By: Hassan Husaini mni.
Nyesom Wike’s metamorphosis from Obio-Akpor Local Government Chairman to Nigeria’s most feared power broker is a masterclass in dismantling democratic institutions through legal warfare. His blueprint revealed itself in October 2016 when, as Rivers governor, he barricaded the Government House against Department of State Services (DSS) operatives investigating Justice Mohammed Liman for alleged $2 million bribery—a move violating *Section 308* of Nigeria’s Constitution, which grants governors civil immunity but *not* license to obstruct criminal probes. Flanked by armed police, Wike staged a theatrical defense of “judicial independence” while DSS sources reported $2.5 million vanishing from Liman’s home during the standoff. This was no principled stand: it was a criminal shield for judicial corruption, weaponizing constitutional protections against accountability.
Wike’s judicial capture escalated into systematic bribery. As governor, he gifted 41 Range Rover SUVs to judges—blatantly violating *Rule 1.3* of the National Judicial Council’s Code of Conduct prohibiting gifts compromising impartiality. He allocated government duplexes to 24 judicial officers and distributed $300,000 cash “gifts,” contravening *Section 98* of the Criminal Code on public official bribes. By 2024, as FCT Minister, he deployed Abuja land allocations to construct luxury residences for judges under the guise of “insulating justice”—a maneuver lawyers decried as institutionalized corruption under *Section 19* of the Corrupt Practices Act. This paid dividends: his 93.3% court success rate dwarfed peers, while Justice Inyang Ekwo—dubbed “Wike’s homeboy” by SaharaReporters—voided Ebonyi Governor Umahi’s election within 24 hours of his PDP defection. Surveillance teams stationed in Ekwo’s courtroom ensured verdicts aligned with Wike’s interests, reducing the bench to a political annex.
This corruption birthed contradictory rulings that gutted judicial credibility. In 2022, Wike’s government secured a judgment stripping ex-Governor Celestine Omehia of pensions—a reversal of years of official recognition, violating *Section 36(1)* on fair hearing. By 2023, conflicting court orders enabled his sabotage of successor Siminalayi Fubara: one court validated Fubara’s assembly, another recognized Wike’s loyalists. The chaos culminated in militants bombing the Trans-Niger Pipeline after Wike-allied lawmakers launched impeachment. When President Tinubu unconstitutionally suspended Fubara in March 2025—blaming him while absolving Wike—it breached *Sections 11(4) and 305* of the Constitution, which require National Assembly approval for emergencies. The Nigerian Bar Association condemned this executive lawlessness, but the damage was done: corrupted courts had become tools for overthrowing elected governments.
Wike’s judicial arsenal fortified his criminal enterprises. Security reports linked his administration to oil bunkering syndicates, implicating him in *Section 1* violations of the Petroleum Production Act for illegal resource appropriation. Former lawmaker Ned Nwoko demanded prosecution under the *EFCC Act Section 7* for diverting ₦60 billion Paris Club refunds—funds earmarked for development—into “phantom projects.” His stranglehold on the PDP climaxed in May 2025 with the illegal sealing of its secretariat over a dubious ₦7.9 million ground rent claim. This violated *Sections 39 and 40* of the Constitution on freedom of expression and association, weaponizing land laws to crush opposition. Tinubu’s forced reopening couldn’t erase the symbolism: state power silencing dissent.
Nigeria’s democracy now gasps under the weight of these violations. The Range Rovers judges accepted aren’t gifts—they’re evidence tags for *Criminal Code* breaches. Tinubu’s exoneration of Wike in the Rivers crisis isn’t politics—it’s complicity in *constitutional sabotage*. The DSS’s failed bribery probe wasn’t an overreach—it was a stifled attempt to enforce the *Money Laundering Act 2022*. As conflicting rulings multiply and institutions kneel to patronage, the law becomes parchment barrier.
As the Niger Delta activist lamented, *”When the oil spills, we drink it. When the politicians fight, we bleed.”* Wike’s reign proves the bleeding is systemic. The SUVs ferrying judges, the bunkered crude funding his empire, and the bulldozers demolishing opposition properties are monuments to a democracy cannibalized by impunity. His standoffs weren’t principled—they were crime scenes disguised as heroism. Tinubu’s interventions weren’t statesmanship—they were triage for a patient poisoned by his own minister. Today, the gavel strikes not for justice but for juncture, and the constitution’s ink bleeds from the pages that once bound us. Until Nigerians demand enforcement of *Section 15(5)*—mandating abolition of corruption—or courts reject bribes for sanctity, democracy remains a corpse in ceremonial robes. The darkness isn’t from absent light, but from shadows chosen by those sworn to uphold the law. And in that shadow, Wike reigns—the demigod of our demise, enthroned by a nation that traded its soul for scraps of power.
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