NYESOM WIKE: A DANGER TO NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY

By DAN Osa-Ogbegie, Esq.

There is a kind of politician whose appetite for relevance becomes a national risk, whose personal drama threatens the delicate scaffolding of democracy. That politician, today, is Nyesom Wike, the self-styled strongman of Rivers politics and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who seems unable to distinguish between power and propriety.

Recent events have peeled off the last pretence that Wike’s politics is about service or conviction. His public altercation with a senior military officer in Abuja over a piece of land, captured on video and circulated widely, was not only disgraceful, it revealed a deeper sickness: a man intoxicated by unrestrained authority. At a time when Nigeria is barely recovering from rumours of an attempted coup, and when every institution must act with restraint to preserve national stability, Wike’s arrogance in confronting a serving officer of the Nigerian Armed Forces was an act of gross irresponsibility. In a fragile democracy struggling to keep the balance between civil authority and military loyalty, such behaviour is incendiary and reckless beyond words.

The danger Wike poses is not confined to public outbursts. He has become the strangler of his own political family, the People’s Democratic Party,  the same platform that gave him political birth, prominence, and power. In his obsession with control, he has sought to muzzle the PDP, ensuring that it remains in a state of paralysis until he decides to resurrect it for his selfish ends after 2027. Across the country, structures loyal to him have been turned into instruments of intimidation, silencing dissent and sowing disunity. Like a man who would rather pull down his house than let another inhabit it, Wike’s politics reeks of vengeance and vanity. He seems determined to keep the PDP comatose, a hostage to his own ambitions.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must take heed. Those who feed the tiger of impunity for short-term gain often end up as its meal. Wike’s overbearance is not loyalty; it is opportunism draped in borrowed colours. His current romance with the ruling APC is a tactical masquerade, a shield from accountability and a pathway to reinvention when it suits him. History is replete with men who mistook access for alliance and proximity for permanence. Wike is the political equivalent of dynamite in a matchbox — noisy, combustible, and blind to consequence. To indulge him is to endanger both party and polity.

For a man entrusted with the stewardship of the nation’s capital, Wike has shown startling insensitivity to the pulse of the nation. Instead of humility, we see hubris; instead of service, provocation; instead of statesmanship, self-worship. His behaviour corrodes the values of dialogue, tolerance, and respect that sustain democratic culture. In a country already wearied by insecurity, ethnic tension, and economic strain, the last thing Nigeria needs is a minister who treats governance as a stage for ego battles. Democracy thrives not on threats and theatrics but on restraint, empathy, and adherence to process.

Nyesom Wike’s conduct is an early warning sign — the kind of arrogance that has plunged nations into chaos. His political recklessness, if unchecked, could set off tremors far beyond the PDP. He represents what happens when power loses its moral compass. If President Tinubu, the ruling party, and Nigeria’s democratic institutions wish to preserve the fragile peace we have fought for, they must not romanticise Wike’s recklessness as courage. It is not courage. It is madness with a microphone.

Democracy cannot coexist with the tyranny of ego. Unless Wike learns that lesson, or is made to learn it by those who still care for the republic, Nigeria may soon discover that the man they indulged for entertainment has become the architect of a new national instability.

DAN Osa-Ogbegie, Esq., a Benin based legal practitioner, is Publicity Secretary of the PDP , Edo State.