THE BATTLE FOR BRICK HOUSE
Philemon D. Adjekuko analyses the costs and benefits to some of the candidates
Politicians are an interesting class of people. Let me illustrate. Back in late 2014 the race for the Rivers APC gubernatorial ticket was hotting up. Two candidates, Hon. Peterside Dakuko and Senator Magnus Abe were the obvious front runners. Some of the officials in Rotimi Amaechi’s administration projected that the governor would pick Dakuku to carry the APC flag even though they thought that Abe would be a better candidate. According to one of Amaechi’s aides, “there is a difference between a man you call your boy and the one you call your friend.” Dakuku is Amaechi’s boy. Abe is a friend.
As it turned out, and correctly projected, the mantle fell on Dakuku to carry the APC flag. Abe was very unhappy. Though he participated in Dakuku’s campaign, his heart nursed an injury.
As soon as Dakuku picked the ticket, his camp began alienating Abe’s people. At one of the stakeholders meetings in Government House after Dakuku became the APC candidate, Amaechi was livid about the way things were going between the two camps and lambasted Dakuku and his men. Appar- ently, Abe was not assuaged. His heart had begun to drift away from the political empire he helped to build and benefited from for years. A brilliant man was about to make a decision that some of his close friends are still trying to unravel till date.
Across the political fence back 2015, Minister of State for Education and former ally of Amaechi, Hon. Nyseom Wike had bulldozed his way into picking up the PDP gubernatorial ticket for Rivers. The sentiment in Rivers was strongly in favour of the PDP winning the governorship election due to Amaechi’s fight with then President Goodluck Jonathan and his decampment to the APC. A scientific poll commissioned by Amaechi himself a few months to the election proved that PDP would win the gubernatorial election.
Though the Rivers gubernatorial election was marred by violence and rigged according to court records yet it was upheld mainly due to what the Apex Court justices considered a conflict between the requirement of the Electoral Act with respect to the use of voters’ register and the card reader which was grafted into the act via INEC guidelines.
Abe went on to re-contest his senatorial seat but lost or was rigged out. After a long battle in the courts and a rerun, he got his seat back. However, his eyes remained firmly on how to get to the Brick House as governor. But Amaechi would not buy into that project. Soon the smoldering quarrel became a repressed open confrontation until the primary when the battle lines were publicly drawn. Abe and his men had a parallel office and conducted a parallel primary.
Many expected that Abe would defect to another party. But to where? He cannot reasonably go into the PDP to pursue his governorship dream. Wike is gunning for a second term. If Abe goes to a third party, he will disappear into a political black hole. He does not have the grass root popularity across the state to pull a third party upset. So he is, as it where, stuck in the APC to fight from within. That much he said in his response to Premium Times enquiry on October 19 when rumours had it that he had left the APC.
How much will this fight cost Abe? At the moment, a court has stepped into the fight between the opposing camps. Without prejudice, Abe may be holding a shorter end of the stick in this epic but unnecessary war. Head or tail, Abe has more to lose than gain. Why then is he in this war? What can he possible achieve from it?
If he fails to go to the Senate which may just be the case, when the dust settles, what happens thereafter? Some in the APC believe that Abe has some understanding with Wike. That is strange. What would be in it for Abe? He cannot look forward to participating in a Wike government in any meaningful capacity (assuming Wike is returned as governor in 2019). Abe was once a Commissioner and Secretary to Government in Rivers.
If the PDP wins at the centre, will Wike nominate Abe as a minister or head of a parastatal? Even if that happens, is that what Abe wants? Is Abe making a mistake that will dislodge him from relevance? I asked two people who know Abe very well about their opinion on these developments. One said, “Abe is on his own” and the other said something similar.
Has Abe lost a wheel in high motion? Only time can tell