When Nigeria Biafra War ended in the year 1970, it gave the ethnic minority groups in the southern Nigeria the opportunity to excel in their various fields of endeavour. I had the opportunity as a young school leaver to teach in the Primary School at St. John’s Primary School, Rumueme in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Master Ezenwo Nyesom Wike was among the first set of the pupils I taught in the junior primaries of that school. He was so robust that he fell in love with me. He was also intelligent and articulate in his class work. His interaction was full of brilliant ideas. I remember in one of my classroom interactions with my pupils, I told them that I would raise them up to be responsible citizens in Nigeria but that none of them should splash water on me if he/she saw me trekking on the road. I can remember that it was Master Ezebunwo who retorted immediately that he would stop and give me a lifting help if he saw me trekking on the road. No wonder when he became the Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Council after his university degree programme, the first thing he did was to invite all who had been his classroom teachers from primary school to university education to visit him in the office. Though I did not go, we heard that he empowered almost everyone who honoured the invitation.
He reasoned that it was the teachers that taught him to be whatever thing he was. Governor Wike holds teachers in high esteem. He believes that teachers are more important than any other professionals in Nigeria. So, he lends a positive attitude with the teachers.
I became intentionally interested in him when I noticed that he had running nose. My lecturer in a higher school (Dr. Mummuni) told me that any child between the ages of five and 12 that has a running noise must be a very intelligent child. Such a child must be pragmatic, charismatic, brave and optimistic in character. They are fast thinkers in their reasoning. They appear to be erratic or dogmatic in their behaviour. And if they grow up to adulthood, they would begin to show that they are wonderfully created.
Wike studied Political and Administrative Studies in the University of Port Harcourt in his first degree before he entered the University of Science and Technology to study Law. His primary political party in his life is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) .
When the political wave was very uncomfortable because of turbulence in the polity, many even those who started the party with him jumped out of the boat thinking that the boat would sink. But Wike singlehandedly mended the boat, so when those politicians who abandoned him began to rear up their ugly heads in order to compete the presidential seat with him, he would not allow them but spoke with authority that such politicians were not fit for the contest. He boasted that they should not reap from where they did not sow.
In his first administrative job as the Obio/Akpor Local Government Chairman, he was elected the Chairman of all the Local Government Chairmen in Nigeria. The edifice he put up at Rumuodomaya, headquarters of Obio/Akpor Local Government was second to none in Nigeria. It was akin to what King Alfred Diete-Spiff did as the first Governor of old Rivers State in Port Harcourt.
Wike as a charismatic leader is a digital and ebullient achiever. He calculates events before he ventures into them. He is a team manager. His powerful personal influence earned him the position of Chief of Staff in Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi’s administration. He performed very well in that administration that he became a perfect material for Ministerial position in Nigeria for four years. Many politicians in Nigeria had sought to go back to their states to be elected as Governor but it was not easy for them. Wike was swift to clinch the position of Rivers State Governor in 2015. The position which he enjoys till today. He was equally eyeing the presidency in Nigeria and many have thought that he had failed the primary election that would have offered him the position of Nigeria’s President come 2023.
But this writer believes that Wike did not fail and believes that political events are prone to unfold repeatedly as expectations will not be over until they are over. In politics, electoral process is wrought with surprises and shocks of which anticipated results will not be over until it is over. Remember what happened in Imo State; how the present incumbent Governor, came to office. Remember the case of Bayelsa State and so on. Shocks and bewilderment are the main menu of Nigerian politics.
Wike is always optimistic in all his endeavours. He weighs the two sides of a coin before he takes a decision. So nothing is unexpected to him as he has no regrets for any action he takes. In his administration as the Governor, he is aware that the three major projects in Nigeria as a third world country are road, light and water. Among the three projects, road appears to be paramount, because good road network will bring about development.
Economic activities will thrive. Farmers and industries will spread. Wike reasons that if he carries all the three projects at a time, his effort would be insignificant. And that is where all the past administrations failed. You want to impress everybody and become Jack of all trade and master of none. Wike believes in doing one thing and doing it well. He believes that Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt are the two major local government areas that link Rivers State to other states. So, he vowed to give them a facelift that will liken them to Lagos and Abuja. All the bridges and roads that he concentrated in Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt have actually raised the status of Rivers State. And he did not stop there, he has also extended his road network to all the 23 local government areas in the state. All the communities, even the homes of his opponents have benefitted from his administration. So, any incoming governor should take a cue from what Wike has done. Take one project at a time, either light or water. Concentrate on one and make sure your community has a perfect light or water infrastructure in the first tenure. Then, begin to spread out to other parts of the state because nobody will do it for you. The administration of Wike is for social welfare as he said. Then, employment, workers’ welfare and other stomach infrastructure will follow. He did the important things first which he did not expect any governor to do for him in his community.
Wike is an optimistic politician as nothing is unexpected to him in the game of politics. He monitors every step taken by his opponents particularly in rigging elections. He must have learnt from his mentor, Late Senator Obi Wali that the first major factor in politics a man should learn is how to be immuned from shock. Nothing gives Wike a shock. He strives in the midst of political turbulence. Wike believes that if his brothers from the South-South did what the Northern delegates did, he would have floored Abubakar Atiku mercilessly at the PDP presidential primary. Should Wike contest this anomaly in court he would have won the case in court, but he allowed the peace to reign because that action would have derailed the transition process.
That is why he returned home unruffled and instructed his followers to rally round PDP against the fight in 2023. Wike is so optimistic that PDP will win the 2023 election, because merging his force with that of the Northern delegates from the Atiku camp will give PDP a resounding victory at the poll. He has promised to throw his weigh behind the party.

By: Fidelis Ikechi Jahka

Dr Jahka writes from Oduoha, Ogbakiri.