It is becoming increasingly absurd to watch Nyesom Wike spew one piece of political rubbish after another against one of the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George.
For Wike to claim that he stopped Bode George from becoming National Chairman of the PDP is the clearest indication yet of how far political delusion can take a man.
Chief Bode George did not need Wike’s permission, endorsement or political approval to aspire to the position of National Chairman. He was a legitimate member of the PDP with every right to contest. In the end, he chose to step aside – a decision that demonstrated the restraint of a statesman, not the desperation of a self-centred, self-styled political emperor that Wike is.
Indeed, the irony is almost comical – Wike, while serving as Governor of Rivers State, personally visited Bode George at his residence. That visit alone should remind Wike of the political standing of the man he now attempts to denigrate.
People who refuse to respect the institutions and individuals who helped build the structures from which they benefited should remember one thing – political power is temporary, but history is permanent.
Those who disrespect the foundations that made them eventually discover that the higher they climb on borrowed structures, the harder their fall.
Wike’s claim that the PDP began declining in 2023 is particularly laughable. Did he suddenly develop amnesia about his own role in the party’s troubles?
Was he not the same man who openly and boastfully worked against the PDP during the 2023 presidential election?
How can a man who actively contributed to the weakening of his own party now rewrite history and pretend to be its historian?
That is not analysis. It is political revisionism.
Wike’s deep resentment towards the PDP is unfortunate because only an ungrateful political beneficiary could completely ignore the enormous electoral and political gains the party recorded at various levels – from local government elections to state assemblies, governorships and the National Assembly.
Blind hatred appears to have so clouded his judgment that he now suffers from selective political amnesia.
Obviously, Wike’s expulsion from the PDP is too much of a bitter pill for him to swallow. May he not choke on his bile!
Wike also appears obsessed with the PDP’s performance in Chief Bode George’s polling unit. He repeatedly returns to that point as though one polling unit constitutes the entire electoral history of the PDP in Lagos.
The PDP has contested elections across Lagos and has, over the years, given the APC serious competition. Bode George and his colleagues have remained committed to the democratic process without subscribing to the politics of violence and intimidation and election manipulation, that Tinubu instituted in Lagos over the decades.
Chief Bode George belongs to an older generation of political actors who understand that political disagreements should never become a licence for bloodshed.
That distinction matters when compared to Wike’s style during elections in Rivers State where a state becomes a front of unimaginable violence.
Bode George remains one of the few surviving political generals prepared to confront political roughnecks like Wike without surrendering his principles. Wike, on the other hand, has cultivated a reputation for explosive temperament, political intimidation and an almost imperial conception of power.
Yet, this foul character wants to lecture Bode George about leadership?
Wike should concern himself with the controversies surrounding his stewardship of Abuja rather than continually dragging Bode George into his political theatre.
As the self-styled “Emperor of Abuja”, Wike appears to have discovered enormous confidence in wielding power over the Federal Capital Territory. But power comes with responsibility, and the controversies surrounding land allocation, the Abuja Master Plan and the alteration of the city’s carefully planned green areas deserve serious public scrutiny.
He should focus on those matters and leave Bode George out of his mouth.
The constant attacks, insults and revision of history are beginning to expose something much deeper than political disagreement – an unhealthy obsession with men who refuse to bow to him.
And Wike should remember that political seasons end.
Those who appear invincible today can become political footnotes tomorrow. The same people who surround you when you possess power may disappear the moment the political machinery changes direction.
That lesson should be obvious to anyone who has been around Nigerian politics long enough.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere created by this administration has encouraged a disturbing culture in which political attack dogs appear to believe there is no elder, institution or respected public figure beyond their reach.
We have seen attacks directed at Catholic bishops. We have seen presidential spokespersons and political operatives engage in increasingly combative rhetoric. Even Lere Olayinka, a cobbler who benefits politically from Wike’s political establishment, now feels emboldened to attack a man of Bode George’s age and national stature.
That is not political courage, it is simply the arrogance that comes when people mistake proximity to power for personal importance.
Yet, every political season has an expiry date.
Wike may currently imagine himself as the Emperor of Abuja, but Abuja has seen many powerful men come, go and fall.
Bode George will remain part of Nigeria’s political history long after today’s political noise has faded.
As for Wike, history will ultimately decide whether he was a statesman, a political tactician, or simply another drunkard man who mistook temporary influence for permanence.
Power is transient. Character is enduring. History keeps the score.
Dare Adeleke writes from Abuja.
