ANALYSIS: Atiku-Wike Feud As Tinubu’s Jackpot
The festering political war between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, did not start with the fallout from the 2023 presidential nominations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The feud actually started with the party’s 2019 presidential nomination process, which produced Atiku as the candidate of the PDP. The then Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, was Wike’s preferred candidate for the race and he did everything humanly possible to thwart Atiku’s bid for the ticket. In an attempt to bushwhack Atiku, the then Rivers State governor had forced the leadership of the party to move the designated venue of the presidential primary election from Abuja to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
But the Adamawa-born old political horse proved a hard nut for Wike to crack. Atiku beat Tambuwal and 10 other aspirants in the race with an incredibly wide margin. He scored 1,532 delegate votes to win the party’s 2019 ticket. Tambuwal came a distant second with 693 votes. Atiku eventually lost the presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari who was seeking re-election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Atiku had, shortly after losing the election, relocated to Dubai where he hibernated for about nine months. The Wazirin Adamawa kept a thousand miles away from the PDP and its many struggles until close to another nomination process for the 2023 election. Not a few party stakeholders were riled by his nine-month truancy.
Again, Atiku joined the race for the party’s ticket, a development Wike and his camp considered as crass opportunism. The card sharp Atiku had maneuverered his way through a series of counter moves initiated by Wike to thwart his bid for the ticket. The ex-Rivers governor was a front runner in the race for party’s 2023 presidential ticket. He had expected Tambuwal to reciprocate the support he mobilised for him during the 2019 nominations. But to his chagrin, the ex Sokoto governor did not only join the jostling for the ticket, he also withdrew for Atiku right at the arena of the May 2022 PDP presidential primary election.
Atiku won with 371 delegate votes while Wike came second with 237, a margin of 134 votes. The ex-Rivers governor believed he would have won the ticket if Tambuwal had not stepped down for Atiku. He felt betrayed by Tambuwal, leading to the parting of ways with the ex -Sokoto governor. He has since added Tambuwal to his long list of political foes.
How Atiku Broke His Promise To Wike
In what stakeholders thought was an appeasement move, Atiku had, a few days after winning the 2023 ticket, paid a visit to Wike at his Abuja private residence. The ex-Rivers governor was in company of some of his political associates at the time Atiku called. Sources at the meeting said Atiku and Wike withdrew into a separate room for a tete-a-tete, after which he took his leave. The moment Atiku left, Wike broke the news of the PDP presidential candidate’s offer. In a jiffy, he put a call through to his friend, Samuel Ortom, then governor of Benue State. The then Rivers governor informed his Benue State counterpart that Atiku had offered him the vice presidential slot. An aide to Ortom, who was listening in on his boss’ side of the conversation, confirmed hearing the ex-Benue governor telling the voice at the other end to accept the offer.
But in a volte-face, Atiku, days later, asked the leadership of the PDP to set up an ad hoc committee to pick a running mate for him. The three candidates on the card were Wike, the then Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa and the then Akwa Ibom governor, Udom Emmanuel. The 17-member committee had picked Wike above Okowa and Emmanuel. But Atiku, for reasons best known to him, jettisoned the committee’s recommendation and picked Okowa instead. That marked the beginning of Wike’s political war of attrition with Atiku. The quest for vengeance saw the ex-Rivers governor mobilising forces against Atiku during the campaigns. He pitched his tent with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, then candidate of the APC. As it turned out, Tinubu and his APC reaped bountifully from the Atiku-Wike feud in the 2023 presidential election. The rest, as they say, is history.
Ministerial Job As Reward And Weapon
The FCT Minister has left no one in doubt that his appointment as minister is a reward for the services he rendered during the last election and a weapon to deploy to the advantage of his principal’s presumed 2027 re-election bid. The weapon is fashioned against Atiku and other political foes that may rear their heads on the road to 2027. He has used the weapon to effectively cut the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara to size while still in a duel with Atiku. The PDP, the party that raised him from obscurity to prominence, has also been at the receiving end of the sword. Wike had his right foot planted in the APC while kicking the PDP into a ditch with the left. The impact has left the main opposition party floundering at the national level, while the Rivers State chapter is flailing through a storm. Whatever is left of the PDP is being packaged as scrap, ready to be dumped at the junkyard of the biggest political investor in town anytime soon.
President Tinubu need not convey to the minister his self-assigned role through spoken words. It only requires second-guessing the principal who has not repudiated any of his actions as yet. So far, Wike has demonstrated an uncanny penchant and enough capacity to infiltrate and decimate the camps of his political foes wherever he finds them. He has earned a reputation for taking the fight straight to the enemy’s doorstep. So, a marked Atiku may still be within the reach of the intransigent minister. The Social Democratic Party (SDP), on the watch of which Atiku recently joined an amorphous political coalition, may not prove a sanctuary after all. Any structure, within or outside the PDP that could aid Atiku’s jaded presidential aspiration in the next election cycle might come under the minister’s political sword. The feud is all about Mr Wike’s political future and his relevance post 2027.
A win for Tinubu will guarantee another job in the next dispensation as uncertainties pervade the opposition camps. Politics anywhere in the world, can be as competitive and strategic as warfare. Wike crossed the Rubicon and burnt his PDP bridge by accepting a ministerial job from the APC administration. For him, there is no going back regardless of who the PDP or any coalition may pick as presidential candidate in 2027. For the two combatants, the political war of attrition continues. It’s fight to the finish that will eventually see the winner revel and the loser sulk till 2031.
ANALYSIS: Atiku-Wike Feud As Tinubu’s Jackpot is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
