Opposition Politics in Nigeria: In Nyesom Ezenwo Wike the People’s Democratic Party Died

DDM NEWS

Wike

In his seminal work, “In Biafra, Africa Died” Emefiena Ezeani masterfully interrogated the collapse of a dream, chronicling with vivid prose the heroes and villains of that tragic era.
He decried injustices and bemoaned scuttled prospects, not only for the the millions of lives extinguished, but also for the prospect of Africa renaissance that perished with the death of the prospect of a new country, Biafra.

Similarly, in this revelatory treatise titled Opposition Politics in Nigeria: In Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, the People’s Democratic Party Died, we endeavored to unveil how hubris and a festering sense of entitlement among the PDP’s elites escalated a manageable internal dispute into an existential crisis—one that cost the party the 2023 presidential election and continues to threaten the very foundations of what was once West Africa’s most formidable political force.

At the center of this political tragedy stand two towering figures: Atiku Abubakar and Nyesom Wike. In a prior exposition, we dissected Atiku’s presence within the PDP, a man whose activities in the party sometimes had been disruptive and whose membership of the party had been inconsistent, to say the least, and how his perennial ambition for Nigeria’s presidency, regardless of the party’s fortunes, has repeatedly destabilized the very platform that carried him. His self-serving political peregrinations have, by the account of seasoned analysts, largely orchestrated the PDP’s long, tortured march toward irrelevance.

Simon Kolawole, writing for The Nation, recounts a story illustrative of Nigeria’s brutal political culture. Prior to the 1999 presidential primaries, the APP (now part of APC) descended into chaos over the late Dr. Olusola Saraki’s insistence on pursuing the presidential ticket of the APP despite the position being zoned southward. When confronted by Simon about being perceived as a “spoiler,” Chief Arthur Nzeribe retorted coldly: “Do I spoil for nothing?” From that encounter, Simon Kolawole learned his first lesson in politics: what the public perceives as playing the spoiler is often a calculated political strategy.

Today, many, perhaps unfairly, cast Chief (Barr.) Nyesom Ezenwo Wike in that same mold—a political spoiler, orchestrating the PDP’s misfortunes to pave the way for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 re-election. Whether this accusation holds water is immaterial; what is clear is that Wike is a man wronged—a man nursing deep wounds inflicted by a party he once nursed back to life. A man who has suffered series of disappointments, humiliations and betrayals by some in the party whom he had trusted.

In politics, as in medicine, a wrong diagnosis ensures a fatal prognosis. To understand how the PDP arrived at this precipice is to confront the truth: its ailments are self-inflicted and now likely beyond cure—at least until after the 2027 general elections, if the party even survives that long. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic but PDP’s problem has effectively become a political conundrum and therefore will be protracted.

The seeds of this self-destruction were sown long ago. In 2017, two years after Goodluck Jonathan’s historic loss to Muhammadu Buhari and the APC coalition, the PDP suffered a near-mortal blow. It was embroiled in a ruinous leadership battle after an ill-fated decision to appoint Ali Modu Sheriff, a former ANPP stalwart, as its acting national chairman.

Sheriff quickly unraveled and his tenure swiftly degenerated into open warfare, splitting the PDP into warring factions and culminating in parallel conventions in Abuja and Port Harcourt. At the convention in PortHarcourt which was backed by majority of the party’s leadership, organs and structures, Sen Ahmed Makarfi was declared the interim national chairman of a caretaker committee that emerged from that convention.

Following the declaration of Sen Ahmed Makarfi by the party as the national chairman of the party’s caretaker committee, Ali Modu Sheriff went to court and that sparked some hard fought legal battles that threatened the very survival of an opposition party reeling from a catastrophic loss in a presidential election two years earlier. The party led Ahmed Makarfi, backed staunchly—and financed heavily—by Nyesom Wike and supported by Ayodele Fayose waged a fierce legal war that ascended to the Supreme Court. There, Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, writing the lead judgment, decisively excised Sheriff, reinstated Makarfi earlier sacked by the Port Harcourt Division of the Court of Appeal, and preserved not merely the PDP’s existence but the fragile scaffolding of Nigeria’s democracy itself.

It was Wike, who bankrolled this salvation—paying legal fees, party salaries, and sustaining operations at both the national secretariat and across state secretariats where there were no PDP governors. His unmatched financial and organizational contributions made him the party’s de facto power broker: the piper who, inevitably, would call the tune. But the seeds of betrayal were already sprouting.

From 2015 onwards, PDP hemorrhaged gravitas. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo publicly shredded his party membership card in an infamous press conference, sat out the campaign season and remained mostly on the sideline; Atiku Abubakar, citing broken promises on power rotation, defected to the APC and actively worked to ensure Goodluck Jonathan’s defeat—only to later return to the PDP seeking its presidential ticket.

The very men who deserted or sabotaged the party now sought to reclaim it, marginalizing the likes of Wike who had fought and bled for its survival. This profound sense of betrayal would fuel Wike’s later insurrection.

We know that Nyesom Wike, Ayodele Fayose, and Ahmed Makarfi were stalwarts who, when the PDP teetered on the brink of extinction, stood resolute and prevented its annihilation. However, Nyesom Wike emerged as the most pivotal actor.
At the heart of Wike’s power was Rivers State, his impregnable fortress.

During his tenure as Minister of State for Education under President Goodluck Jonathan, Wike harbored aspirations to govern Rivers State. Understanding that a revitalized PDP would be the only viable conduit to realizing his ambition, Wike embarked on a formidable campaign to resuscitate the party within the state—a template he would later replicate on a national scale. His influence extended even to states where the PDP’s grip had weakened, cementing his stature as a dominant figure within the party.

