By Olu Fasan
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 form a 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!
*Fasan is a commentator on public issues
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