Who is Nyesom Wike? Meet Firebrand Nigerian Governor of Rivers State

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Key Facts About Nyesom Wike

He is a Nigerian lawyer and politician.
He is from Obio-Akpor in Rivers State.
He is of Ikwere heritage.
He’s the father of three children.
He is a devout Christian.
He was born on December 13, 1967.
Erenwo Nyesom Wike is his full name.
He is a People’s Democratic Party member.
He attended Rivers State University of Science and Technology.
He’s worth almost $10 billion.

Who is Nyesom Wike?

Nyesom Wike is a politician and lawyer from Nigeria. He currently serves as the sixth Governor of Rivers State and is in office. His hometown is Rumuepirikom in Obio-Akpor, Rivers State, and he identifies as Ikwerre. He was born on December 13, 1967, in Obio-Akpor, Rivers, Nigeria. The complete form of his name is Ezenwo Nyesom Wike. He attended Rivers State University of Science and Technology and is a People’s Democratic Party member.

From 1999 to 2007, the people of Obio Akpor Local Government Area elected Nyesom Wike to serve as their Executive Chairman. On July 14, 2011, he became the Minister of State for Education. After Mrs. Ruqqayatu Rufai’s dismissal, Nyesom Wike was named Acting Minister of Education, but he resigned before the end of his term to run for Governor of Rivers State. Viola Onwuliri took his place. In 2014, he ran for governor of Rivers State and was successful in the party’s primary election. He picked Ipalibo Banigo, a former state government secretary, as his running mate.

After announcing his candidacy for president of Nigeria on the People’s Democratic Party ticket in March 2022, Nyesom Wike lost the party’s primary to eventual nominee Atiku Abubakar on May 28 and 29, 2022, at the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja. In the gubernatorial election held on April 11, Nyesom Wike prevailed over All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Dakuku Peterside and Labour Party candidate Tonye Princewill. Abubakar received 371 votes to Nyesom Wike’s 237, with Nyesom Wike finishing as the party’s first runner-up.

Nyesom Wike is also the leader of a group of five dissident Nigerian governors known as G5, who are fighting against the opposition party’s leadership, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), after Atiku Abubakar was selected as the party flagbearer for the general election in 2023. In Port Harcourt, Nyesom Wike began construction on three significant flyovers at once during his second term as governor. Flyovers can be found at the Garrison, Rumoukoro, and Artillery locations. Nyesom Wike is the governor of Rivers State and the husband of Eberechi Suzzette Wike, a judge on the state’s highest court. The couple has three children together.

Nyesom Wike Early Life

Nyesom Wike was born on December 13, 1967, in Obio-Akpor in the Nigerian state of Rivers. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike is his full name. Nlemanya Wike is known to be his father.

Nyesom Wike Education

The Rivers State University of Science and Technology is where Nyesom Wike studied after he completed his O-levels at Government Secondary School Eneka in Obiakpor, Rivers State (RSUT). From Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Nyesom Wike earned a Master of Arts in Political and Administrative Studies (RSUT). He attended RSUT and graduated with a Bachelor of Law in 1997, after which he enrolled in law school.

Nyesom Wike Career

Nyesom Wike began his political career in 1999 as the Executive Chairman of Obio Akpor Local Government Area in Rivers, which he held until 2007. He began working for Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State as his chief of staff in 2007. President Goodluck Jonathan nominated him as Minister of State for Education in July 2011, and in September 2013, he was elevated to his current position as Federal Minister of Education. He left his role as a federal minister to run for governor of his home state of Rivers in 2015. Nyesom Wike’s election was the subject of the first day of hearings before the Rivers State Election Tribunal in Abuja on May 13, 2015. For the APC’s Dr. Dakuku Peterside, the election of the PDP’s Nyesom Wike as governor on April 11, 2015, was tainted by irregularities and failure to comply with the Electoral Act. Thus he asked the tribunal to overturn the results. To hear the case, Nyesom Wike argued that the tribunal should be moved from Abuja to Port Harcourt. Despite Nyesom Wike’s protests, the court was moved to Abuja out of concerns for the jurors’ safety and witnesses by Justice Zainab Bulkachawa, who was then the president of the Court of Appeal. As for the other three states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe, Justice Zainab ruled that all hearings for their respective Election Petition Tribunals must take place in the nation’s capital of Abuja.

