Wike and Fubara: A crucial lesson for the Nigerian electorate

Nigerians never cease to amaze me as a people. We are uncommon in all our ways. We are complex in all our things. We are amazing in all our reasoning. We want to eat with Satan and maintain our title of saint. We want to eat our cakes and still have it.

Nigerians love a system that works but don’t want to lift a finger to build it. We want to watch and run commentary while someone else is building the good system we crave. To have good elections that will produce true candidates of transformation, the masses/electorate of Nigeria are in actual fact the true god-father that a good politician needs to run and win. But the masses of Nigeria don’t know their power and have no confidence in their abilities.

Standing behind a good candidate to help him win without having to succumb to the ubiquitous temptation to enter into a “carry me and rule through me” contract with evil godfathers shouldn’t be difficult for the Nigeria masses. Why is this so? It is so because he that is down needs fear no fall. The Nigerian masses are a people who are already impoverished by the errors of their past wrong political choices and inactions. We ought to have learnt our lessons by now. We have been cheated, lied to, used, abused and discarded by wicked politicians. But rather than identify a good candidate to stand behind, Nigerian masses are still rooted in always looking for a big man contesting on the platform of a big party or a small man backed by a godfather to secure the candidacy of a big party. This is the trap Similayi Fubara fell into with Nyesom Wike, his god-father.

Similayi Fubara did not qualify to be governor of Rivers State of Nigeria by the masses’ standard of choosing the candidates to support. He knew this himself. He knew he couldn’t stand the masses’ popularity addiction. He knew there were better candidates and older politicians than him on parade. He knew Wike was not looking for a governor who will serve the people of Rivers State. He knew Wike was looking for a stooge in power because of the kind of politics that has been playing in Rivers since 1999. But he knew Wike’s anointing will give him a leverage that his political labour of 20 years can’t ever run close to.

Albeit Fubara knew he wasn’t the best candidate in any order of ranking, he accepted his selection by Wike and excitedly began to settle into the idea of becoming Wike’s successor. He knew Wike’s plan was to put him there to insure his power base and structure against his arch-rivals and upcoming political forces. There was not any shadow of doubt about this. With his eyes open and with his right senses intact, Fubara agreed to be Wike’s stooge. He signed the contract without any reservation and sealed it with whatever token they use to seal oaths in their caucus. He became a governor Made in Wike, by Wike and for Wike’s discretion for Rivers State hoping by a stroke of miracle, Wike will become born – again along the line.

Common sense demands that Fubara should be patient to at least find his feet on the ground well before rebelling against his master. He wanted to prove to Wike’s opposite camp that he is a strong man, his own man and someone they could freely relate with. He knew deep within himself that he hasn’t yet gathered enough stamina to upstage the apple cart. If he was the strong man he wanted to become overnight, he should have run for the office in his honour and not run in Wike’s deadly shadow. Fayose warned him after he was sworn-in, but he probably thought Fayose was merely cracking a joke.

Fubara Similayi’s ordeals are caused by the nature of elections and politics in Nigeria. No matter how good you are as a candidate, you can’t count on the Nigerian electorate to help you win any election. Not even ordinary councillorship election. The good electorate are never enough. They always fall short. You will have to look for a god-father or money bags who will help you find the rhythm of the electorate and play it to win them over. As someone who has run for election twice, I know the Nigerian masses well. I always laugh at the ignorance of the electorate when they say “you are a very good candidate, you are a very intelligent and upright man but you are in a weak political party”. The real structure of strength or weakness in Nigeria is the electorate. As long as they choose to be weak by putting their trust in big candidates, popular candidates, big parties and candidates backed by moneybags or god-fathers, Nigeria will always have the Wike and Similayi type of scenarios playing out every now and again.

When the people begin to see themselves as the big force that can make any good candidate that is not popular and not rich to win at the polls without needing to seduce the voters with anything other than their intelligence, vision, good hearts, good plans and good manifesto, Nigeria will begin to enter her era of Deliverance and Transformation. But as long as we chose to be subservient electorate, waiting for ready made candidates who are creations of godfathers, moneybags, and mega parties, our days in the wilderness of poor leadership and underdevelopment will be long.

Rather than review their actions and inactions after every election, the weak electorate of Nigeria always find their dissonance reduction in INEC and the Judiciary. We make these institutions our scapegoats all the time. INEC is always accused of election manipulation and Judiciary is always accused of corruption even though the real culprits are the electorate who put their faith in big candidates and big parties forgetting that when two big parties fight, only one will win. When the masses arise as the true force of Nigeria politics, a small but good candidate in a small and unknown political party will win over a big candidate of a big party with a very large margin that will be too hard to rig. INEC will for example find it hard to shave off over 5 to 10 million votes margin in any Presidential election. You can’t rig such a large margin. Judiciary will be at rest because it will be a waste of time to contest such a victory in court.

With the masses awake to its role of the real godfather of good candidates, the politics of evil godfather will die forever. The politics of development will commence. The candidate will be free from all encumbrances. He or she will have no debt to repay to any god-father. The candidate will be free to serve the people without needless distractions. The people in turn will find it easy to support the government they put in office to succeed. There will be no fault lines or quarrels so deep enough to cause any President to declare any state of emergency.

Similayi Fubara signed a crazy contract with Wike. He owes Wike and Wike can’t be said to be wrong to want to demand for their agreement to be honoured or renegotiated.

Olanrewaju Osho is an apostle of redefining politics, governance and development in Africa. He was the SDP candidate for Senate for FCT in the 2023 elections.