The PDP in Rivers State was left fractured and impotent following the defection of then-Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who, along with five other governors, abandoned the PDP for the All Progressives Congress (APC). Amaechi’s exodus, accompanied by key members of his administration and a significant portion of the state legislature, left the PDP decimated, bereft of resources, and on the brink of collapse. Wike, resigning from his ministerial post, returned to Rivers State and launched the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI). At a time when many political heavyweights had either defected or retired, Wike took command of the remnants, restructuring the party and reigniting its political momentum. With strategic backing from former First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan and a measure of fortuitous timing, Wike engineered the PDP’s resurgence, successfully wrestling control of the State from Amaechi and restoring the party’s dominance in Rivers State. His extraordinary efforts in salvaging the shattered remnants of the PDP in Rivers State formed the crux of the ongoing political storm in the state.

Throughout his governorship, Wike maintained a stranglehold on Rivers State’s political machinery, ensuring that all elective offices—both state and federal—remained firmly under PDP control. Through shrewd political maneuvering, he positioned loyalists in key roles not just within Rivers, but across states where the PDP lacked governors, fortifying his long-term influence. Wike’s ambitions did not end with his immediate successes; he meticulously built what he termed a “Political Structure,” designed to serve as leverage in future political negotiations. On several occasions, he boasted to fellow PDP leaders, challenging them to deliver electoral victories in their respective states while he guaranteed Rivers State for the PDP. This grandstanding, fueled by an insatiable appetite for electoral victory and political dominance defined Wike.

On the national stage, Wike’s influence remained unassailable. Having secured the PDP’s victory at the Supreme Court—a triumph to which he made vital contributions—Wike consolidated his authority within the party. His backing of Uche Secondus for the role of National Chairman, a position Secondus won with Wike’s overwhelming support, exemplified Wike’s near-total control over the PDP’s internal apparatus.

Yet, it was precisely this dominance that incubated resentment. When the 2023 presidential primaries approached, the PDP abandoned its long-standing zoning principles—ignoring the South’s legitimate claims to the ticket. Wike, who expected reciprocal loyalty after years of sacrifice, was spurned in favor of Atiku Abubakar.

PDP past zoning arrangement reflected a commitment by the party to balance and inclusivity within its structure. This very framework also became a lightning rod for future conflicts, particularly the 2023 presidential primaries in which the party blatantly ignored its own traditional zoning arrangements, which gave rise to the G-5 governors and Nyesom Wike’s resonant mantra in Igbo, “Enye Ndi Ebia, Enye Ndi Ebia” (You give to these people, you give to the other people).

Atiku compounded the insult by ignoring the party’s own selection committee’s recommendation and choosing Ifeanyi Okowa—a figure seen by many as weak and uninspiring—as his running mate. Furthermore, Iyorchia Ayu, the party’s National Chairman’s refused to resign as promised, thereby perpetuating the North’s stranglehold over the PDP’s leadership apparatus. Wike and his allies—dubbed the G-5 Governors, after several overtures to Atiku and his fellow northern oligarchs for a soft landing spot and victory, any victory, no matter how small had been rejected, ignored and even dismissed, and he, Wike humiliated, then revolted, and the party imploded from within.

The betrayals Wike suffered were legion: allies he had empowered and supported—Atiku, Secondus, Tambuwal, Saraki—repudiated him. His pride and his political investment lay in tatters.

Faced with the stark reality of marginalization, Wike executed a devastating countermove: he threw his support behind Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and accepted a ministerial role in his administration—all while technically remaining within the PDP. It was a masterstroke of political gamesmanship.

Today, Wike is to the PDP like the proverbial bee perched on a man’s scrotum: strike it and risk catastrophic injury; ignore it and suffer endless torment. The party, already aflame, is watching its members stampede toward the exits.

President Tinubu has seized the moment. As opposition parties descend into fratricide, mass defections into APC are consolidating his hold on power, and the dream of any viable opposition to APC rule dims by the day. With Bola Ahmed Tinubu—the most lethal strategist Nigerian politics has ever produced allied with Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, a master political strategist in Nigeria with his own records of political successes in all account, the 2027 reelection for Tinubu seems almost guaranteed unless of course, there is a divine earthquake that tilts the current balance or an internal revolt within Tinubu’s own APC.

We have seen Tinubu, outside the corridor of presidential powers, crush internal party revolt before, when he thwarted his party’s leadership attempt to deny him the party’s presidential ticket through a fabricated consensus candidate plot. The party chairman who led that effort is now resting in political monastery. We also saw Tinubu, outside the corridor of presidential powers halted an attempt to derail his presidential campaign by a sudden re-coloration of Nigeria’s currency in a effort to stop him from winning the 2023 presidential election. The man who led that effort is now cooling off in one of Nigeria’s dungeons. With Tinubu wielding presidential powers in the manner he does now, and with all of Nigeria’s public institutions under his firm control, it remains to be seen what forces can stop him in 2027.

Meanwhile, the People’s Democratic Party, once a behemoth of Nigerian politics, stands hollowed—undone not by its enemies, but by its own treachery, arrogance, and blindness. And at the heart of its tragedy stands Nyesom Ezenwo Wike: the savior they betrayed, and the executioner they cannot dethrone.

About the Author
Bishop C. Johnson continues to scrutinize Nigeria’s political landscape from his rural agricultural village in Imo State but you can reach him at b.chuck.johnson@gmail.com.

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