Oyo PDP chieftain Dare Adeleke has dismissed Nyesom Wike’s attack on Chief Bode George as nothing more than “the vituperations of the stupid.”
Speaking from his Ibadan base, Adeleke described Nyesom Wike as “one of those who forcefully take possession of a house others laboured to build, with neither respect nor regard for those who laid its foundation and raised its walls.”
“Wike continues to dwell in a fool’s paradise,” Adeleke said, “basking in the transient political power he wields in the Federal Capital Territory today, boasting as if he owns the world. As he plays the tin-god in Abuja, appropriating thousands of acres of land for his insatiable self and his cronies; he should remember the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13–21). I leave him to that exercise, in the hope that reflection might yet lead him to repentance for his obnoxious conduct.”
Adeleke urged Wike to “pray to attain the age of Chief Bode George, and to be remembered for good, rather than thuggery, divisiveness and filthy greed.” He added that when Bode George served as Military Governor of Ondo State at the age of 35, “Wike was likely rolling tyres in the creeks of the Niger Delta, blissfully ignorant of nation-building.”
“Where was Wike when the PDP was conceived and built,” Adeleke asked, “at a time when Nigeria’s polity was boiling – over after the deaths of Sani Abacha and M. K. O. Abiola? Those were the days when strong men like Bode George stood up, took the bull by the horns, rebuilt the country and jump-started an engine that had been comatose since the collapse of the Second Republic in 1983.”
He said the founding of the People’s Democratic Party required “integrity, refined education and leadership experience,” virtues that produced a government led by Olusegun Obasanjo. “There was no rancour or treachery when the PDP became the biggest party in West Africa, if not Africa itself. In those days, low-lifers with zero integrity – men like Wike and Fayose – were nowhere near the party’s decision-making table. That is why the party thrived.”
“To suggest that Chief Bode George has nothing serious to do is the sound of a foolish man,” Adeleke continued. “Bode George is 80 years old – an age Wike should pray to reach and still strong enough to enjoy the fruits of a life of service. Whether Wike will enjoy the proceeds of his own profligacy is another matter, especially if he does not spend the rest of his productive years in jail, for the acquisition of stolen wealth.”
“Today, Chief Bode George is an elder statesman,” he said. “His role in the PDP and in life is clear: to expose, reprimand, correct and discipline any member – or younger person – who strays into brigandage, as Wike has done.”
Adeleke also accused Wike of undermining the Lagos PDP, headed by Chief Bode George: “The PDP put up strong showings in Lagos elections, only to be rigged out by Wike’s lord and master – the man he is trying to sell the party to for peanuts. In the last election, infiltrators paid deaf ears to reason. As a father, Bode George had no choice but to distance himself from the dissidents. Yet even then, without the PDP, Tinubu lost, quite ungallantly, in his own backyard.”
“It is on record that Vice president Atiku Abubakar confessed that he sold out Lagos to Tinubu in 2003 when Chief Bode George put the South West on the map of victorious states. Chief George singlehandedly led the five states in the South West, excluding Lagos which Atiku ‘dashed’ Tinubu.
“Unfortunately, today, we are all suffering the sins they committed at the time. Wike must be re-told that Lagos State, through the leadership of Bode George had produced several Members of the House of Representative and State House of Assembly.
Known as a serial betrayal, Wike no longer surprises anyone. His political mentor Dr Peter Odili remains a great man, revered by the people of Lagos State but despite all he did for Wike, the ingrate today, claims Odili didn’t make him.
“Whatever has pushed Wike into imagining himself a warlord,” Adeleke concluded, “is the same delusion that makes peasants think they are blue-blooded simply because fortune smiled on them. Inevitably, they stumble, fall, and are sent back to the hamlets from which they emerged.”
“Wike would do well to face his trials and dwindling political fortunes in Rivers State instead of attacking Chief Bode George, whose base remains unshaken,” Adeleke said. “After the FCT, Wike will likely become a political orphan – unwelcome in the PDP and scorned in the APC. There is scarcely any man in Nigeria today as disliked by his own people as Nyesom Wike.” He concluded.
