By Elder OSF
I don’t want this piece to be about the man Wike. But in truth I’m writing about him. I believe there’s a difference between writing about someone and writing of someone, or by someone and with someone.
Don’t mind me I’m just messing with you. It’s about Wike I’m writing, yes. Whether it’s of him or by, through or with him is, at best, misleading semantics.
There’s something in Wike that everybody should have. Yes, your mind has caught it too.
That relentless drive to push beyond limits, to chart new courses, to break barriers, is something every human being needs to have.
First off, Wike is not Jesus Christ. This is not about his values as a person. We will have to agree that our opinions on his values will be different, and that despite the difference we can examine his life to pick some lessons.
Why Wike, someone might ask. It’s because it is Wike. His story checks out well in the space we occupy as Nigerians. It is Wike. Everybody knows Wike – with all his flaws and accomplishments.
How Wike became a Minister, no I don’t mean being the Minister-Governor of Abuja, I mean being junior Minister of Education under President Jonathan, was by defying the odds placed before him by the political system of that era. It also involved facing stiff opposition by his erstwhile boss, our forever beloved CRA, the then powerful Governor of Rivers State.
How Wike became Governor, was by first refusing to cancel himself even on the basis of ethnicity, given that CRA whom he was seeking to succeed was of the same ethnic stock as he was in a multi-ethnic and diverse state as Rivers. He was relentless. He went the full nine yards and beyond. Some of his tactics are definitely indefensible but his relentless drive somehow counts for something.
How Wike ousted Atiku from being President, insisting on power rotation to the South, which favoured the incumbent President is itself worth studying. Make no mistakes about the fact that I am aware that there are various variants of narratives on how that happened. My interest is not the story. It is the fact that Wike got what he wanted.
He got more. He is the first Nigerian politician to influence the politics of both the ruling political party and its main opposition in his home State of Rivers. The very first person in history to accomplish that.
How does Wike’s mind work?
I’d tell you. It is solutions oriented. The impossibility of accomplishing anything has been so stifled in Wike’s thinking that it is impossible not to see possibilities, a way out of the myriad of complexities he navigates in the labyrinth of his daily political affairs. He is like a slippery fish. At least he’s proven to be that so far. You can’t hold him down.
Many times we’ve expected it to be the end of his political career, but somehow, he manages to wriggle himself out. Fayose his friend knows some things he has not told us. He only alluded to Wike’s opponents seeing spirits when they oppose him. But that’s not enough. What does Fayose know?
He knows how Wike’s mind works. He knows that Wike finds the way and where he can’t, he creates a new pathway.
This is how every human being should be wired. Wike’s creativity is not unique to him. But he has masterly mined the power of the human mind to his own advantage. Showing time and again, that impossibility is nothing.
As I said earlier, this is not about Wike. It is about the mind that powers his moves. If we can frame our minds like that and taint them with the values that we cherish, we will live more fulfilled lives.
This is how a regular guy from Rumuepirikom was able to be Governor of two Nigerian states back to back even without being a member of the political party of the latter.
Curse him for many reasons. He is a politician. He signed up for it. But when you’re done, give the man his flowers. He deserves them.
Elder OSF