PDP NEVER STOPPED ME FROM JOINING TINUBU’S GOVERNMENT – WIKE
Read Time:6 Minute, 41 Second
By Oduola F.A.
Federal Capital Territory FCT minister, Nyesom Wike on Monday dismissed threats of possible sanctions from his Peoples Democratic Party PDP following his decision to accept a ministerial position in the administration of President Bola Tinubu in 2023.
Speaking during a Media Chat in Abuja, Wike said he wrote to the party at the zonal and national levels, informing them of his decision and that there was no opposition.
He also accused governors of the party of seeking appointments in the Tinubu administration for their cronies, challenging them to deny the claim if it was a lie.
Wike also hit back at his political critics, particularly those seeking his expulsion from the PDP, saying he has not seen anyone with the guts to nullify his membership.
He said; “As PDP governors then and the so-called leaders today, who produced state and National Assembly members 100 percent? Who produced Governor? Who? Olabode George supported Labour Party. I said I would not support because there was no likelihood that he would win. So Olabode George and some of us, we said look, you have to support a Southern candidate. Chose whoever you want. We all agreed. What offence have I committed by supporting Asiwaju?
“I never collected ministerial position without writing to the party. I wrote to the Zonal. I wrote to the governor. I wrote to the national party. I challenge any of them to come and say whether they said no, that I should not accept the position. In any case, how will they say so when the government wrote to the governors themselves to nominate people for board appointments? All the governors wrote. They nominated people. I can show you the names. So, if you in PDP can write to APC government submitting names, so what is wrong in me, a PDP member also working in the government? You go and lobby the president to give certain persons appointments and you come out in the day time to accuse Wike of working for the APC government”.
‘No one can sack me’
“I am still in PDP. I worked hard for the party. I have not seen anybody who will have the guts to tell me, Wike, you are not a member of the party. Who is that? What is his contribution to the party that is more than me”, he queried.
The minister also declared the recent meeting of the National Executive Committee NEC of the PDP as a nullity, saying it was not properly convened.
Asked why he stayed away from the meeting, Wike said it was an illegal forum.
“There was no NEC meeting. No, I don’t know about you, so I should attend an illegal meeting?”, he asked.
‘Atiku, Buhari alliance’
The former Rivers State governor also said the 2023 Presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar thought the election was already a done deal and that he could defeat Tinubu because of the former’s alliance with the then administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“In 2024, did I not tell you that I won’t support the PDP candidate? I did. I said based on the principle of equity and fairness, that the president should go to the South. I said you cannot have the national chairman at the same time. You therefore take one and give us one. Impunity, because they were having a romance with the then incumbent government, believing that Atiku would win, they said go to hell. So I didn’t support”, he said.
‘Weak coalition’
Wike also challenged the Atiku-led anti-Tinubu coalition which has other leaders like Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir El-Rufai to start the coalition from their states in order to test their strengths.
Responding to a recent statement by Amaechi about hunger, Wike said the former Transportation minister was only hungry for power.
“Look, I thank God he is in a coalition. I have told Nigerians, look, I don’t like this talking, talking, talking. Let this coalition form a team. Let them start from home to start removing the president. When you say you will remove they should start from their home to remove him by making sure the President loses the election. How could somebody come out on national television and tell Nigerians… ‘if we want to remove the President now we can?’ Is it a military coup? That word ‘removal’ means moving to dictatorship in the military. You only use that word ‘remove’ when there is a coup. I would have thought he would say ‘we will vote him out’, but whichever way, why would a man not talk about what happened in this country in 2015, 2019, 2023 look at the stuff. And the man is telling you that he is hungry, insulting Nigerians and you people are clapping for him?
“I don’t know how a man will choose his 60th birthday to tell lies. It os unfortunate. Of all time, it is your 60th birthday that people are celebrating you, you use to tell lies to Nigerians? You are hungry?
“Let us tell ourselves this. He was Speaker 1999 to 2007 and if anybody knows he was the most popular speaker, then he was reading Law in London as a speaker, 1999 to 2007. He became a governor, 2007 to 2015. He was still reading Law in London. Eight years as speaker, Rivers State Assembly, eight years as governor he never talked about hunger.
“He became a minister from 2015 to 2023, eight years, super Minister, Transport, where you were borrowing money from Afreximbank, he didn’t talk about hunger. Two years, you have left office. You are in a coalition because you are hungry. You are only hungry for power and that shows failure on his part. How do you insult Nigerians? How do you trivialise the issue of hunger or poverty? Why do you do that? You are insulting Nigerians. You joined Atiku, you joined El-Rufai because you are hungry. Have you not insulted Nigerians? It is just that you can’t stay out of power. That is the hunger. You can’t stay out of power. How will a man who served from 1999 to 2023, stand before Nigerians, who presided over billions of Naira. This was the same man who, on a national television, told Nigerians he doesn’t like money meanwhile dollar was showing in his pocket, you were carrying dollar, and you were telling Nigerians you don’t like money. What kind of country is this? And we are listening to that, and you said, he is influential? What is influence? You know, we overrate people. He was governor 2015, he couldn’t produce a successor.
“He couldn’t give his candidate, Muhammadu Buhari common 25%. He was a sitting minister in 2019, no president had ever moved with soldiers the way he came with soldiers. He said he will produce the governor. He couldn’t produce a candidate.
“Again, his candidate, Buhari, didn’t get 25%, he was the DG of campaign. Again, in 2023 he came, okay, this time around, I am going to support Atiku in PDP. Thank God we did not support PDP. If I supported PDP and they won, he would have taken the glory but we say okay we will not support PDP. They failed. They didn’t even get 10%. So what is his influential?”, He asked.
‘Stepping on big toes’
Wike also dismissed a possible backlash from a section of the elite regarding his enforcement of rules regarding ground rents payments, saying he derives joy in stepping on the toes of big people.
According to him, the elite go to other countries and see how modern societies are run, but that some of them come back to Nigeria and refuse to follow simple laws.
He said the era of impunity when a section of the elite felt they could trample on laws and nothing would happen, was over, declaring that “something will happen”.
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