Many political actors in both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) believe former Rivers State GovernorNyesom Wike, played a decisive role in President Bola Tinubu’s 2023 election victory. With Governor Siminalayi Fubara now in the APC, questions are mounting about how the President’s 2027 re-election bid will unfold, LEO SOBECHI reports.

That power must change hands periodically is a constant feature of democratic dispensations. But in Nigeria’s prebendal politics, how far political power undulates between incumbents and opposition contenders has come to depend on the whims and fancies of godfathers.

Rivers State, in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, has always witnessed the dethronement of political godfathers. Former governor Peter Odili propped up his former underling, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, through the leadership of the State Assembly as Speaker, until Amaechi became governor. As governor, Amaechi manifested the full strength of a crab as he dethroned Odili and sent him into exile in Abuja.

Amaechi helped to prop up his former enforcer, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, from the office of Chief of Staff to the governor to the position of junior minister in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. As a good social climber and political saprophyte, Wike entrenched himself in the Jonathan government and mounted on federal might to become governor, despite his godfather’s efforts to stonewall such ascension.

Having become governor, Wike did his best to ensure that Amaechi did not assert any power or slightest pretension towards any political godfather tendency. And, as he succeeded in freeing himself from the hangover of Amaechi’s former lordship, Wike dug his politics both in Rivers State and beyond with nutrients from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

It was that facility that enabled the former Rivers State governor to reach out to the strongman of Lagos State politics and leader of the ruling APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, shortly after his former benefactor, Jonathan, was dethroned from the presidency by the APC in 2015. It was also that political linkage with Tinubu that buoyed Wike’s political biceps to ensure that Amaechi, who served as Director-General of the Muhammadu Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation under the APC, did not use the legendary federal might to cause problems for him or abridge his second-term aspiration.

That Wike contested the 2019 governorship election as basically unopposed was traceable to the political magnanimity and strategic foresight of Tinubu. In his characteristic forward-thinking political planning, Asiwaju cleverly calculated that allowing Amaechi to implant a governor in the populous Rivers State would make his (Tinubu’s) political schemes for the presidency very expensive.

As Wike served out his second term, he started dreaming big, culminating in his aspiration for the presidency. At least, having rivalled Amaechi’s political records—moving from junior minister to governorship—he believed that even if, by chance, Amaechi, who was also contesting the APC presidential ticket, appeared on the ballot, he (Wike) would gladly square up with him (Amaechi), being still an incumbent governor of the oil-rich and wealthy Rivers State.

Fight against fate
JUST as Chinua Achebe predicted that only an entertainer wrestles with his chi, when Wike was projecting his former Accountant-General, Siminalayi Fubara, to succeed him as governor, he was mindful of the operation of the nemesis of political godfathers in Rivers State. As such, in a bid to ensure that he would not be wrestled to the ground as he did to Amaechi and as Amaechi did to Odili, Wike prescribed some limiting commandments for his successor, including that all contracts beyond the N50 million threshold must be with his approval, as well as not travelling outside the state for political meetings or interaction with colleagues.

But, as happens with every injustice, especially when parties do not come to equity with clean motives, the attempt to reduce Fubara’s stature as state chief executive developed some hiccups. In the incumbent governor’s attempt to rebel and allow fate to take its course, the godfather, who had become a super minister in President Tinubu’s federal cabinet, pulled out his magic wand. The attempt to impeach the governor threw the state into crisis. And as the melee threatened to boil over, the President intervened with the declaration of a state of emergency.

Nigerians were divided as to whether the declaration of a state of emergency by Tinubu was at the instance of the FCT minister, but recent developments show that the President acted both in the overall interest of the state, his presidency and the protagonists, namely Fubara and the House of 27 lawmakers.

Barely one month after the state of emergency ran its full course of six months, political movements in Rivers State have favouredFubara and the House of 27. In apparent appreciation of President Tinubu’s stabilising intervention, both protagonists have shifted away from the troubled main opposition PDP and declared allegiance to the ruling APC.

Amid that strategic positioning for the 2027 general election, the FCT minister seems to have been isolated at a political Ojuelegba. In his iconic song, the Afrobeat king, Fela, said that at Ojuelegba, motor cars come from left, right, front and back, such that a newcomer to Lagos could be transfixed.

Going by that curious political development, all eyes are on Wike to see if he would turn left, right, back or move front. Moving front entails staying back in the “malaria party” PDP, according to him, instead of joining the “cancer” platform, APC.

Shortly after the House of 27 Rivers State Assembly members defected to the APC, it was an exultant Wike that addressed a press conference, approving the move in the quiet belief that he would use the formal entry of his boys into the ruling party to sweep Fubara out of the Brick House, Governor’s Lodge, Port Harcourt, as well as make good his threat of cutting short the incumbent governor’s aspiration for a second term.

