Former Southeast Spokesman to President Tinubu Narrates the Controversial Trajectory of Nyesom Wike’s Legacy of Political Instrumentalisation as the Reason Behind Current APC Governors’ Confrontation
In a statement made available to journalists in Lagos, Denge Josef Onoh, former Southeast Spokesman to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, reacted to the media chat of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, in which the Minister attacked APC Governors.
Onoh stated that the political journey of Nyesom Wike, from his roots as a local government chairman to his contemporary standing, reveals a consistent, troubling pattern. Rather than a trajectory of independent statesmanship, it is a legacy defined by bitter political controversies and a recurring role as a political wrecking ball used by higher authorities to decimate political opponents.
Onoh narrated that Wike’s entry into prominent politics began during his tenure as the Executive Chairman of Obio-Akpor Local Government Area (1999–2007). Even at that grassroots level, his administration was marked by fierce local rivalries and dominance tactics. Recognising his aggressive political style, higher political actors quickly co-opted him. He was positioned as the Chief of Staff to the then-Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi. In this role, Wike was heavily utilised as an enforcement mechanism to consolidate power within the state, manage local political machinery, and neutralise internal dissenters within the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) structure in Rivers State.
Onoh described Wike as the wrecking ball of the Jonathan Presidency. Wike’s political utility reached a national scale when he was appointed Minister of State for Education, and later Acting Minister, under President Goodluck Jonathan. During this era, the presidency openly deployed Wike as a political weapon to wage a fierce proxy war against his former benefactor, Rotimi Amaechi, who had fallen out with the Jonathan administration. Wike effectively weaponised the federal apparatus, divided the Rivers State House of Assembly, and engineered a massive political assault that destabilised the state’s governance. He was the spearhead used by the presidency to punish political non-alignment and shatter Amaechi’s structure ahead of the 2015 elections.
On the structural limitations of Wike’s machinery, Onoh noted that the Minister frequently presents his political approach as an invincible national formula. Yet the 2022 PDP primaries demonstrated the clear limits of his national reach. At that time, Wike wielded immense structural control over the national PDP apparatus and its leadership. When the final votes were counted at Eagle Square, his machinery fell short against the superior alliances built by his opponents. That outcome proved that a highly centralised, state-dependent political structure does not automatically translate into national consensus. Wike’s political influence remains highly regionalised and should not be mistaken for a guaranteed nationwide electoral asset come 2027.
Reacting to the 2023 G-5 rebellion, Onoh said the buildup to the 2023 presidential election demonstrated Wike’s willingness to destabilise his own political house when his personal aspirations were checked. Before positioning himself as the champion of Southern rotation, Wike actively and aggressively contested the 2023 PDP presidential primary. Following his loss to Atiku Abubakar—a Northern candidate—Wike openly positioned himself and was widely reported to be under consideration as Atiku’s vice-presidential running mate.
If the absolute rotation of power to the South was an unbending, foundational principle, any consideration of a joint ticket with a Northern candidate would have been rejected from the outset. Instead, after being passed over for the vice-presidential slot, Wike formed the G5 Governors (Integrity Group) to openly oppose his party’s nominee, actively undermining Atiku’s campaign in Rivers State.
“While our then Tinubu presidential campaign astutely utilised Wike’s internal grievances to fracture the PDP’s traditional voting stronghold in the South-South and suppress the opposition’s numbers,” Onoh stated. “In fact, I was one of the few PDP former members in the Tinubu presidential campaign that suggested bringing Wike into our campaign, including my former Governor—a discussion I privately had with close associates of the President and a serving minister that I won’t mention their names. The timeline proves and vindicates my position that the G5 functioned primarily as a tactical tool born out of internal party friction rather than a rigid ideological commitment to regional equity. Once again, Wike acted as an instrument of destruction, breaking his own party’s backbone to the strategic advantage of higher external political beneficiaries. We the APC have rewarded him immensely and he shouldn’t take that gesture as a sign of weakness.”
Onoh further stated that Wike’s public criticism of South-East governors for failing to deliver an outright victory to President Tinubu in the 2023 polls lacks sound political logic. The South-East region was responding to a historic, indigenous electoral movement led by Peter Obi. The political reality was clear: if Peter Obi had been an indigene of Rivers State running with that same regional momentum, no single political structure in the South-South could have halted a total electoral sweep. Delivering a state against a distant external candidate is structurally distinct from attempting to halt an unprecedented home-grown movement. Wike faulting South-East governors on this metric is an empty comparison that misreads complex regional dynamics.
