Wike And 4 Govs With Others Who Supported Him, Rule Out Defection From PDP. Yet Atiku’s Camp Ain’t Smiling
The Oasis Reporters
August 1, 2022
Although Five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, including Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, yesterday insisted that they would remain in the opposition party, recent photo images emerging from the camp of the PDP presidential Atiku Abubakar shows that the smiles there are not deep.
And there are reasons why the worries are genuine.
But first, the narration.
Some former governors and ex-ministers, who were a part of a closed-door meeting by the governors at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja, toed the same line.
Sources close to the meeting disclosed that the attendees resolved that for them to aid the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, actualise his dream in 2023, he must be ready to make some concessions.
The four governors are Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.
The quartet strongly stood with Wike during the May, 2022 PDP presidential shadow election in which Wike was poised to win, but for the behind the scene footworks that saw Sokoto State governor pulling out of the race and lining up behind his fellow tribesman, Atiku Abubakar.
Believed to have attended the meeting are former governors Donald Duke (Cross River), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Ibrahim Idris (Kogi) and Jonah Jang (Plateau).
A former Attorney-General and Justice Minister, Mohammed Adoke; an ex- PDP Deputy National Chairman (North), Suleiman Nazif; and a serving House of Representatives member from Kogi State, Tajudeen Yusuf, were also at the meeting.
There has been a series of crossfires between Wike and Atiku’s camp over the presidential primary.
Last week, Wike accused the former vice-president of not cautioning his aides, who he said, were insulting him. He also dismissed rumours that he was planning to dump the PDP.
One of our sources said: “There has been too much pressure on Wike and those of us backing the governor. And tonight(last night), we decided to remain in PDP despite the disdain for Wike.
” While we are not defecting from PDP to any party, we will demand reforms in PDP.
” The PDP presidential candidate must be ready to concede a few things before we can support and work for his aspiration.
“The party must respect its zoning formula. There cannot be a presidential candidate from the North and national chairman from the North.”
Another source said: “Our meeting was about how to move the party forward.
” We are not leaving the party. We shall keep Nigerians posted soon.”
Respecting the zoning formula might be the difficult nut to crack in the party.
Southern governors had held a meeting in Asaba, Delta State with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as chief host where they insisted that the presidency must rotate to the South. It would have been in the north for 8 years, come 2023. In respect of that arrangement, the ruling party APC did all that it could to ensure that a southerner emerged as candidate to enhance and build national cohesion which would unite the nation.
Consequently, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is now the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate. He’s Yoruba from the south west.
But a quartet of PDP politicians, ostensibly working on behalf of Atiku Abubakar from the north, said no to the arrangement. They then moved to veto the agreement.
L-R: Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; former Kwara state governor who is also former Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki; Muhammed Hayatu-Deen, and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Muhammed, during a visit by PDP presidential aspirants to Governor Obaseki, in Benin City, on Monday, April 4th, 2022.
Surprisingly, some members of the team like Aminu Tambuwal and Bukola Saraki happened to be prominent amongst those that rebelled against the presidency of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by insisting that he must not run for a constitutionally allowed second term. They then defected to the APC, thus ensuring that Jonathan lost.
The same people are insisting on kicking the arrangement to enable another northerner run.
So, Atiku Abubakar is the PDP presidential candidate. And in a further twist, picks Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate.
“Choosing Okowa who hosted the Southern governors at the Asaba meeting as the Vice presidential running mate seems like a humiliating capture by Atiku”, opined Ese Oshare in Ughelli, Delta State.
This tweet explains it all to how many in the South are feeling over the political developments.
It's amazing how Atiku, a Fulani man is seeking to succeed Buhari, a fellow Fulani man and it's not even dominating discussions. For some reason the focus is on Tinubu who is running a Muslim/Muslim ticket. It may seem Nigerians have more loyalty to religion than tribe/ethnicity?
— Eniola Akinkuotu (@ENIBOY) July 30, 2022
The silver lining in it all is the wildly cheering reception Peter Obi is getting wherever he goes, either in the north East, North West, North Central and the entire South.
Therefore if there are creases on the brow amongst some prominent PDP politicians in the north who want power to reside with one tribe, one region and one religion, the reasons are not far to fetch.
