•The Story Of His Formidable Political Structure
In
Rivers State, Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike sits atop a formidable political
structure that has taken over 15 years to build. He started building his
political structure immediately after he was voted in as Executive Chairman of
Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. He first empowered the youths
from the LGA with employment from the sales of car stickers around the LGA.
Business operation permit revenue was also contracted to empower his people.
The Motor Parks in the LGA were handed over to his people to generate internal
revenue. The Local Government Council is Landlord to several multinational Oil
Companies in Nigeria. He handed over
internally generated revenue coming from such Oil companies to his people. With
the above internal political structure, he knows who is who in each Polling
Unit and at every political ward in his Local Government Council.
And
when he emerged as Deputy National Chairman of the Association of Local Government
Councils of Nigeria (ALGON), he took over the entire political landscape in
Rivers State and most of the 774 LGAs in Nigeria, thereby forming positive
alliances with other grassroot politicians across the 6 geo-political zones of
Nigeria.
The
Rivers State Governor is a smart politician who never delegates responsibilities
to others, while he looks elsewhere, but he takes every responsibility
seriously. In 2006, he aligned with the then Speaker of Rivers State House of
Assembly, Rt. Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to challenge the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in securing his stolen political mandate as governorship
candidate of PDP in Rivers State with a legal tussle that began in February
2007 and ended on 25th of October, 2007 in favour of Rt. Honourable Chibuike
Rotimi Amaechi being declared the duly elected Governor of Rivers State in the
April 2007 governorship election. While this struggle was on, Nyesom Ezenwo
Wike emerged as the leader of a political pressure group known as the Rivers State
Solidarity Movement (RSM). They remained together in the legal battle that
ousted the Celestine Omehia-led administration in Rivers State.
Thereafter,
he became Chief of Staff to Governor, Rotimi Amaechi. In this position, he
carried too much political power, even more than the governor, as there was no
decision by that administration that took place without his eagle eyes scanning
through such government deals. While the governor was busy attending to
administrative matters, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike was busy arranging the business side
of the administration.
Most
of the decisions affecting the award of contracts and the sharing of largesse
for political patronage never took place without his approval. During the
second term electioneering campaign for the re-election of Governor Amaechi, he
was the Director-General in 2011. He succeeded in getting a second-term mandate
for his boss as a result of his political sagacity in having built his
political structure across the 23 LGAs in Rivers State. By 2012, Nyesom Ezenwo
Wike was appointed a Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Education, where he
also built a super political structure across Nigeria as the one in charge of
primary education and tertiary education supervision. The construction of
Almajiri Primary Schools across the 36 states plus Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) Abuja was under his watch. Here, he empowered a lot of his political
followers, not only in Rivers State but across Nigeria. It’s even said that
when his superior, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai left the Federal Ministry of
Education, he constructed a duplex in her village as a gift.
In
2013, because of his governorship aspiration, he supported Brother Felix Obuah
against the late Chief Godspower Umejuru Ake, the then State Chairman of PDP.
During the state congress election held in 2012 at Port Harcourt, Nyesom Ezenwo
Wike supported Brother Felix Obuah who went to court until the Supreme Court
judgement that affirmed Brother Felix Obuah as PDP Rivers State Chairman.
He
quickly formed Grassroots Development Initiatives (GDI) with structures all
over the 319 electoral wards in the 23 LGAs. In 2014, he and other PDP
stakeholders succeeded in making the incumbent Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC). He launched GDI in the 23 LGAs of
Rivers State and was always at meetings.
By
December 2014, he resigned as Supervisory Minister of Education. Gov. Wike
maintained his political structure with support from former Minister of
Industries and Investment, Chief Kenneth Kobana and Barrister Tammy W.
Danagogo, the then Minister of Sports. The two ministers combined to purchase
Expression of Interest and Intent Forms.
When
he was elected and sworn in as Executive Governor of Rivers State on May 29th,
2015, he appointed Kenneth Kobana as Secretary-To-State Government (SSG) and
later in his second term, he appointed Barrister Tammy W Danagogo PhD as SSG
until he resigned to contest for the governorship primary election under PDP in
Rivers State.
-
Emeka Amaefula
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