At last, Nyesom Wike has been unmasked, exposed; stripped of pretence, and dragged into the unforgiving daylight of public scrutiny. What remains is not a master strategist, nor a political colossus, but a man consumed by appetite, driven by ego, and willing to burn down institutions to satisfy personal ambition.
Governor Seyi Makinde’s recent revelations did not merely embarrass Wike; they performed a political autopsy. The findings were damning. Wike did not stumble into betrayal, he engineered it. Unlike Judas Iscariot, who was recruited into treachery, Wike conceived, cooked, and executed a conspiracy against his own party, the PDP, fully aware that Nigeria’s fragile democracy depends on the survival of a credible opposition.
This was no ideological disagreement. It was transactional sabotage. Wike set out to weaken the opposition to the point of collapse so he could ingratiate himself with the APC and extract personal reward. The prize was a powerful ministerial appointment, which he secured. The cost was the deliberate vandalisation of the country’s political equilibrium.
Makinde’s now-viral interview revealed that barely months after the 2023 elections, Wike proposed deploying PDP machinery for his own future ambitions in 2027. This was not strategy; it was audacity bordering on delusion. What drove him was not principle, but bitterness, the bruised ego of a man enraged that Atiku Abubakar refused to pick him as vice-presidential candidate.
Today, the consequences are catching up. Things have fallen apart for the FCT Minister. His centre is no longer holding. The noise has grown louder, but the grip has weakened. The political empire he boasted about is being dismantled piece by piece, and the same forces he served now watch him with suspicion. No serious leader trusts a traitor for long.
President Bola Tinubu prizes loyalty, and by that measure, Wike is already expendable. His supposed stranglehold on Rivers State is being quietly loosened, layer by layer. Politically, his Waterloo is no longer approaching, it is staring him in the face.
Wike has also met a foe he cannot intimidate or outshout. In one composed interview, Makinde dismantled him without theatrics or bile. It was a masterclass in restraint over recklessness, a resounding uppercut followed by a clinical technical knockout.
The contrast could not be starker. While Makinde spoke with clarity, facts, and calm authority, Wike was revealed as what he has always been; noisy, garrulous, and addicted to brute political force. When Makinde earned his first legitimate million dollars at 29, Wike was still grappling with his bar exams. One chose discipline and intellect; the other chose bluster and intimidation.
With the Supreme Court affirming the legitimacy of the Ibadan Congress, the PDP has now been cleansed of a destabilising presence. It is time for Nyesom Wike to leave the party he tried to destroy and consider opening a Law Chamber. His days as a political enforcer are over.
The PDP owes Governor Seyi Makinde gratitude for reminding the nation that statesmanship is not measured by decibels, threats, or chaos. Barking dogs may dominate the airwaves, but it is the quiet lion that strikes, decisively, when the moment arrives.
The verdict is no longer in doubt – Nyesom Wike’s political relevance is in terminal decline. The arsonist has been exposed, and the fire he lit is finally consuming him.
Dare Adeleke writes from Ibadan
