PDP Crisis: Wike remains, says ‘We will stay back and fight for equity’; PDP not walking the talk_ Govr. Udom Emmanuel

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike says contrary to insinuations in some quarters that he would leave the PDP on account of his grievances, he and his loyalists in Rivers State will not leave but stay back to fight for unity, inclusivity, equity, and peace in the party.

Governor Wike stated this on Thursday during a meeting with stakeholders of the party across the 319 wards of the state at the Banquet Hall of the Government House in Port Harcourt.

He said retreating from a fight is a sign of weakness.

The meeting was to brief the party leaders on the recent happenings in the party and intimate them of the plan by the Governor to hold a media chat tomorrow at 10 am to speak on the state of the PDP in the country.

Nonetheless, the spokesperson of the PDP presidential campaign, Mr Charles Aniagwu, said the party’s presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, was still open to dialogue with Wike and his group.

Aniagwu stated, “We don’t have any faction in the party; just a group with interest, which is allowed, democratically.

“As a party, we are quite comfortable that in the course of time, these issues will give way for everybody to be on board. Atiku didn’t say it’s time to move on because he wants to leave anybody behind; he is asking members of the party that it’s time for them to move on to talk about those issues that affect Nigerians.

“There are a whole lot of issues that affect us in this country and so Atiku said it’s time to move on, meaning that every hand has to be on deck to carry every Nigerian along and to address those many challenges that confront Nigerians in their everyday lives today.

Meanwhile, the South-west Forum of PDP Shareholders for Justice, in a statement jointly signed by its coordinators, Messrs Banji Okunomo and Gani Taofik, on Thursday, in Lagos threw its weight behind the calls for Ayu’s resignation, saying it is the panacea for peace in the party.

The statement said, “We, the above-named forum of the PDP wish to affirm our support for the position being canvassed by Makinde, corroborated by the doggedness of the ‘Wikes’ and the wisdom of the ‘Bode Georges’, as a lasting panacea for peace and eventual victory of our party at the 2023 presidential election.

“Indeed, this is why and when Ayu himself will be more celebrated as PDP’s hero of democracy rather than clogging the party’s wheel of progress and creating an avoidable crisis for the party.”

Wike and his associates have asked Ayu to resign in order to create some balance of power in the party between the southern and northern parts of the country

The governor said as a man of character, his interest was to stay back and preserve the sanity of the party, unlike some members, who could not keep their word and walked out of the party at Eagle Square, Abuja, in 2014.

He stated, “One thing I have always told people is if anybody is thinking, doing anything to think that we will leave PDP, it’s never going to happen. We will do the fighting in 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?

“Did they remain to fight inside the party? But we remained, they ran away. Now, there is a fight in the party, we will not run. We will fight it in this party. Those who run away from the fight 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.”

Wike said ahead of the unveiling of the campaigns next week, “I owe this party in the state, we have 13 House of Reps seats, three senatorial seats, 32 House of Assembly seats and we have governorship post, we are going to take all for the PDP.”

He insisted that the constitution of the party clearly stated that elective and party offices must be zoned, saying this should be respected.

According to Wike, “You have taken presidential candidate, you have taken 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.”

He also clarified that he never promised anybody the governorship ticket of PDP, despite the pressure some leaders mounted on him or attempts made to divide the House of Assembly. He said though he didn’t clinch the PDP presidential ticket, he gave a good account of himself at the primary.

The governor stated that by next week, the Rivers State PDP campaign team would be unveiled and the campaign pattern adopted would be based on each local government’s peculiarity.

He emphasised that all PDP candidates in the state would be returned elected by the Rivers people because they were satisfied with the performance of his administration.

He stated, “We will take all. We are taking all, because Rivers people are happy with what we have done in this state. We have not only provided infrastructure, we have also defended the interest of Rivers State.”

Akwa Ibom State Governor and Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Udom Emmanuel, says the crisis in the party has festered because some people do not act in ways that agree with the things they say. Emmanuel, who stated this during an interactive session on national television, said the time had come for members to talk the talk and walk the walk.

The governor believes the disagreements in the main opposition party can be solved. But he insisted that aggrieved members could not be ignored if the party wanted to win next year’s presidential election.
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Speaking during an interaction on national television, Emmanuel maintained that the PDP crisis was “not high mountains that are so difficult to climb”. He said the problem festered because some people could not keep their words.

According to him, Wike and other “dissenting voices” within the party have the right to express their views, which would not be ignored, because “This is a family business.”

“One thing I discovered about politics and life: people should try to do what they say they will do; that is the cause of some of the problems. If I say I will do B, if A happens, let me keep to that. If I say I will do B if C happens, let me also keep to that.”

He explained, “It is not about mentioning people’s names; everybody has a right to express his views the way he wants. PDP is a family. I can assure you we will resolve it.”

Emmanuel, who reiterated that Wike’s dissatisfaction would not be ignored, also explained why he was not part of the meeting called by the Rivers State governor and his associates to announce their withdrawal from the party’s campaigns.

The Akwa Ibom State governor stated, “Don’t worry about that now. We sensationalise matters a whole lot. What we try to do is that we try to box individuals into our lifestyle, it cannot work like that. We are all adults. We know what is good for us; we know what is right for us.

“So, allow people to air their views but don’t also ignore people. We cannot ignore anybody if we must win elections in 2023. We cannot ignore anybody, we need to go back and carry everybody along. We are not going to ignore any dissenting voice.

“You don’t ignore issues and believe the issue will go away. This is one thing we will not ignore. We will take it head-on and resolve it.”