Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, appears haunted by a familiar anxiety in Nigerian politics: the fear of being used and ultimately discarded. This fear is not imagined. It is rooted in history both his own political conduct and the fate of those who once walked the same path before him.
Wike knows this script all too well. He has watched allies mobilised, expended, and abandoned once their usefulness waned. What he seems reluctant to accept is that the same political logic he once deployed against others is now turning on him. Power, especially borrowed power has no loyalty.
The truth is stark and unavoidable: Wike’s current political relevance is conditional. His supposed paymaster has already secured an alternative in Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara. This reality is neither hidden nor speculative. Wike either pretends not to see it or believes he retains sufficient leverage through intimidation, coercion, or political blackmail to protect himself. If that is his calculation, it is a grave misreading of the terrain.
Politics at the centre is far more refined than the brute-force tactics Wike mastered at the state level. The actors he now confronts think several moves ahead, playing a long game while he reacts defensively, driven by fear. The era of noise, threats, and media theatrics has passed.
At the core of Wike’s current restlessness lies a deeper dread: the fear of the unknown, the unsettling awareness that the fate he engineered for others may soon become his own. History offers little reassurance. Nigerian politics has scant sympathy for overambitious foot soldiers who mistake temporary influence for permanent power.
Ironically, Wike’s trademark “grab-and-grab” politics which was once effective in Rivers State may now be the instrument of his undoing. Power seized without restraint rarely ends with dignity.
Ultimately, Wike’s predicament is largely self-inflicted. He played a central role in normalising political betrayal and must now contend with its consequences. One cannot sow treachery and expect loyalty at harvest time.
Someone should wake him from this dangerous slumber. The political tide has shifted, and those who fail to read the signs are often the first casualties.
In the end, Nigerian politics remains brutally consistent: no one is indispensable. Not even Wike.
Written by Festus Edovia, anipr, ficm.