile, he has provided an alternative space where the Assembly can sit temporarily. You see, the State Assembly is at the heart of local political engineering. So the simple matter of who is “housing” the Assembly has far-reaching actual and symbolic implications. It means that Fubara is building new “structures” on the ashes of Wike’s demolished structure. How things change!
The twenty-seven assemblymen loyal to Wike who declared their defection from PDP to APC are now in Constitutional limbo. Their commissioner colleagues who resigned are already toast. Never mind the terms of the “Abuja Peace Agreement.” It reminds me of the 1967 Aburi Accord between Yakubu Gowon and Emeka Ojukwu – an agreement meant to be broken.
In any case, agreements are not usually made between strong men and weaklings. They are commonly made between parties strong enough to recognize each other’s capacity to inflict significant injury. From that point of view, Wike has already lost traction in Rivers State. His handlers are only doing damage control. The new sing-song in Port Harcourt is “Wike find your lane.” Power has changed hands. Fubara holds the aces, not Wike. How he plays them will define his legacy. If you know, you know.
There’s something fundamentally wrong with any man over 40 who doesn’t understand that power belongs only to God.
An individual or group may be entrusted with power for a short time. But no man must delude himself into believing that power belongs to him. Those who have tried in the past all failed. Ask the man who recently left the Presidential Villa and hurried to Daura. He begged that no one should call him even to help find a missing file. I am almost certain that his wish has been scrupulously kept. Yet the sun has not stopped rising every morning.
FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, seems to be the latest in a long line of persons who missed the plot. After a failed bid for his party’s presidential ticket in 2022, he had literally pulled down the PDP (many would say rightly so) in the last general elections. Subsequently, he began working for the ruling APC, a party he once described as cancer-stricken.
His gamble seemed to have paid off. He was named FCT Minister in a morally crippled administration. Now, Wike has run into troubled waters. The people he left to look after the house back in Port Harcourt have changed the locks. They are now telling him to “follow protocols” and sign the visitors book whenever he visits. The man is in utter disbelief.
Wike is like a man who has a grown up son or daughter but insists on treating them like babies. It’s only a matter of time before he gets the shock of his life.
The 16th Century Italian political philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, understood the nature and dynamics of power so well. In his famous book, The Prince, he argues that the primary duty of a leader is to maintain the stability and security of the state. And he must be willing to do whatever is necessary, however ruthless, manipulative or immoral, to maintain control. We may not all share Machiavelli’s morality, but there’s little dispute about his pragmatism.
Wike is an astute disciple of Machiavelli. At every level in his political career, he has wielded power like a despot. It’s a real wonder that he expects otherwise from Fubara, his own student and disciple.
Once upon a time, there was a man called Dr. Olusola Saraki. He was so powerful in his domain that he was nicknamed “The Strongman of Kwara Politics.” He made and unmade governors. Then, one day, he made his own son the governor in the hope of calling the shots from his bedroom. But his son had other ideas. Once sworn in, he consolidated power and retired his father from politics. The old man never fully recovered from the shock until he passed on.
Now, Wike must learn the hard way that he is neither special nor smarter than those before him. Time was when a certain Dr. Peter Odili called the shots in Port Harcourt. Not any more. After him, a man called Rotimi Amechi took control. Not any more. Wike likewise is past tense. There’s nothing he or any of us can do about it. It is the way of life. “Soja go, Soja come, barrack remain.” That’s how our people put it in pidgin-military parlance.
Indeed, Wike is at risk of going out of relevance faster by trying to defy the laws of gravity. What goes up must come down.
Those who do not have the grace to negotiate a gentle descent from power will be humbled by their inevitable fall, ayakataaa! Those who hold power lightly have a softer landing.
Some say Wike is aspiring to be like his new boss and mentor – the one who grabbed, snatched and ran with the people’s mandate. The one who is reputed to have stayed in power in Lagos for all of 24 years before moving up higher. I say, never tell a story that is still unfolding. Besides, it depends on the type of “power” we mean. There is soft power and there is hard power. Does Wike have capacity to exercise soft power? The rat must be weary of jumping into water with the lizard. The skin of each animal dries at a different rate.
Wike will eventually learn that under certain circumstances, power is a burden not a blessing; a mere illusion that brings no joy, peace or satisfaction to the soul. It is, as Shakespeare would say, like “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
Dis life eh, e no balance!
