By Lateef Adegbite
Ahead of the February 25,2023, Presidential election, Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state and a former Presidential Candidate of the Opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, who lost out to Atiku Abubakar, a one- time Nigerian Vice President, and his Team, appear determined’’ to deal and crush those described as small boys in the PDP’’ troubling them.
The big five musketeers, as the PDP governors who are closely working together since after the PDP, Presidential primary, last May, that saw the emergence of Atiku, the Adamawa state born politician as the party Presidential Candidate, with the dismantling of its zoning arrangement by the party leadership which was said to have stopped the former minister of state, Ducation, during Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration, merging as the party Presidential Candidate for the 2023, general elections.
The five PDP,Musketeers, comprising of Governors Wike, Samuel Ortom, Seyi Makinde, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and Okezie Ikpeazu, of Abia state, who recently invited him to commission the dualised Aba-Owerri road, were said to have kept as a closely guided secret their next line of action in PDP having lost the PDP, Presidential ticket to Aktiku, a northerner.
Wike , the Rivers state governor may have told those that cares to listen that ‘’nobody can break into their ranks’’ because’’ no relationship can be bought with money’’ , meaning that they are in inseparable. The five PDP were said to have taken a position that Senator Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP, National Chairman, should resign his resign his position for a southerner.
The five aggrieved undeterred PDP, governors may have taken up Ayu, on his remarks on October, 2021, that he will ‘’resign should a northerner emerge as the Presidential Candidate of the leading Opposition party in the country’’ .Unknown to many , the Ayu led National Executive Committee had a working relationship with the former Vice President which may have informed why the party dumped the zoning arrangement and threw the party Presidential ticket for all interested aspirants. The decision was said to have been based on the recommendation of a 37-member Committee set out to review the party zoning formula.
Many believe that Ayu, the PDP, National Chairman, knew that Atiku, who had made attempts in the past to contest the country’s Presidential election under the platform of PDP, but failed had dumped the then ruling PDP , longside, Bukola Saraki, the governor of Kwara state to join the All Progressive Congress, APC, where the duo had contested the party Presidential primary in 2014, but lost out to the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, who had the backing of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the then governor of Lagos state, and now the ruling party Presidential Candidate for the 2023, general elections.
The duo may have forced their way back to PDP, in 2017, , to continue their political maneuvering to contest the country’s Presidential elections in order to rule Nigeria. Atiku, may have clinched the Opposition PDP, Presidential ticket in 2018, with the support of Wike and his camp but lost out to the Katsina state born Nigerian President at Presidential election, in 2019, lamenting that he was rigged out but that was how far he could go.
Walid Jibrin, the north central state of Nasarawa born PDP, Chairman , Board of Trustees, BOT, Bode George, a former Deputy National Chairman, PDP, from the south west, and one-time Chairman Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, may have agreed with Wike and his camp that it is unfair for the party to have its Presidential candidate and National Chairman to come from the north , leaving out the southern region with nothing.
Ayu, who many believe had the backing of Atiku, the party Presidential candidate for paving the way for to emerge as the party flag bearer for the 2023, general elections had told those in the party that were piling pressure for him to resign including Wike and his Team, that he will not keep to his earlier promise to resign if a northerner emerges as the party Presidential candidate for the 2023, general elections, insisting that he will’’ complete his four year tenure’’.
Informed sources told The Value News that Ipeazu, the Abia state governor was almost changing his mind on the Wike’s camp position that Ayu should vacate the party National Chairmanship position of the Opposition PDP, but was cautioned by the Rivers governor , who was said to have told him during their discussion, in the aircraft on their recent flight to London, United Kingdom, UK, that God has given all that it takes to crush his enemies.
He may have alluded to Ayu, Atiku, Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto state and Ahmed Mohammed Ma karfi , a former governor of Kaduna and one-time interim Chairman of the PDP, including Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa state among others.
