SIR: The name Nyesom Wike is now synonymous with outstanding performance in the country. Everywhere you go, there’s hardly any household that has not beheld his enigmatic aura.
Take for instance the trending stories of his infrastructure revolution in Rivers State. Since the creation of the state, Wike is the first governor to build multiple flyovers, bridges, roads, healthcare facilities, educational edifices, and other relevant infrastructure across the length and breadth of the state, within the same space of time, and amidst a prevailing national economic crunch.
All around the state, people are curious as to how the governor has been able to finance these gigantic projects within a seemingly short period of time, and in the midst of a failing national economy. The wonders of Wike!
In fact, the federal government, seeing the level of infrastructure development that Wike is prosecuting in the state, has decided to confer on him with a national honours tagged “Distinguished Award in Infrastructure Delivery.” What a man!
What about his political sagacity and strength? Aside his prowess in infrastructure development, Wike’s political delivery is in a class of its own.
Even though he doesn’t ride on the high horse of political correctness and hypocritical finesse, Wike is unapologetically loved by millions of Nigerians, irrespective of the subsisting political and ethnic divides.
Be it in the villages of Gombe State; on the streets of Lagos; in the hinterlands of his home-state, and beyond the banks of River Niger — Wike enjoys a remarkable amount of organic followership across board.
How he manages to keep his fan base firmly together, even in the heat of the ever changing tide of politics, remains a mystery to not a few political watchers. What manner of man is this?
In the mainstream leadership architecture of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wike has been able to closely galvanise an appreciable number of governors; members of the Board of Trustees (BOT), as well as other high profile leaders, in his fight against the apparent marginalisation of the southern part of the country in the leadership structure of the party.
To further give flesh to his enigmatic style of politics and governance, Wike, through his outstanding political influence, has successfully set up a political rallying point of some sort in his hometown Rumueprikom, in Obio-Akpor LGA of the state.
From regularly hosting emissaries from the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; meeting with the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi; to receiving countless number of PDP leaders on solidarity or conciliatory missions — Wike has turned Port Harcourt into an abode of national politics.
- Solomon Okocha,
<solomonokocha@gmail.com>