2027 Election May Provide Test For Wike’s Political Dominance – Ex-Aide

Oraye St.Franklyn, a former aide to the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, has said the 2027 general elections may provide an opportunity for the minister’s political dominance in Rivers State to be tested.

St. Franklyn, who served as senior special assistant on Social Media to Wike when he was the governor of the state, disclosed this in a statement posted yesterday on his official Facebook page.

In the post, captioned: “The Rivers Are Muddy, Wike”, the former aide reacted to the outcome of the governorship election in Osun State.

He stated that the outcome of the Osun election had reminded Nigerians that political structures, no matter how intimidating, were only as powerful as the votes that sustain them

St. Franklyn further stated that it was now clear that both the FCT minister and President Bola Tinubu are eminently defeatable, pointing out that political dominance is not immortality.

“Following the decisive electoral outcome in Osun, no one needs a soothsayer to predict that the rivers of Rivers politics have become muddy,” he said.

“First, the renewed confidence among Rivers people that Wike is defeatable is now as clear as crystal. Whether that confidence translates into electoral reality will depend on several factors, which are not my present consideration.

“What cannot be ignored, however, is the political history that has brought Rivers State to this point.

“From his emergence in office until today, Governor Siminalayi Fubara has had to govern under extraordinary political pressure from a Wike-led brigade of forces whose actions, in the eyes of many Rivers people, appeared more concerned with protecting Wike’s political influence and ego than advancing the interests of the State and its people.

“The governor resisted for as long as he could. Then came the full weight of federal political power under the auspices of the Nigerian President himself.

“From the local government crisis to the battle over the State House of Assembly, Rivers State was consumed by a political struggle that made effective governance difficult. Eventually, the governor temporarily lost his office through a six-month suspension arising from an alleged security situation that never occurred.

“The governor has since accepted his personal political fate and realigned with Wike, whose political dominance in Rivers remains formidable but largely untested in a direct contest against the present mood of the people. The coming elections may finally provide that test.

“They will ask a fundamental question about Wike’s rainbow political leadership in Rivers State: will Rivers people endorse his political example with their votes, or will they protest it by choosing a different direction?

“For many, it remains a bitter pill that Wike, among a long list of capable political lieutenants, would settle on his kinsman and business associate as the preferred alternative to Governor Fubara. That decision will itself become part of the political judgment Rivers people must make.

“Will Rivers people look away and empower Wike to consolidate his grip on the State, or will they use their votes to reshape the direction of governance and politics in Rivers State? History tells us that Rivers people can be deeply sentimental voters.

“Wike himself benefited from that sentiment when Rivers people stood with him against then Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s preferred succession arrangement.”