2027 Re-election
OpenLife News, in this literary analogical overview, sums up the awaiting consequences in President Tinubu’s re election bid as a result of the test of strength between Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike and governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, using Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as a case study
Pissed off by the social irony and realism of her time which were stratified principally by family background, land ownership and wealth, Jane Austen, a 19th-century British novelist who died at age 41 on July 18, 1817, uses Pride and Prejudice to satirize the absurdity of blind adherence to inanity of the season.
In a perfect textual connection, the political showdown between Minister Nyesom Wike and Governor Hope Uzodinma, two muscles in Tinubu’s re-election campaign, is straight out in the 34-36 chapters of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in literary character portrayal.
The Literary Link
Pride: Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike is the character portrayal of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.
Metaphorically speaking, Wike is Darcy. For one, Mr. Darcy is immensely powerful, wealthy, and delivers results like Wike.
For the records, Wike, like Darcy, delivered Rivers State for Tinubu in 2023 general elections when Hope Uzodinma of APC and few other governors could not deliver their states.
But Darcy, like Wike, is proud and believes his contributions should exempt him from social rules.
This is just the way of Wike who is getting away with so many things in government including but not limited to denying governor Simi Fubara a second tenure ticket.
In bureaucracy, Wike is the only Minister who has been officially exempted from the country’s Treasury Single Account, TSA, a federal government unified public accounting system where revenues are maintained in one Central Bank account before disbursement for recurrent and capital operations.
Like Darcy who says “I have struggled in vain” to control his feelings, Wike believes his electoral value puts him above party orthodoxy.
Wike’s Rainbow Coalition is his Pemberley — a grand estate built by Darcy outside the traditional system of which he expects everyone to respect it.
Wike’s pride is in his quote and direct attack on governor Uzodinma: “You could not deliver 15%.” That is classic Darcy telling the rest of the family that they are not his equals.
Prejudice
Similarly, governor Hope Uzodinma is the character portrayal of Lady Catherine & The Bennet Family.
In Pride and Prejudice, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and the Bennets represent institutional orthodoxy, family name just the way Hope Uzodinma sees party supremacy and legitimacy as far and above other considerations.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Bennets believe no matter how rich you are, you must respect the family structure.
Like Lady Catherine, Uzodinma, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, sees himself as the custodian of the APC family name.
This awareness manifests profoundly in his communique with cliches like “exclusively APC candidates, no conflicting interest” just as Lady Catherine tells Darcy: “You cannot marry outside your class. You cannot bring an outsider coalition into this family.”
Uzodinma’s prejudice is against Wike’s outsider status.
To Uzodinma, no matter what Wike delivers, he remains a PDP man trying to contaminate the APC bloodline.
The Crack In Tinubu’s Political Household
Longbourn Estate, in “Pride and Prejudice,” the central conflict is not Darcy vs Elizabeth. It is Darcy vs the Bennet family’s reputation.
Elizabeth, in this case, Tinubu, is caught between a powerful suitor who can save her family (Wike) and her family’s pride that wants to protect its name.
But to Uzodinma, Tinubu, the Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice,” needs Wike’s manipulative skills, charisma, fearlessness and power to garner South-South votes.
But in achieving that, Uzodinma feels that his APC’s family’s respectability is non negotiable.
Uzodinma’s governors forum is of the view that if Elizabeth {Tinubu} openly sides with Darcy {Wike} against her family, her sisters (other APC governors, House, Senate candidates) would lose their marriage prospects in 2027. If she sides with her family, she loses Pemberley.
Using existentialist instrument, Jane Austen’s core lesson in the novel is that Pride makes a man think his worth is above the system. Prejudice makes the system think no outsider can have worth. That is exactly the Wike vs Uzodinma fight.
Wike’s pride reflects in modified arrogance: “I am too valuable to be bound by APC rules,” while Uzodinma’s prejudice implies “You will never be valuable enough to rewrite APC rules.”
And as Austen portrays, the consequences of that pride and prejudice will not be paid by the two men fighting — it will be paid by the house they both claim to love, which is Tinubu’s 2027 re-election.
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