President Bola Tinubu has been asked to explain why Nyesom Wike, a former governor of Rivers State and member of his cabinet, wants to keep the party system in place even though he has stated openly that he will not challenge the incumbent in the 2027 presidential election.
Chief Edwin Clark, the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), made the request on Monday in an open letter to the president. He questioned why Wike, who he claimed had previously criticized the idea of godfatherism when Rotimi Amaechi was the transportation minister, would attempt to engage in the same conduct.
Clark warned that the nation would be in serious trouble if all former state governors acted like Wike did, insisting on having control over their successors in office, as in his relationship with Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Thus, he implored the President to summon the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister to responsibility.
Clark wrote: “Mr. President, I want to seek your clarification, why is the Minister keeping structures and for what purpose.
“I recall that in his days as a Governor, he had attacked the concept of godfatherism as totally unacceptable. As a matter of fact, this made him to fall out with his predecessor, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, the immediate past Minister of Transportation, whom we know was not even directly interfering in the affairs of the state.
“So, what purpose are the structures supposed to serve when there is a governor in place? This is a question that he owes you and all Nigerians. If all governors who as a matter of right, insist on allowing their favoured candidates as successor, insist on controlling them, insist on controlling the State Assemblies, insist on controlling the structure which they left behind, what manner of confusion will we have in Nigeria?”
Despite the president's previous intervention in the Rivers crisis, the top South-South leader noted that the minister of the Federal Capital Territory had persisted in making statements indicating impending trouble.
“I thank you for the action which you took at the time, including urging the Governor, HE Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor in office, Mr. Nyesom Wike who is today a Minister in your government to sheath their swords. However, let no one be deceived, the situation is not yet over and things seem to be degenerating by the day,” the former federal commissioner of education told President Tinubu.
