The crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) blew open on Friday after Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State castigated the Uche Secodus-led National Working Committee for allegedly deepening the cracks in the party.
Wike, who was the chief sponsor of Secondus for the position, was particularly irked that the NWC was sowing seeds of discord among PDP governors and jeopardising the party’s chances ahead of the 2023 presidential race.
The governor also spoke on the controversy over President Muhammadu Buhari’s invitation by the House of Representatives to come and address it on Nigeria’s security challenge.
He said the President’s integrity would be at stake if he failed to honour the invitation.
Wike, according to his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, fielded questions on a live television programme in Port Harcourt.
“PDP ought to have harvested from the inefficiency of the APC; from the misadministration of the APC,” Ebiri quoted the governor as saying.
Continuing, Wike said: “Ordinarily, that is what opposition party ought to do. If you ask me, are Nigerians waiting for a change? Yes.
“If you ask me as a member of PDP, am I ready to support PDP to take over? Yes.
“But if you ask me currently as it is, is the leadership of the party willing for us to harvest this opportunity for a change? I will say no.”
He said that instead of focusing on strategies on how to take advantage of the alleged growing disenchantment with the APC government, the PDP-NWC was busy creating crises among governors, using two former governors of Imo and Cross River states and a present senator from Benue State.
His words: “An opposition party that ought to be united, to work, to take over the affairs of government because people are waiting for this opportunity, but the current leadership of NWC is not prepared for that.
“Rather, what they have done is to constitute some people to sow a seed of discord among governors for their own selfish interest. And that will boomerang; that will consume them.”
The governor said he lacked the ability to defect to the APC or any other political party and would continue to fight for the survival of the PDP.
Credit: The Nation (Photo Credit: The Nation)
