A popular Nigerian saying states, “Soldier goes, soldier comes, barrack remains.” What most ex-governors who favour successors in their respective states and then retire to Abuja as senators, ministers, or take up federal appointments fail to accept is that a new sheriff is in their hometown.
These politicians refuse to realise that the moment they step out of their respective states, the spheres of influence quickly shift to the orbits of their protégés. Hence, the inevitable clash between the godfather and the godson ensues, with the former often overrun by the latter, unless you are a president of the country. But even this is not foolproof, as ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo can tell of his clash with ex-governor Gbenga Daniel.
Nigerian history is replete with instances of this godfatherism conflict. The political battles between former allies Peter Obi and Willie Obiano in Anambra State, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal in Sokoto State, Adams Oshiomhole and Godwin Obaseki in Edo State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in Kano State, Godswill Akpabio and Udom Emmanuel in Akwa Ibom State, Ali Modu Sheriff and Kashim Shettima of Borno State, and George Akume and Gabriel Suswam of Benue State are the quickest to come to mind.
To the list above, we can now add the Wike vs Fubara Rivers Heavyweight Champion Showdown.
So far, the only exception to the above scenario where a godfather enjoyed a cordial relationship with his godson even after migrating to Abuja has been the relationship between Bukola Saraki and Abdul Fatah Ahmed of Kwara State. Analysts say this could be partly because the latter feared the bigger snake at home, Olusola Saraki.
*House of chaos*
Rivers State ex-governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the current minister of the Federal Capital Territory in the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. At the inauguration ceremony of his anointed candidate, Siminalayi Fubara, as governor, Wike walked regally and majestically onto the podium with women and youth ululating and serenading him. You would be forgiven if you had thought the occasion was called in his name. The new governor was just a second fiddle on that occasion.
Fast forward three months and a wide schism appeared between the two best men. The state assembly speaker, Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule, a Wike loyalist, was impeached. In his place, Victor Oko-Jumbo was elected by three pro-Fubara members out of the 32-member assembly (with one deceased).
In October 2023, the state assembly building was blown up. Furthermore, the commissioners and assembly members loyal to Wike were sacked, and the affairs of the state degenerated into a stalemate.
President Bola Tinubu waded into the matter, and a truce was called, with all parties cajoled to sheath their swords. But the embers of the conflict continued to flicker, and it has now spread to the local government areas of the state.
*Present conflict*
The three-year tenures of the state LGA chairmen elapsed on Monday, June 17, 2024. But being Wike loyalists, the state assembly leadership, who are also of the ex-governor’s camp, extended the tenures of council bosses by six months on the premise of Fubara’s failure to conduct new elections.
The governor countered by sacking the chairmen and swearing in new caretakers to man the councils. However, the Nigerian Police Force officers, acting on orders from above, have barricaded the LGA secretariats, barring the new chief executives from entering their domains of authority.
Before now, two security personnel—one a police officer and the other from a local security outfit—had been murdered in Governor Fubara’s loyalists’ efforts to forcefully remove the former LGA chairmen from their respective secretariats.
*The chicken is roosting*
Political analysts watching the live movie taking place in Rivers State believe that karma is being served on the former governor, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike. They point out his track record of being the bulldog ex-first lady Patience Jonathan unleashed to destabilise the government of former governor Rotimi Amaechi.
Before then, Wike had been Amaechi’s right-hand man when he served as the latter’s chief of staff from 2007 to 2011. For his loyalty and diligence, Amaechi nominated him as a federal minister representing Rivers State in the government of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. He was duly given the portfolio of the minister of state for education.
But as it was, Wike turned around and bit the fingers that fed him. By then, Governor Amaechi-led Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) was also having a running battle with Jonathan. And so, with the full might of the federal government, Wike bulldozed his way into Rivers State government to become governor against the will of his former benefactor.
Shouldn’t this have been a lesson for Wike that the political child you birth today could grow big one day to send you to an early retirement? But just like most ex-governors in the country, Wike hasn’t woken from his reverie.
*Amala godfatherism*
If a godfather doesn’t want to be upstaged by a godson, he must stay at the home turf with the grassroots, away from the glitz and riches of Abuja. In this way, the former would be able to keep the state’s party machinery in his hand. Politicians who have proven the efficacy of this theory include Bola Tinubu in Lagos, the late Olusola Saraki in Kwara, the late Lamidi Adedibu in Oyo State, and perhaps today, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano.
After the victory of the APC in the 2015 presidential elections, an elated Tinubu relocated to Abuja to help cobble together the nascent Buhari government. While reeling from disappointment because of being snubbed, Tinubu realised that the protégé, Akinwunmi Ambode, on whose care he left Lagos State, was growing wings and deviating from his anticipated plans.
Should he ‘siddon look’ and direct things from Abuja? No!
Tinubu ran back to his Bourdillon Avenue home, reclaimed leadership of his party’s Governor’s Advisory Committee (GAC), and nominated Babajide Sanwo-Olu to deny Ambode a second term ticket. Straight away, Sanwo-Olu won the 2019 gubernatorial election and, having danced to the tune of the Jagaban, was amply rewarded with a second meal ticket.
*Better alternative*
You could be a godfather like Tinubu or, better still, borrow a leaf from Borno State ex-governor and now Vice-President Kashim Shettima. While leaving office, Shettima sought the opinions of the state’s political establishments on a successor, and they overwhelmingly recommended the then-unknown Babagana Zulum. On May 29, 2019, Governor Shettima was pulled out and, in turn, took over the Borno Central Senate Seat vacated by Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai.
While at the senate, even though Zulum had served as the Rector of Ramat Polytechnic and a Commissioner of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement under Shettima, the latter always referred to the new governor as his boss.
In a 2022 interview with the Daily Trust newspaper, Shettima noted that the reason why a cordial relationship exists between him and his successor was his realisation that “there can never be two captains on the same ship.”
In the same interview, he said, “Prof Zulum is a forthright gentleman, and our relationship is anchored on mutual trust, respect, and confidence. He is my leader, my boss.”
Which former governor in Nigeria today can call his successor a boss? None!
And this is why the senseless and ceaseless conflicts between godfathers and godsons will never abate in the country.
*Curbing the chaos*
According to Shettima, what normally causes friction between a godfather and a successor is the quest of the outgoing chief executive for a third term by proxy. Hence, most of the godfathers, he said, seek the “most pliable, slavish, unexposed, dull, and chronically insecure person” as successors. And this is, according to him, political suicide.
This is because the battle of wits between an overbearing, exiting leader and the successor, which commences right during the transition period, becomes a cold war during the first year and explodes into full-scale political warfare in the second year.
And this is the stage of the political rivalry between Wike and Fubara.
But if Wike wants to be remembered as an elder statesman who entrenched peace and development in Rivers State, he would need to imbibe the wisdom of his current boss, Shettima. He should stay up at the higher plane God has placed him (minister of the FCT), go off the radar, and allow his protégé to blossom and call the shots.
This is because, VP Shettima said, “It is, to me, unwise and unrealistic to think you would call the shots as former governor when, as governor, you resisted being controlled.”
