NYESOM WIKE AND THE WAVE OF DEFECTION CRUMBLING RIVERS PDP BY KENNEDY FRIDAY

NYESOM WIKE AND THE WAVE OF DEFECTION CRUMBLING RIVERS PDP BY KENNEDY FRIDAY

The wave of defections hitting Rivers PDP in the wake of the Appeal Court verdict on the Rivers guber election was not unexpected. People are beginning to see the light and getting themselves removed from the addiction of falsehood and from the cover of darkness.

There is another psychological blow that the few Rivers people who follow Nyesom Wike are contending with--that Wike is not the all-powerful man they were bamboozled into believing he was.

At the heat of the Rivers crisis when Wike was Minister of Education, he reached the apogee of his power and influence. There was absolutely nothing Nyesom Wike could not do in Rivers State. He could command the police. He could give assignment to the military. He could direct the DSS. He could have his wishes done according to his specifications. He enjoyed and wielded more power than any sitting Governor of Nigeria as Minister of State for Education. And he had a bottomless pit of money in hard currencies!

Nyesom Wike was much more than a de facto Governor of Rivers State. He could manipulate the judiciary then and have his way. The nocturnal Federal High Court judgment he procured to install Bro Felix Obuah as Chairman of Rivers PDP was an eloquent testimony of his power to get his wishes within a section of the judiciary.

So when people started worshiping and venerating Nyesom Wike as the god of power, when people started calling him "High Tension", "Power Karila", bulldozer and all sorts of sycophantic names, I calmly expressed my reservations.

My observation was anchored on the fact that Nyesom Wike was not self-sufficient in the power he wielded. His power didn't come from display of high intellectual prowess in politics, or the ability to network within the power circle, or from the force of his charisma. No, those were not the sources of his power. So the discerning could clearly see that his power didn't emanate or flow from within him, but it flowed from without. Such power is usually short-lived and makes its wielders come to grief.

Nyesom Wike's power, primarily, flowed from his ability to put a crude woman in his pocket through drenching her in stolen Dolllars and the baffling acquiescence of the then President, Goodluck Jonathan, in that unwholesome manipulation.

85% of Nyesom Wike's demonstration of political omnipotence flowed from his crude manipulation Patience Jonathan. The remaining 15% came from Jonathan's indifference, or acquiescence in that moral malfeasance.

So, while others were praising Nyesom Wike to the sky, and given him many watery power appellations, I was wondering what would happen to him if Patience Jonathan and Goodluck Jonathan were swept away. I pondered that Nyesom Wike had no internal value that conferred the power he exuded.

It happened that as soon as Jonathan was swept away, Wike started jumping up and down like a fish thrown out its natural habitat. Surprisingly, at first, he didn't realize that there was a change of order that didn't permit or approve of his manipulations and shenanigans. So he started talking loosely, acting strangely,  behaving heedlessly, and flexing muscles.

But then, like Sampson fresh out of the seducing and succulent laps of Delilah, he couldn't charge his way into the power that has been taken from him. Delilah had beguiled Sampson into telling her the source of his power, and lost in the charm of her erotic power, Sampson got himself effectively demystified.

We know how Sampson ended. A day is coming when Wike will come to the very nadir of power. All the signs so far show that possibility, and indicate that he is close to the Siberia where he will dine with Nebuchadnezzar like a lower animal.

People have seen that Wike too can cry. They have seen that Wike can come to grief. They have seen that Wike can wail uncontrollably. They have seen that Wike is powerless even in power as Governor of Rivers State.

It has not also helped that many people who followed Wike did so because of Jonathan. They saw him as a window to Jonathan for whatever reason. But less Jonathan, they have been disillusioned that Nyesom Wike can offer them nothing. So it is that that are taken their fate in their own hands and realigning with a platform that can guarantee their survival.

But it's a good thing that the wool no longer covers the eyes of those who were wowed by him yesterday.