But, demonstrating the sagacity of a political small boy turned big man, Fubara did what Wike neither envisaged nor anticipated: he joined the APC, where party tradition says that the state chief executive translates to the leader of the party. Instead of running away from his control, the House of 27,Wike’s boys, found themselves coming under the influence and leadership of their nemesis, Fubara.

In light of these shifting alliances, Nigerians are curious to know how President Tinubu’s electoral bread would be better buttered with the former Rivers strongman, Wike, stuck at Ojuelegba. Many residents and political stakeholders in the state claim that Wike’s exploits in 2023 were mainly due to a combination of two factors, namely the power of incumbency and access to the huge vault of the Rivers State treasury.

Consequently, as the 2027 election cycle draws nearer, will Tinubu’s electoral fortunes be better preserved by Fubara with or without the inputs of Wike? As a former state governor, President Tinubu knows that the power of influence resides more with state chief executives than political godfathers.

Perhaps it was in recognition of that fact that the President recently met with Fubara and his Ebonyi State counterpart, Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru. Although details of their meeting with Tinubu were not made public, insiders disclosed that the President assured them that their powers as state chief executives are not subject to the whims of his ministers (Wike and Umahi).

Encouraged by that direct access and frank talk with the President, Fubara waxed exultant and, while flagging off the Rivers State Airport Bypass and Tollgate two days later, declared: “I’m very happy this morning. I’m not just a member of the All Progressives Congress; I am the number one. I have collected my card, and the form is 001. From this moment, it is not an issue of conjecture; I am there with all my chest and heart.”

In a veiled allusion to an alleged attempt by the FCT minister to stonewall his entry into the APC, the governor remarked that his decision to defect was informed by the need to ensure President Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.

He stated: “We are going to do everything to make sure that the 2027 election for Mr President will be a smooth drive in Rivers.”

Quest for relevance
DESPITE the ominous implications of Fubara’s newfound boldness and relationship with the presidency and the APC national leadership, the FCT minister, who knows that continued relevance in Rivers State politics, including averting the fate of Odili and Amaechi, lies through loyalty to President Tinubu, is making alternative arrangements to retain negotiating power.

Part of this search for relevance, The Guardian gathered, is the ongoing scheme to raise an alternative political platform to field his loyal House of 27 members for the 2027 election in Rivers State. Sources disclosed that with Fubara totally in charge of the state chapter of the APC, the chances of the 27 Wike lawmakers securing return tickets appear remote.

And as the fight for the soul of the PDP tilts against the former Rivers State governor, the comatose National Democratic Party (NDP) is said to be receiving his attention for resuscitation. While the chase to adopt the NDP as a special-purpose vehicle comes across as a subtle acceptance of the fact that the PDP has become a lost cause for him, Wike does not want to allow his detractors to have the last laugh by elbowing him out of contention and influence in the 2027 electoral season.

Not only that, a lot has been going south politically for the boisterous Rivers State politician recently, particularly with the revelation by a former member of the PDP G5, Governor Seyi Makinde, during a media chat. Makinde told some senior journalists at the Oyo State Government House that Wike appropriated the G5 to his exclusive political advantage, noting that while Wike cornered the juicy FCT ministerial appointment, other members of the G5 were left to accept lowly ambassadorial appointments as consolation prizes.

Dismissing the notion that he was an underling to Wike, the Oyo State governor disclosed that at the time the FCT minister was struggling with law school, he (Makinde) was running a company, Makon, which garnered $1 million in one year.
“I was 29 and that was in 1997. Wike perhaps at that time had just left Law School and then his next job after that was local government chairman, and his trajectory went up from there. I don’t beef anybody, but the real issue is this:

“I was in a meeting with President Tinubu and Nyesom Wike, I am saying this in the open. The President’s Chief of Staff was there and others, when Wike volunteered to hold the PDP for Tinubu against 2027, and I was in shock. When we got up and were at the veranda, I asked Wike, ‘Did we agree to this?”

Although sources confided in The Guardian that Wike was very pained by Makinde’s public disclosure, he responded to the remarks made by the Oyo State governor in a similar media chat on Monday, December 29, 2025.

As the two former allies fight for the soul of the PDP, Wike’s battle for continued relevance in Rivers State politics, as well as President Tinubu’s re-election campaign, will depend on how far he is able to stoop to conquer in his home state. Fubara, after surviving the furnace of political adversity and humiliation, seems strengthened to take no prisoners in any political spat that may break out in his domain. That much could be gleaned from his swagger and utterances after conferring with President Tinubu in the Villa.