Wike is disloyal, will run against you in 2027, Nwanyanwu warns Tinubu

By Nnamdi Okosieme

President Bola Tinubu has been advised to be wary of Nyesome Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja as he is not someone to be trusted.

Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, Chairman of Zenith Labour Party, gave this admonition at the Party’s headquarters in Abuja at the weekend while fielding questions from journalists on the political situation in Rivers State.

Mr. Nike has been locked in a battle of wits with Siminalayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State over political control of the state, leading to crisis of governance in the last few months.

Addressing President Tinubu, Chief Nwanyanwu who deplored what he described as Minister Nwike’s meddlesomeness in the affairs of Rivers State, said the former Rivers State Governor’s plan is to use the state as springboard for his presidential ambition for 2027.

“You know it Mr. President. You have been there for eight years. You are the most experienced politician to become president. So, you should understand it more than I do. If you don’t know, Wike will contest against you, President Tinubu in 2027. Take it to the bank. All that he is doing; forget about all this razzmatazz in Abuja, yes, he has done well, he will run against you. He will run for president. He will leave that office end of 2025 or early 2026 to prepare for his presidency”, Nwanyanwu said.

The Zenith Labour Party Chairman, who was also the party’s presidential candidate in last year’s presidential election, said he was not engaging in idle talk as he enough evidence to buttress his claim.

“I have on record, 26 speeches made by Wike which showed commitments; he has failed in all. So, your own, President Tinubu, will be moin moin case. That will be another regret he will tell Nigerians. I know what I’m saying. I know Wike very well and he knows me very well. Wike will run against you in 2027”, Nwanyanwu stated.

Commenting of the recent ruling by the Appeal Court, which upturned the dismissal of 27 lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly who had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC ), Nwanyanwu faulted the ruling of the court noting that the the lawnakers’ dismissal had basis in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. He said:

“Let us understand what happened in Rivers. One morning 27 lawmakers left their party that brought them to office and joined another party and still continued to operate as if they were lawmakers. Section 109 (1g) of the Constitution made it very clear; it doesn’t need a court process; that when you were elected into the state assembly under a political party, if you leave that political party for another political party, you shall lose your seat. It is automatic. Well, when they continued, they discovered that they goofed, that the man who instructed them to leave did not think it through it very well because he had disagreement with the governor. We don’t want to get into what happened between Wike and Fubara. That is their business, but we are talking of things that will strengthen this democracy.

“When the law provides that certain things be done in a particular manner, you must do it in that particular manner. They have been running from pillar to post. In fact, they ran again in order to come back to PDP through the back door. When they discovered that they had lost the seats and indeed, they had lost the seats finally unless they came back to do another election, they now went to court. They got PDP ‘s Legal Adviser to file a case that they had not left; the other party said they had not received them. But that’s not what the law says. You need not join another political party; one, once you have left that party to join another party or you may decide not even to go back to the house under any political party, the law says you have lost your seat”, Nwanyanwu stated.

He said this second attempt by the legislators to come back to the party they abandoned “through the back door” would also not work.

“Even when they had sworn an affidavit in court that they had left; they declared openly on video and television; we want to see that judge in Nigeria that will say they have not left because their names are not in the register of the other political party or because their party says they have not left. Leaving a political party, the vehicle you used to enter the state assembly is a personal decision. It has nothing to do with your party, the party you want to go to, it has nothing to do with some other places you want to go to. Ever since then, there have been demonstrations sponsored by Abuja to create mayhem to justify a state of emergency and God caught one of them with explosives(I learnt his hand was chopped off) amongst the Abuja group that went to demonstrate against the governor. Have you heard about it since then?”, he asked.

Nwanyanwu said the impression is being created that Wike’s action in Rivers State has the tacit approval of the Federal Government and President Tinubu.

“I have said it severally, he, (President Tinubu) has no business to listen to Wike. You have rewarded him for the manipulation he did in Rivers. We have let it go but you should not fire in Rivers that will affect your office as president. If the problem is about 2027, the person you should do business with is Fubara. He is the man on seat. You know it Mr. President.

“He should not destroy this democracy. Whether you did something to bring Fubara, that is your business. That thing was done in the dark. Why do you want to clean the stomach of a cow in the public? Carry the thing inside and do it. There’s always peace in Rivers until the Abuja group moves in on a weekend. The place will be hot until Sunday. When they go back, there will be peace. So, what I am saying, the FCT Minister should face his work here. He should not ignite a crisis in Rivers that will consume all of us including Abuja. And why I am saying this is because everybody will be affected. When we fought for this democracy; when I was young; when I was in the trade union, Wike was nowhere to be found. These are people who benefited from this democracy because of connectivity to time and space. Today, somebody like him is now seeing himself as the god of Nigeria”, Nwanyanwu said.