The New Power Broker in Town

Traditionally, sitting presidents, which the PDP produced for 16 uninterrupted years, have always been the leader of the party. But since they lost the presidency in 2015, PDP was in disarray until the Supreme Court came to its rescue and the recent elective national convention of the party.

But since nature abhors vacuum, the party needed a face and Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, stepped forward and became the power broker within the party. With massive resources at his disposal and leading his fellow governors, they bank-rolled the party’s recent convention and ensured that their candidates clinched all the major offices available during the convemtion. Effectively, Wike and his allies spent 2017 battling for the control of the party and they succeeded until Fresh PDP emerged.

For the former minister of state for education, 2017 was not without his regular skirmishes with his formerally-turned-political-foe, Rotimi Amaechi. But politically speaking, Wike has had a better 2017 than Amaechi.

It will not be an understatement to say Wike’s doggedness saved PDP from total destruction going by the way he led his colleague governors on the platform of the party to breathe life back to a party that was gasping for life in the political theatre.

Wike practically saved PDP from oblivion. On his shoulders now rest the former ruling party. Port Harcourt has become the new Mecca for members of the PDP.

A perfectionist no doubt when it comes to the finer details, especially in carrying out his primary assignments, back home in Rivers. He has shown what a difference two years can make when there is focused and purposeful leadership in place. His infrastructural renewal in the areas of roads, schools, hospitals, housing estates has lifted the state to the extent that he is getting recognition from far and wide including the United States of America.