By Olusegun Olanrewaju
For the crisis-ridden Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it appears the real battle line was finally drawn yesterday.
Hard-fighting Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, vowed not to throw in the towel, but rather, those in his camp will stay in the ranks and fight for inclusivity.
Bluntly, he put it, he is not ready to leave the leading opposition party in Nigeria for any other, and for whatever cause and anybody.
Ratcheting on Wednesday’s widely-believed bluffing by the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, who has vowed not to allow party chair, Iyorchia Ayu, to be sacked, Wike said he is rather interested in preserving the sanity of the party and will stay back to fight for the enthronement of unity, inclusivity, equity and peace in the PDP.
We will remain in PDP, fight for inclusivity – Wike
*The affirmation
Wike made the declaration yesterday at the Rivers State PDP stakeholders’ meeting held at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
The governor, whose backers in the party have withdrawn from Atiku’s Presidential Campaign Council, described himself as s a man of character, “unlike those who cannot keep their words and walked out of the party at the Eagle Square in Abuja in 2014,” a somewhat deflected reference to Atiku and his co-travellers, who decamped to other parties.
“One thing I have always told people is, if anybody is thinking, doing anything to think that we will leave PDP, foul. We will fight at the party. We are not like them when in 2014 they walked out of Eagle Square. They’ve forgotten. They walked out and joined APC. Is it not correct?”
Wike further darted a poser, “Did they remain to fight inside the party? But we remained, they ran away. Now, there is a fight at the party, we will not run. We will fight it at this party.
“Those who run away from fights are weak people. We will not. So, everybody should know this is the state where we are. So that nobody tells you all kinds of stories.”
*Constitutional issues
Wike insisted that the constitution of the party clearly states that elective and party offices must be zoned, provisions of which should be respected.
The party chieftain also wondered why the immediate past chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman (Walid Jibrin) would be pressured into resigning from office, while the PDP national chairman, Ayu, “is excusing himself from keeping to doing what is right”.
Alluding to the lopsided arrangement in the party’s hierarchy, Wike told his audience at the gathering, “You (the North) have taken the presidential candidate; you have taken the party chairman, you have also taken the DG (director-general) of the campaign. We are talking about party politics. Decisions are made by the presidential candidate, the chairman of the party, and the DG of the campaign.
“They are telling you they told the chairman of the BOT to resign. So, you know there is a problem. You said he should go and resign. You can put pressure on him to resign when his tenure hasn’t come to an end. But you cannot put pressure on the chairman to resign. You think at our level you will deceive us. You’ll tell us stories.”
Going down memory lane, Wike recalled how in 2015 the Federal Government used the military to invade Rivers State, interfered with, and even annulled elections, but were resisted.
He also recalled how he made sure the senatorial results for Rivers East were announced, which delivered Senator George Sekibo, and that of Rivers West which produced Senator Betty Apiafi.
Wike regretted that despite the risk taken to deliver them, the same people are now in Abuja plotting against him. He said they won’t succeed because God has blessed him.
The governor told the stakeholders that though he did not clinch the PDP presidential ticket, he gave a good account of himself at the primary.
On the way forward, the governor informed that, by next week, the Rivers State PDP campaign team would be unveiled, and the campaign pattern adopted will be based on each local government
The governor explained that it took courage and firmness for him to protect the interest and assets of Rivers State “without compromising it with politics”.
Responding, State Chairman of the PDP, Desmond Akawor, said the party in the state had already passed a vote of confidence on Wike as a governor, “for the way he has piloted the affairs of the state”.
He commended the governor for the consistent delivery of projects, defending the interest of the state, and declared that they would continue to follow the leadership that he provides.
