The crisis rocking the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is said to be deepening following the recent interview by the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar, where he made some comments on Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike.
It was gathered that Atiku’s statements in the recorded interview ended up stoking the fire he ignited in the PDP instead of calming the already frayed nerves.
Among others, one of Wike’s strongmen and Chairman of Emohua Local Government Area, Dr. Chidi Lloyd as well as the Leader, Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (SNPA), Livingstone Wechie, on Saturday described Atiku’s responses as disappointing.
Lloyd said Atiku exacerbated an already tensed situation in the PDP through his remarks and had shown that he was not ready to become the President of everybody if elected in 2023.
The PDP stalwart said Atiku had also shown that he had scores to settle with Rivers and the State would suffer neglect if he emerges President.
He warned that Atiku was toying with Wike, who already has over 2.5million votes in his kitty and the capacity to deliver them.
Lloyd said Atiku’s statement was also an indication that he was not reliable and wondered whether the former Vice-President was denying that the PDP never set up a 19-man committee before he chose his running mate.
He said: “I do not want to think that the statement credited to the presidential candidate was actually his statement. I do not think that the presidential candidate as experienced as they say he is politically will make such a statement. He wants to exacerbate an already tensed situation.
“If that statement was made by him, truely it is obvious that he is not prepared to be the President of everybody. Clearly, he has personalized governance. He sees it as personal estate. He chose someone he can work with, not in the interest of the nation. It makes me very scared as a member of the PDP.
“He chose someone, who could be President on a minute notice. It is not palatable to come from Atiku Abubakar. His interview has given me an insight into the kind of person he is. He cannot be reliable. Is Atiku saying that the party did not set up a 19-man committee? What was the committee asked to do? He has made his choice.
“As a flag bearer, Atiku had held close to five or six flags of different political parties. One thing is to be a flagbearer but another thing is to win. But he is dealing with a governor that has 2.5million votes in his kitty and will deliver it without much ado.
“You are making this kind of statement when we thought that the ongoing reconciliation is genuine. The statement from Atiku is also the statement of those, who hang around him.
“We thank God for the reforms in the electoral system; the voters will decide at the end of the day. We are with our governor. Whichever direction he wants us to go, we will go. It is not about Governor Wike, it is about Rivers State. It is obvious that we will be left out if Atiku becomes a President. Abinitio he has an impression about the state”.
Wechie in his reactions, said Atiku’s response betrayed whatever genuine reconciliation ongoing in the party noting that nobody could rescue the country with a divided house.
He said: “The assertions by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that he chose his running mate based on who he is comfortable with may pass to imply that he is not comfortable with Governor Nyesom Wike and the reasons are not disclosed. This is below dignity and should be eschewed.
“Moreso, the choice of a running mate must not be personal because its not about him as a person (Atiku Abubakar) rather it is about Nigeria and who can produce the needed result.
“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was a beneficiary of a judgment where the Supreme Court held that as vice-president under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, that a Vice-President is not a vice to the President per se but the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and he knows this without pretence.
“A Vice-President is not an appendage of the President and he must know it to be so in order not to place his personal interest above Nigeria’s.
“What is expected of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar while he makes efforts to resolve issues with Governor Nyesom Wike is to acknowledge Governor Nyesom Wike’s qualification to be both President and indeed a Vice-President but for the fact that one person must emerge. But he neglected to do so during his last interview and played to the gallery”.
Wechie added: “The statements made by the PDP Presidential Candidate falls grossly below crisis management rhetoric and it is somewhat disappointing. Ordinarily, he should know better that such conversations have become very slippery particularly when he is yet to meet Governor Nyesom Wike to iron out issues.
“Obviously there are both unresolved and trust issues hanging. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should remember the adage that says to whom much is given much is expected. He must divorce himself from the Babangida Aliyu’s type of denigrating postulations and speak in a way that goes beyond self and look at the bigger project as an elder statesman and a presumed nationalist.
“You cannot rescue Nigeria with a divided house. He appears to be stoking the fire unnecessary in an ostensible manner beyond what is expected of him as a statesman in his right”.
Wechie observed that the attitude of Atiku and his utterances had made Wike a hero saying the Rivers governor had become irresistible in the political equation ahead of 2023.
He said: “No matter what anyone feels, Wike has been made popular and almost irresistible in the political equation as long as 2023 is concerned which is why he is been rushed beyond the partisan fray.
“It is unstrategic for the PDP Presidential standard bearer to be making innuendos that cast doubt as to the genuineness of any reconciliation with a Nyesom Wike who is today priced by watchers as the most consistent opposition political voice in Nigeria since 1999 till date that speaks truth to power.
“Atiku has either by commission or omission made a hero of Wike and he must watch the tendencies emerging from the run of play. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should not mismanage the leftover lifelines of uniting his party at this time because the stakes are getting higher and both he and others must understand that surprises are not far from 2023 from what is beginning to play out”.
Wike vows to expose happenings in PDP soon
Meanwhile, Governor Wike, has said he would soon speak on recent happenings in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The governor, in a statement by his Special Assistant Media, Kelvin Ebiri, Saturday in Port Harcourt, said it has become pertinent for him to speak and reveal to Nigerians all that has transpired in the PDP since the emergence of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the party.
Wike said: “On Atiku, I will speak soon and Nigerians will know the actual truth of all that has transpired in the PDP in recent times.”
- Additional report by The Nation