It is the deliberate choice of opportunity taken to start this piece with congratulating His Excellency, Governor David Nweze Umahi of Ebonyi State, Nigeria, for his courage in seizing "the PDP-bull" by his horn to deal a heavy, near deadly blow on him. Like it is widely suggested upon the event, this opinion agrees that the defection of the Governor of Ebonyi State, Nigeria to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was very long overdue.

This opinion also congratulates the South East Nigerians for the over 2 decades of unshaken loyalty, onerous commitment and superlative dedication to Nigeria's main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). More than any other region in Nigeria, the South East region should be the region with the loudest voice in determining the direction of the PDP, heading towards the 2023 Presidential race.

This is in considering that their son, the late Arc Alexander Ekwueme, Ph.D, a one time Vice President of Nigeria, was one of the foremost, and founding fathers of the PDP, and one who narrowly missed being President of Nigeria in the year 2003 due to the conspiracy of, and his betrayal by his party leaders. This opinion believes that just like majority of Nigerians supported the compensation of the South West for June 12, the PDP ought to consider the South East in the party's permutations for 2023, as compensation for the contributions of Dr Alex Ekwueme, may his soul find peace with God, Amen, to the development of the PDP.

This reasoning is what is lost to Governor Ezebuwon Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. Also lost to him is his ignorance of his bad sense of loss. Remembering how he was grinning from jaw to jaw when Governor Godwin Nosa Obaseki was forced to seek refuge in the party, Governor Wike has continued to hold down the PDP by the jocular. He lives to claim victories, like the vain victory he bath under, which was freely delivered by the PDP because of the irreconcilable differences between leaders of the APC in Edo State. This opinion feels that Governor Wike should have learnt the lessons of partisan inclusiveness.

No human on earth can tell another how s/he looks and appears externally, he can only tell another about his thoughts. Even the telling of thoughts could come with varying pathetic lies added to it. This is the error of Governor Wike: he thinks he sees himself better than he appears to others. What did he think led to his loss of bid to impose Reps Kingsley Ogbundu Chinda as House Minority Leader? Did he even realise that it was when the governments in the South East supported Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta to resist Governor Wike on the issue that they quietly overruled him?

Why the House Minority Leadership may not have appeared so to interested watchers of that event then, may have been because the governors who resisted Governor Wike's imposition, are all civilised gentlemen, they always refuse to show off the mentality of street fighters. It is for this characteristics of street fighters that Governor David Nweze Umahi decided to leave the PDP as a honourable man, not intending to engage Governor Wike in a match of words. Even at that...

It may not really have been the sense of injustice engendered by the PDP's neglect of the South East region in the party's consideration of the region to produce the next Presidential candidate of the party, as Governor Umahi suggested. "Something must kill the man who dies". Neither also could it be a Presidential ambition that Governor Umahi has, as wrongly insinuated by Governor Wike. A loser would always have his complaint for losing.

This opinion believes that Governor Umahi, not intending to make his defection one that he would blame an individual for, decided to personify that individual with "the party" the individual represents. So if Governor Nyesom Wike thinks he should be offended because Governor Umahi blamed the PDP for meting injustice on the South East wing of his party, he should understand how that relates more to him, who is personified by the party.

And why should it be Governor Nyesom Wike that should worry so much about Governor Umahi's defection to the APC? Is he the only PDP governor in Nigeria? Why was Governor Wike the first person Governor Obaseki deferred to when he sought to join the PDP? Why was Governor Wike the determinant factor in robbing the South West of the PDP National Chairmanship seat, insisting on holding it down in Rivers State, and giving it to a veteran party functionary indigenous to him, Uche Secondus?

Governor Wike has refused to realise that ambition is made of sterner stuff. And as he has rightly predicted, his house would soon be left to him desolate, until he realises that political party operations and participation must always ensure inclusivity, and the carrying of everyone along.

The prayer is that Governor Wike would not be abandoned to remain all alone with Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, as the only governors remaining in the PDP, to prosecute the 2023 presidential race. Governor Tambuwal's presidential bid has been the personal project of Governor Wike in the PDP. And why should Governor Wike make the Presidential ambition of Governor Umahi his point of hammering? As a first term governor, he nursed a Vice Presidential ambition, and armed twisted his party into being his image until he was sabotaged in his backyard in Elekahia.

Would Governor Wike not be promoting the imposed Presidential ambition of a northerner against power shift to the South - who is selfish? Is that not an obtuse presidential ambition he has chosen to pursue? Why is Governor Wike afraid to aim his target on the Seat of the President, himself? Why does he think Governor Tambuwal is better than him?

A dramatist personae that he is, Governor Wike enumerated how the South East was allocated the office of the Senate President so many times, but forgot that the opportunity was zoned to the South East legitimately, like every other zone enjoyed. It was not as a compensation. And as for the office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, handed to Semator Anyim Pius Anyim, it is hoped that Governor Wike understands that the South South held the same office for 8 years, held the Vice Presidency for 3 years and the Presidency for 5 years. Should he, a South Southerner, be lurking his interest around the presidency? He, again, forgot that there was a time Port Harcourt answered to Enugu.

Why should Governor Umahi not complain of an injustice against the South East, if he thinks Governor Wike has set himself up to trade the opportunity the South has, as it seems, to produce the next President in 2023 to the North, in order to satisfy his own Vice Presidential ambition? Unfortunately, this opinion sees Governor Ezebuwon Nyesom Wike as a very selfish, and self centred politician who is always at war with anyone who would not submit to his domination and subjugation.

Once again, this opinion congratulates Governor David Nweze Umahi for offering Governor Nyesom Wike an early understanding of how politically irrelevant the South Easterners have designed for him to become from 2023. And I pray he does not let the possibility of his becoming a Senator from 2023 slip by, and that he may not be jailed after all.

Ini Akpan Morgan writes from Uyo, Nigeria. Send feedback to WhatsApp chat via +234 810 2466 347

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