Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has threatened to assist the Peoples’ Democratic Party lose the 2023 presidential election.
What Wike said: Wike, who is having a running battle with Senator Iyorchia Ayu, National Chairman of the PDP, said this at the commissioning of a road in Omerelu community in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers, on Thursday, September 01, 2022.
Why Wike spoke: The governor was responding to recent comments by Ayu that those asking him to step down were children.
In an interview with BBC Hausa, Ayu had said: “I have not violated any rules; in fact, I am working to bring reforms to the party. I am truly not bothered by the unnecessary controversy being generated. When we started PDP, these children were not around. They are children who do not know why we formed the party. We will not allow any individual to destabilise our party.”
But in his response, Wike described Ayu as a greedy man who was only after his interest.
He said it was obvious that Ayu wanted the PDP to lose in 2023 and he was willing to assist him achieve that.
Wike’s words: “You can imagine what power can do. You can imagine the ingratitude; how people can be ingrates in their lives. I thought as a chairman of a party who wants to win elections, your business is to bring peace to your party; your business is not to divide your party. Your business is not to show arrogance to your party.
“Yes, the children brought you to be chairman of the party. The children brought you from the gutter to make you chairman. Doctor Ayu said we are children. Yes, the children brought you from the gutter to make you chairman. Now we have seen that you don’t want the party to win election, we will help you.
“Ayu, you said you founded this party, but you left the party in 2007. You founded a company, you left the company, people stood and brought out the company to what it is today, you have no moral right to still come and claim that you founded that company, you left with your shares. You want to show integrity, you want to show a party to Nigeria that we want to take over, you must convince Nigerians that we have the integrity.
“You are the driver that will drive the vehicle to convey us to go our destination. That is the victory we are looking for. If the driver has no integrity and cannot show honesty, how do you convince Nigerians? If you tell Nigerians something and cannot do it, is it when you enter into power that you will do it?”
What you should know: Wike has been calling for Ayu’s resignation, as the PDP has a historical model of not having the presidential aspirant and party chairman from the same region. Wike asks that since Atiku Abubakar is the presidential candidate, Ayu who is also a Northerner, should step down.
