What Money Can’t Buy: Tein Jack-Rich Learns Politics the Hard Way

With his majestic oil empire, Tein Jack-Rich has money. But that’s not all. He was a presidential aspirant in 2023, an APC faithful for over 13 years. But none of these mattered on the day the party’s screening committee released its list.

This May, Jack-Rich was disqualified from the Rivers West senatorial race. His supporters describe it as a bitter pill, one still lodged in the throat.

What makes the decision sting is the comparison. Felix Obua, a former PDP chairman who joined the APC only months ago, was cleared for the same seat. The committee also disqualified 65 other aspirants perceived as loyal to factions opposed to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.

For Jack-Rich, it can be said that the wealth that bought him a business empire and boardroom respect also brought him visibility and national recognition. But it did not buy him the loyalty of the local party machinery that now obviously matters more than money

The irony is thick, as it is commonly said. Because political influence in Nigeria is typically married to wealth, Jack-Rich’s ordeal is a startling contradiction. Here is a man of enormous resources, suddenly confronted with the uncomfortable truth that political systems can still humble even the affluent.

Jack-Rich’s supporters took to the streets in Rivers State, warning that the disqualification could cause the party to capsize before 2027. The National Youth Council of Nigeria called for President Bola Tinubu’s intervention, describing the exclusion as disturbing and unacceptable. But the decision stands.