Last week, Nyesom Wike, the outgoing governor of Rivers State, gave Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s putative next president, extravagant welcome to Port Harcourt, the state capital. Tinubu was in Port Harcourt to open a Magistrate’s Court complex that Wike named after his wife. Wike declared a public holiday and closed down shops so that Rivers people could turn out to welcome Tinubu. He later hosted Tinubu to a grand reception, a lavish banquet! Surely, those acts were an extraordinary abuse of power.
How would you explain a sitting governor naming a monument, built with state resources, after his wife? How would you explain a state governor declaring a public holiday, closing businesses, thereby crippling commercial activities, so that someone could “open” the monument? And would any responsible would-be president be part of such abuse of office and waste of state resources?
Well, Tinubu and Wike are two of the same kind. They are cut from the same political cloth and have identical governance styles. Politically, they believe in power by hook or by crook. Their maxim is: “Political power is not served a la carte; at all costs, fight for it, grab it and run with it.” That’s what Tinubu said before this year’s presidential election, and it’s what Wike practised with his political brigandage in Rivers State.Lagos, which Tinubu once governed and still controls as the feudal lord, and Rivers, where Wike holds sway, are the hotbeds of electoral violence and political thuggery in Nigeria, seemingly state sanctioned.
Their governance styles? Well, they have a reputation for capturing the state and turning it into a personal fiefdom. The sources of their stupendous wealth are unknown. Recently, Dino Melaye, a former senator, said Wike lent him his private jet when he ran for Kogi State governorship in 2019. Wike has always been in public life, from local government chairman to minister and governor. So, how did he acquire a private jet? As for Tinubu, stories of his unexplained and inexplicable assets, at home and overseas, still rumble on. The subliminal message in the Tinubu-Wike alliance is that likes attract likes. So, no surprises! However, the wider implications must worry true democrats and genuine advocates of integrity politics and good governance. For the Tinubu-Wike alliance has had egregious impacts on democratic development and may pose real danger to governance.
Recently, Magnus Abe, a Tinubu ally and governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in Rivers State, withdrew his election petition. Why? Well, hear him. “If we continue our battle in the court”, he said. “We will end up in direct confrontation with the president-elect” who has “taken a clear position” on the issue. Surely, Tinubu would also distance himself from the petition of his party’s candidate, Tonye Cole. So, because of his alliance with Wike, Tinubu is muzzling attempts to strengthen democratic development by ventilating grievances and evidence of alleged poll-rigging in court. It’s a bad for democracy!
Well, there’s also the danger to governance. Speculations are rife that Tinubu may give Wike a senior ministerial position in his government. All genuine advocates of integrity politics and good governance in Nigeria must be worried about a government based on an alliance between Tinubu and Wike, whose politics and governance styles are defined by naked self-interest, abuse of power and utter lack of transparency and accountability.
But why is Tinubu cosying up to Wike? I offer two reasons. First, Tinubu wants to push the narrative that Wike and his group of five renegade PDP governors, called G-5, helped him to “win” the presidential election, thereby arguing that his “victory” was inevitable. Second, by bringing Wike and maybe some other G-5 members into his government, Tinubu would like to give the impression that he’s forming a government of national unity, comprising opposition politicians. Both propositions are fallacious and untenable.
Take the view that Wike and the G-5 helped Tinubu “win” the presidential election. In Port Harcourt, Tinubu thanked Wike “for your contribution to my victory,” saying: “I couldn’t have done it without your structural support,” including “the pivotal role the great and wonderful people of this state played.” But that’s utterly deceptive! First, as widely reported, two reputable outfits, Yiaga Africa, an election-monitoring organisation, and Premium Times, an online medium notable for its investigative journalism, have shown, based on results from collation centres and the INEC portal, that Peter Obi, not Tinubu, won in Rivers State. Surely, if Tinubu didn’t win in Rivers State, then the narrative that he “won” the presidential election because of Wike and Rivers State falls flat. Rivers State becomes a metaphor for Tinubu’s questionable victory.
As for the rest of the G-5, all the three governors who ran for the Senate lost their bids. Only Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State won his re-election bid. If most of the G-5 governors couldn’t win a senatorial election, how could they help Tinubu win the presidency? In any case, how could the G-5 be proud that they made Tinubu president when he secured only 8.8m votes, minus the disputable votes in Rivers, Lagos and elsewhere, and was rejected by 16.4m voters? Well, they may say “a win is a win”, ignoring the critical issue of legitimacy.
Which brings us to unity government. Tinubu cannot claim to forma unity government by appointing Wike and any other G-5 member as ministers. They are renegade members of PDP, who betrayed their party. Besides, the G-5 doesn’t represent the 16.4m voters who rejected Tinubu. They’re the ones he should reach out to, through the parties they supported, if he wants to form a unity government, assuming he overcomes current legal challenges to his election.
Shockingly, Tinubu described Wike as “a man of principle” for “saying the presidency must come to the South”. Total claptrap. Can Wike swear that if Atiku Abubakar had made him his running-mate he won’t have run with him? And if, based on fairness and justice, he wanted power to come to the South, why the South-West? And why, to him, was another Northern president bad, but a Muslim-Muslim presidency good? Let’s be clear.Tinubu’s alliance with Wike and the G-5 is self-serving, misguided and unsavoury. It’s not in the national interest!
Credit: Olu Fasan