Nyesom Wike had been avoiding service of court summons and other processes in the petition challenging his elections, so presiding Justice Muazu Pindiga granted a request for substituted service on the governor-elect made by Mr. Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, counsel to Dr. Dakuku Peterside of the All Progressives Congress. According to Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, the court bailiffs had tried to serve Nyesom Wike on multiple occasions. Still, each time the security guards at the gate had turned them away upon learning that Oluwarotimi Akeredolu was a court bailiff. Justice Pindiga, who granted the petitions, also ruled that the court documents must be posted on Nyesom Wike’s home wall at the move of the petitioner’s attorney. Substituted service was then ordered against Nyesom Wike by Justice Pindiga, who specified that it might take place either by posting a copy of the court documents at Nyesom Wike’s residence or by leaving a copy at the PDP secretariat in Rivers state or Abuja. On October 24, 2015, a panel in Rivers State overturned Nyesom Wike’s election as governor. Within 90 days of the day of the ruling, the election tribunal ordered a new round of voting for the governorship of Rivers State. When asked about the tribunal’s decision, Nyesom Wike stated he would appeal it. According to documents submitted to the Election Tribunal, the number of votes awarded to Nyesom Wike by the Independent National Electoral Commission in Rivers was nearly five times higher than the actual, authentic total number of voters accredited with card readers and Permanent Voter Cards, which was 292, 878, for the gubernatorial election held on April 11, 2015. On April 13, 2015, the Rivers State Returning Officer Osasere Orumwense announced that Nyesom Wike had received 1,029,102 votes and had therefore won the election.

While Abimbola Oladunjoye, head of unit, Data Management for the commission’s Information and Communication Technology Division, and Ibrahim Bawa, acting director of INEC Legal Unit, signed the paper, it was officially ratified by both parties. On April 13, Rivers State’s Returning Officer, Osasere Orumwense, announced that Nyesom Wike had won with 1,029,102 votes (87.77 percent of 1,228,614). However, the tribunal was informed that just 292,878 people were registered to vote in Rivers based on records submitted by INEC. It was also widely known that widespread Card Reader malfunction on Poll Day forced the election to be postponed until the next day and allowed for manual accreditation in place of the faulty card readers. Mr. Ibrahim Bawa, acting director in charge of the INEC Legal Unit, and Mr. Abimbola Oladunjoye, head of the unit, Data Management, INEC Information, and Communication Technology Department, signed the INEC paper. To prevent voter fraud through manual accreditation, the commission’s central server recorded all votes in the Rivers State elections on April 11. Accredited and legitimate votes in gubernatorial polls can only be those acquired by the centralized servers from the PVC-SCR. However, in the case of Agbaje vs. Ambode, the Court of Appeal concluded that the absence of card readers was insufficient to invalidate the election. On October 24, 2015, the River State Governorship Election Tribunal overturned Nyesom Wike’s victory. An uproar has been heard across the country as a result of the election tribunal’s order to rerun the governorship election in Rivers State within 90 days of the day of ruling due to allegations of partisanship and corruption within the court. After a brief delay, on Wednesday, April 3, 2019, INEC announced that Nyesom Wike had won the governorship election in Rivers State. On May 29, 2019, at Yakubu Gowon Stadium in Port Harcourt, Governor Nyesom Wike took the oath of office and began his second term. He made lofty promises in his speech, including prioritizing the needs of Rivers state. Although he ran for president of the People’s Democratic Party in May 2022, he lost to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. To be the PDP’s candidate for governor of Rivers state, he backs Sim Fubara.