I am one of those with the firm belief that our two Ikwerre brothers at the borderlines of our national politics have and are using our commonwealth to orchestrate an Ikwerre agenda in our dear Rivers State.
That belief was heightened when Governor Nyesom Wike embarked on the unilateral development of Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor local government areas of his Ikwerre ethnic nationality to the detriment of other LGAs in the state.
This is even more so when he despotically foisted a rooky politician with no electoral value but with strong Ikwerre affinities as his party’s gubernatorial candidate for the 2023 governorship election in the state.
I was further proven right recently that the both estranged political bedfellows and brothers would settle their political differences to elevate this agenda when Wike’s Rumuepirikom home became a political Mecca of some sort for politicians across political divides in the country. Recently, three All Progressives Congress (APC) governors from the South West visited him in what may not be unconnected with 2023.
But that whimsical whiff withered off into the empty blue bowl of the sky when Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, former Transportation Minister and APC South South leader nominated an Abua/Odual son, Hon Udi Odum for the Ministerial slot of the state. He could have as well nominated himself or another Ikwerre person and there would have been no qualms.
The ovation that greeted that nomination across the state switched off some hioty-toity sleuths who wanted to impress their pay master to rubbish the nomination because it was not beneficial to his people. The sleuths realized that Udi Odum’s popularity was growing taller with every breathe he took.
Wike, who was very angry at the nomination pushed out a ragged sigh in a strangled whisper because of his realization that the current Minister is treading the same path that led him to be governor. Wike’s fear – Udi Odum is a potential governor.
President Buhari’s gumption however ensured that the young rising Udi Odum was cleared at the Red Chambers of the National Assembly and sworn in with the lucrative Portfolio of Minister of State for Environment, a position hitherto not reserved for the Niger Deltans.
Feeling that portfolio to be more than the Education Ministry he held, Gov Wike’s chest rose and fell in a silent sigh. He managed a smile but the smile cracked midway and became something else. To him, the wind cried and moaned that the Abua/Odual people he had neglected for nearly eight years have been elevated to the national scene of Nigerian politics.
Then like a cork out of a champagne bottle, he inebriatedly belched out his venom on Saturday July 9, 2022 while swearing in his eaglet commissioners by describing the Hon Minister of the federal Republic of Nigeria as illiterate, uneducated and lacking the basic characteristics of a Minister. But as a lawyer, His Excellency knows the constitutional provisions for the appointment of a minister for the federal Republic of Nigeria
The venominous venom of His Excellency was by extension targeted at the good people of Abua/Odual who he considered not fit to be part of his cabinet, even though they’ve never been without a cabinet member since the creation of the state 50 years ago.
But His Excellency’s hoydenish gurgle is a faux pas; a slouch and fatuous. How old was he when he became a junior Minister? How educated was he as a junior Minister? What were his political experience or antecedents before his junior ministration? The answers are in the wind.
May we use this opportunity to remind Wike that when Abua people had their first Professor in the person of late Professor Isaac Dema in the early 60s, his Ikwerre kiths and kins had not even dreamt of one person with a Doctoral degree.
May we also remind him that when he scrounged Senator Magnus Abe to take him to his boss, former President Goodluck Jonathan about ten years ago, where he Perfidiously portrayed Amaechi as insultive and disrespectful to elders, authorities and people at will, he forgot that when you point one finger at another, three are pointing back at you. Today, Wike’s loud mouth is behemothly outlandish.
His hitherto ensconced scalawagishness was fueled and spurred by his runner up position in the just concluded presidential primaries of his PDP, forgetting our elders apt saying that to kill a child, first praise him to the town square to be crowned a king.
That runner up position has swollen his head that he has forgotten his humble beginning who, like the current Minister of state for Environment started as a council chairman and who, unlike him was a successful businessman, farmer and politician. Wike now has no respect for constituted authorities, tribes and even God. Recall the thunder fire them incident in the Anglican church recently.
Such swollen headedness makes it laughable when he describes himself as the last man standing in the PDP, when many founding fathers of the PDP in 1998 are still very much around; people like former President Goodluck Jonathan, former Governor Peter Odili, Adamu Waziri and others too numerous to mention. Thanks goodness, Atiku Abubakar has cut that to size.
With this elevation of Abua/Odual people by Amaechi, I can, as a newshound who covered the two terms of Amaechi as a Speaker and Governor, say authoritatively that Amaechi loves Abua/Odual people more than Wike.
Abua people can never forget Amaechi in a hurry because when he visited the LGA on an official visit during the chairmanship of Hon Udi Odum, he scolded the people for demanding for a generator set to power the LGA headquarters and promised hooking the council to the national grid within three months. A promise he fulfilled within two months and the LGA has been on the national grid since then until the advent of the Wike administration.
His Excellency knows very well that Abua/Odual is predominantly a PDP LGA in the state anytime, any day. But his total neglect of the area in the last eight years is very much regrettable and a source of concern to many, including this humble writer, who are trying to salvage the situation. But his recent outburst against the people will dim such efforts and the people he insulted are now taking stock of his achievements in the LGA, noting his myraids of unfulfilled promises which even toddlers can recount.
Such is the mood in the LGA and only His Excellency can redress it with a public apology to the people if PDP is to make any meaningful impact in the LGA in 2023. His canticle can do the magic.