In anticipation of 2023 general elections in Nigeria, top Nigerian politicians are already preparing in various political parties for their different political ambitious, and one of such top shots is Nyesom Wike, the incumbent Governor of Rivers state. Unarguably, Nyesom Wike is one of the most influential State Governors in Nigeria who is from the Southern part of Nigeria, which is a rare occurrence in the country, considering the fact that Southern Nigerian politicians particularly the Governors are stooges of the Northern oligarchy and seldom command respect among their Northern counterparts.
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Wike, on several occasions, had openly lambasted the Nigerian Presidency, ridiculed them for their unresponsiveness to the plight of the Nigerian masses, and even put up a formidable fight to resist them from stopping his reelection bid in 2019. Governor Wike’s fighting spirit is not only something the Northern oligarchy admires but equally something they dread though the ruthless cartel might not apparently display any sign of cowardness or weakness however an in-depth study reveals that the cartel is often scared of a strong opposition, and that explains the reason why if they can not defeat you in a fight, they make you offers that you can not refuse just like Mario Puzo’s Don Corleone in the classic Godfather.
The ‘offer you can not refuse’ is exactly the scenario playing out in the recent change of Governor Wike’s attitude, beginning with the encomiums he showered President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the refund of over 78 billion naira to the Governor’s administration being the money spent on the maintenance of Federal roads in the State. With that first offer Wike began to sing praises of Buhari and his maladministration. This immediately made the Northern oligarchy to realise that Wike actually is no different from the rest of many of his Southern colleagues that could easily be bought over with the right amount of money, or political gratification, and as they envisaged, Governor Wike quickly accepted the offer of the Northern oligarchy, being a very ambitious man.
The offer made by the Northern oligarchy to Wike, which made him to rip his conscience off is that of the Office of the Vice Presidency, and in Wike’s ambitiousness, he cut a deal with the Northern oligarchy to run as a Vice Presidential candidate to a Northerner, some reports already have started coming out that Wike might be a running mate to Tambuwal, which is a ploy by the Hausa-Fulani or otherwise known as the Northern oligarchy to assuage the quest by Southern Nigeria for restructuring of the Nigerian polity, and equally to retain the Presidency in the North so that the subjugation of Southern Nigeria can very well continue.
Is it not astonishing to many that Wike who was once revered in Igboland for being the only Governor from Southern Nigeria that used to boldly challenge the Northern oligarchy running the affairs of Nigeria for marginalising Southern Nigeria and anti masses policies especially in the Southern part of the country is now the one that has suddenly lost his voice? Wike almost prostrated while greeting the Sultan on his recent visit to the North and has now pitched his tent with the Nigerian Government firstly by refusing to endorse the End SARS protest, that was a national call by the struggling Nigerian masses to end police brutality. Wike in his bold and brash nature, vehemently condemned the protest, and as if that was not enough, he proscribed the protest against SARS in Rivers state with shameless and flimsy excuses that would be too trivial to even state here.
In a nutshell, Governor Nyesom Wike, sold out! Wike who used to be a good friend of the masses, unabashedly, suddenly denied the masses, and above all mortgaged his conscience for the position of the the Vice President to a Northerner to continue being the stooge of the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy irrespective of the fact that he, Wike is the Governor of one of the richest States in Africa, whose resources are being used to maintain the North that hardly contributes to the Gross Domestic Product or the economy of Nigeria. The parasitic nature of the Northern part of Nigeria, should be one reason that the geopolitical zone on no account, should even attempt to have any dominant political control on the Southern part of Nigeria that contributes far more than the North but quite unfortunate, Southern Nigeria, only boasts of prominent politicians who have the notoriety of being stooges to their Northern counterparts for the mere purpose of economic and political gratifications and that vividly explains the basic reasons Southern Nigerian politicians are treated with levity, and often relegated to the trash by their Northern counterparts.
Also, is it not something to worry or bother about that Igbos are being slaughtered by the military in Rivers state, precisely Oyigbo, and Wike is claiming oblivious of the mayhem? In fact, on the contrary, he is defending the criminal action of the military by brazenly peddling the falsehood that the Nigerian military were only invited to maintain calm in the State, after alleging that the members of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) were responsible for the destruction in the state during the intensity of the nation-wide protest which Wike knew quite well was infiltrated by the Federal Government of Nigeria sponsored hoodlums to scuttle the protest and destroy government-owned properties purposely to write off the protest that began peacefully as a violent one and to justify their malicious action of unleashing the military on the innocent protesters whom they eventually shot at and killed with impunity but a man like Wike who had already mortgaged or even outrightly sold his conscience for political gains is shamelessly, and heartlessly pretending that the Nigerian Army was not ordered to kill any Igbo in Oyigbo.
Wike, having discarded his honour for the Vice Presidential position, still forged ahead to tell a blatant lie that it was just IPOB members that were causing havoc in the State that the military was only trying to prevent it, and nothing more yet there were scores of deaths recorded in Oyigbo by so many eyewitness accounts.
Admittedly, the activities of IPOB members could be very annoying due to the fact that they lack an intelligent and strategic form of leadership but that deficiency is not justifiable enough to use the military to eliminate them especially when they did not declare war in the State. As a lawyer, Wike ought to have known that it was not the responsibility of the military to quell protests when the country still has the Police system but because it was a malicious attack, he preferred to use the brutal force of the military as if they were in deed fighting insurgency.
Now, Wike trying so hard to please his Hausa-Fulani masters that are most likely deluding him with the offer of the Vice President is now fighting against his own people, and to further cheapen himself he posited flimsy excuses that IPOB is a terrorist organisation that must be dealt with as such. A sane mind of course, agrees that no rational Governor of any State in Nigeria should fold his hands and watch any agitating group like IPOB to cause civil unrest in his State however at the same time, there is no justification for Wike or any Governor to use the military force to attack unarmed civilians to the point were live bullets were fired at them, and many died from the callous onslaught.
Finally, there is nothing wrong for Governor Wike to have and pursue a Vice Presidential ambition but when this ambition of his is being fuelled by the endorsement of Igbo haters, and using Wike as a conduit in perpetuating their sinister acts on the Igbo race in a subtle way to carry out genocidal attacks on Ndi Igbo particularly those from Rivers State then it becomes paramount to call Wike to order and let him realise that he and his cohorts might escape the compromised arm of the Nigerian law system but certainly not the natural law of justice that awaits them sooner or later if they do not quickly retrace their steps, and make restitution before it is too late to do so.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK