2025 will be remembered as the year the unthinkable happened: the total political decimation of Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike, a man who once strutted across Nigeria\u2019s political landscape with unrestrained confidence and an aura of invincibility. For over a decade, Wike built a reputation as the man who could command Rivers State, intimidate adversaries, and bend the political weather in his favour. But every political empire carries the seeds of its collapse, and in 2025, Wike met the architects of his undoing all at once: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Bala Mohammed, Seyi Makinde, and ultimately, Siminalayi Fubara \u2014 the prot\u00e9g\u00e9 who became the executioner.<\/p>\n
A Fall Long Prepared, Long Ignored<\/p>\n
Wike\u2019s undoing did not begin in 2025. It was a slow-moving disaster anchored in pride, impulse, and miscalculation.
\nAfter losing the PDP presidential primary in 2022, Wike transformed from a party strongman into a political arsonist, burning bridges he once crossed with caution. His war against the PDP hierarchy was explosive, divisive, and deeply personal. By aligning with APC elements, he fractured the party he once dominated.<\/p>\n
By the time the PDP expelled him in 2025, Wike was already a man without a party, without a base, and without a lifeline.<\/p>\n
Tinubu\u2019s Calculated Patience<\/p>\n
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu understood Wike\u2019s strengths and his fatal weaknesses. Appointing him FCT Minister was not a crowning moment \u2014 it was containment disguised as reward. Once inside the federal structure, Wike lost the autonomy that fueled his power.<\/p>\n
When the Rivers crisis reached boiling point, Wike expected unconditional support. Instead, Tinubu chose constitutional order. He stood with Siminalayi Fubara, not Wike \u2014 a decision that exposed Wike\u2019s overestimation of his own relevance.<\/p>\n
It was the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n
Bala Mohammed & Makinde: Silence That Spoke Louder Than Rejection<\/p>\n
Two men Wike once considered allies \u2014 Bala Mohammed and Seyi Makinde \u2014 quietly abandoned him in 2025.
\nBala realigned with PDP elders.
\nMakinde refused to drown in Wike\u2019s battles.<\/p>\n
Their silence sealed Wike\u2019s isolation. The political structure he once terrorised no longer recognized him.<\/p>\n
Impunity in the FCT \u2014 The Final Nail<\/p>\n
If Wike\u2019s political decline had any remaining brakes, he destroyed them himself through his highhanded, unilateral, impunity-laden administration of the Federal Capital Territory.<\/p>\n
Under his watch:<\/p>\n
Demolitions became spectacles of brutality.<\/p>\n
Investor confidence dipped as uncertainty rose.
\nCivil servants felt targeted.<\/p>\n
Diplomats complained quietly.<\/p>\n
Political stakeholders across party lines felt disrespected.<\/p>\n
Wike turned Abuja into his personal empire, operating as though it were Port Harcourt 2.0. The bulldozers, the bluster, the fear-mongering \u2014 all of it widened his list of political enemies.<\/p>\n
Wike stepped on toes in every sphere of the polity: governors, legislators, traditional rulers, party structures, business elites, activists, and even fellow ministers.<\/p>\n
By mid-2025, he had built a coalition \u2014 not of supporters, but of people waiting for his fall.<\/p>\n
Sim Fubara \u2014 The Betrayal That Ended the Reign<\/p>\n
No event in 2025 symbolised Wike\u2019s downfall more clearly than Siminalayi Fubara\u2019s defection to the APC.
\nFor Wike, Fubara was supposed to be loyal, submissive, and eternally grateful. But political history teaches one lesson repeatedly: prot\u00e9g\u00e9s do not remain servants forever.<\/p>\n
Fubara\u2019s defection was public emancipation \u2014 and Tinubu\u2019s warm embrace made it irreversible.
\nIn that single moment, Rivers State slipped forever out of Wike\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
The empire collapsed in real time.
\nA Career Reduced to Rubble<\/p>\n
By the final months of 2025, the once-untouchable general was left with:<\/p>\n
No party<\/p>\n
No stable base in APC<\/p>\n
No influence in PDP<\/p>\n
No control over Rivers State<\/p>\n
No national leverage<\/p>\n
No political alliances<\/p>\n
Wike\u2019s political career, once defined by power and swagger, stood in ruins.<\/p>\n
History\u2019s Cold Verdict<\/p>\n
Nyesom Wike rose like a tempest \u2014 loud, forceful, undeniable.
\nBut he fell like a shadow \u2014 quietly, inevitably, and irrevocably.
\nHis arrogance in the FCT, his war against his own party, his misreading of Tinubu, his underestimation of Fubara, and his habit of stepping on every available toe combined to bring an end so total that no resurrection seems possible.<\/p>\n
2025 did not merely weaken Nyesom Wike \u2014 it crushed his political career beyond repair.<\/p>\n
Adieu, the Nebuchadnezzar of Obiakpo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2025 will be remembered as the year the unthinkable happened: the total political decimation of Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike, a man who once strutted across Nigeria\u2019s political landscape with unrestrained confidence and an aura of invincibility. For over a decade, Wike built a reputation as the man who could command Rivers State, intimidate adversaries, and bend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/wike-e1700969251900.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-8o6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32247,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32246\/revisions\/32247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}