By Prince Kola Oyerinde
To some people, the crisis in the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) is a supremacy battle between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike and the Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed. To some others, it is a battle between Nyesom Wike and the Bala Mohammed-led PDP Governors Forum (PDPGF). To yet another group, it is a battle between Wike and his political godson, Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Headlines such as Wike Floors Bala Mohammed, Wike Defeats PDP Governors or PDP Governors Lose, point to the mischaracterisation of the problem as it reduces a fundamental assault on due process, and political morality to inter-personal squabbles.
Rather than a confrontation between Wike and the PDPGF, what is playing out is a threat to democracy. To understand this ill wind, it is important that we recall, if only briefly, the issue under contention. So, what is the matter?
The matter is that Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers State, insists on controlling the party in the state. Governor Fubara objected to a situation that would strip him of the accoutrements of office and turn him into a glorified messenger. After several botched efforts to resolve the impasse, Governors of PDP-controlled states, under banner of the PDPGF, endorsed the principled position of siding with the embattled governor.
The action of the governors was in keeping with the principle of “touch one , touch all” and not an indication that they loved Fubara more than they love Wike. The position of the PDP-GF is also validated by the convention that any serving governor automatically assumes the leadership of the party in the state.
Wike, as Governor of Rivers State, enjoyed the same privilege. In fact, it is instructive that his leadership of the party was never challenged by the likes of the former Governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili who provided the ladder that Wike and his cohorts used to climb to political limelight. The rest is already in the public domain.
That the principled adherence of the PDP Governors Forum, led by Governor Bala Mohammed, to the convention of their party has irked Wike so badly as to fly off the handle, threatening to pull down the entire PDP edifice is a monstrous threat to the survival of Nigeria’s nascent democracy.
The fundamental differences between the parties in this conflict should not be lost on us.
The first is the sense of entitlement by Wike who, as Fubara’s godfather, arrogates to himself the power to single-handedly drive political recruitment in the party as against the position of the PDPGF that Fubara be allowed to enjoy long established privileges such as his counterparts in other states enjoy.
The second is Wike’s blatant recourse to arbitrariness as against the principled commitment of the PDPGF that the constitution of the party be respected and not wantonly desecrated. Sadly, Wike is a man who is driven by the vice of might, translating to right hence he boasts of setting fire to some states of the federation. Unable to stomach such arrogance, foremost Niger Delta leader and nationalist Chief Edwin Clerk called for his arrest.
The third is the controlled demeanour of the PDPGF as against Wike’s alarming diatribe. By threatening to set fire to states of governors who support Fubara, Wike has demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice Nigeria’s survival on the narrow altar of his political interest and of those whom he has deployed him to wreck the PDP.
That leads to the fourth difference: obviously, while the Governors are preoccupied with strengthening the party, Wike’s interest might as well be to create enough crisis as to distract it from effectively playing its opposition role at a time that Nigerians are passing through unprecedented hardship and unmitigated insecurity. It is to the credit of the Bala-Mohammed led PDP-GF that, despite stiff resistance and blackmail, the group is gradually rising to its role as a dependable bulwark against anti-people policies and decisions.
Ultimately, it is important to note the creeping despotism epitomised by Wike’s aversion to due process is capable of truncating democracy. This is in marked contrast to the PDPGF’s quest to deepen the country’s democracy by upholding rules and due process.
The above, rather than any other consideration are the issues at stake in this unfortunate drama.
It is not about Bala Mohammed who sees his role as a continuation of a distinguished career that has spanned several years since 1984.
To therefore reduce the crisis to a supremacy contest between Bala Mohammed and Nyesom Wike is to underestimate the grave danger posed by Wike’s brinksmanship which, if unchecked, holds the frightening prospect of producing two major victims: the Nigerian masses and democracy.
These are the issues at stake, not the belaboured preoccupation with the over bloated ego of people whose basic instinct springs from an entitlement mentality, petty arrogance and diminished sense of responsibility to the Nigerian masses who are the victims of this contrived crisis.
•Prince Kola Oyerinde is a commentator on public affairs.