The Rivers state governor may have given Nigerians an insider information of what he meant by saying that ‘’I am going to flog my enemies properly’’, stressing that the party will know who is relevant or not relevant in the party in the part when Professor Mahmood Yakubu, led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, eventually give the go ahead for the 2023, general election electioneering campaign to start. There are fears in PDP, circles, that the five governors, who have constituted themselves into an impregnable Team, may work against Atiku , the PDP , Presidential Candidate and Ieanyi Okowa, the Vice Presidential Candidate but will work for party Candidates at the National Assembly and state to prove a point they are in charge of heir state politics and could sway their vote to any party Candidate of their choice.
The Rivers state governor’s message to the PDP Leadership is very clear that his camp will not join the PDP, Presidential campaign train for the 2023, general elections. The Five PDP five musketeers may have kept as a closely guided secret the Presidential Candidate to support for the 2023, general elections among the 18, IINEC, registered parties.
. For now, the trio of Tinubu, Atiku, and Peter Obi, a former governor of Anmbra state and Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, including Obasanjo, a former Nigerian President who were said to be all overthe Wike’s Team both local and overseas, to drum their support. The foursome, penultimate week had met the Wike camp at different times in London, UK, to seek their support but none of them had got any definite answer from the Team.
There is no gain saying the fact since Wike and his Team members returned to the country from London, on Friday , August 26, 2022 and now,’’ Obi loyalists , who are mostly , Nigeria Youths were said to have organised two million –man march in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers state, Markurdi, Ibadan and Abeokuta,capital of Ogun, home state of former President Ollusegun Obsanjo.
Note that three of the states that were the Obi loyalists were said to have got the approval to embark on the two-million march –man march are PDP states under the close watch of Wike, Ortom and Makinde respectively and who incidentally are opposed to Ayu and Atiku.
The only APC, state that was said to have joined the PDP states to give approval to the Obi loyalists to organis the two million –man march in his state was Ogun, where Dapo Ibidapo is currently the governor. The Ogun state governor, according to political Observers, may have decided to give the Obi supporters the go ahead with their two-million –man march to prove to Tinubu, the APC, Presidential Candidate that by making a derogatory remarks about him in a public function has strained their relationship.
Nasir e-Rufai and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, both governors of the APC , states of Kaduna , which has been under the siege of the trans-border Bandits Group over the last seven years and Lagos , respectively, may have turned down the request of the Bi loyalists toorganise the Two million –man in their respective states to avoid popularizing the LP, and putting Obi , the Party Presidential Candidate in the mind of the voters in the state that may work against Tinuubu, the APC, Presidential Candidate.
While the Obi loyalists are taking care of the home front to sell him and the party to the electorates through the Two million –man march across the states of the Federation, the former Anambara state governor appears to have concentrated his efforts over the last one month in meeting Nigerians in Diaspora to woo their support.
On Sunday, September 4, 2022, he has told a gathering put together by Columbia African Business Club and Black Law Students Association, that ‘’while all seems bleak for the Nigeria, there are great chances of turning the country around under an LP, government’’. He was emphatic that’’ while the Nigerian situation is critical, it is not yet hopeless’’He was said to have told the Columbia African Business Club members that in the mission ‘’to rescue to Nigeria, there is no tribe, religion or class’’, nothing that ‘’there is no conscientious objector’’.
He may have gladdened the heart of Nigerians in diaspora, who are not happy over what is happening in the nation’s Federal Universities over the last six months that Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, have been on strike over unfulfilled promises on the funding of Universities in the country.
The LP, Touch bearer had said that ‘’ the medium and long term , solution to the crisis in the nation’s tertiary institutions, at the Feral level is ‘’to devote 14% of the country’s yearly budgetary allocation for education which is within the realm of possibility’’. He may observed that ASUU Strikes have become more pronounced in the recent time due the fact that that state capture, and Tet Fund which are Funds set aside to reasonably tackle problems of the country tertiary institutions have been grossly mismanaged.
As a prelude to revitalizing he such Funds, the LP, Presidential candidate, has assured Nigerians that the party if elected to take over from the ruling APC, after the 2023, general elections will change ‘’ the extant and enabling policies to make access to such Funds seamless, transparent and dedicated for prescribed purposes’’.
