The title of this piece may be a sore to a lot of people, but it is the stark reality to say so because of what happened recently where reports were awash in the national dailies to the effect that Nyesome Wike, the former Governor of Rivers state and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, owns the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, because he was behind the extension of the tenure in acting capacity of Ambassador Illiya Damagun.
One finds it funny, that the PDP, that was founded by men of integrity and honour, is today being linked to Wike, who openly confessed that that he worked against the party in the 2023 general elections and even went further recently to say that he would work against the party again in 2027 to ensure that President Bola Tinubu, who compensated him with a ministerial appointment for working against the party and its presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, is re-elected. What type of a political party will accept such a person in its fold.
Is Wike more powerful than the 13 serving governors on the platform of the party? Is he more powerful than the senators elected under the party? It is irrational for one to think that such a person is still inside the party trying to wreck havoc on the party and is being regarded as a PDP man.
How could such a person wield enormous much power in the party? Where are the real PDP men of timber and caliber who spent their time and resources to build the party? How could such a formidable political party be left in the hands of a person like Wike?
If it is in another clime, a person like Wike would have been dismissed from the party because of his anti-party activities. Reducing PDP to Wike is the greatest disservice to people like the late Alex Ekwueme, Solomon Lar, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Titi Ajanaku and a host of other founding fathers of the party, who stood against all odds to see the actualisation of the party in 1998.
With the way things stand today reducing the once most likable party to a person like Wike clearly portrays the PDP as an unserious political party in Nigeria. Where was Wike when the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar with people of proven integrity like late Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, were sourcing the funds for the political party?
It is an undeniable fact that Atiku Abubakar provided the funds for the emerging political party in 1999.
It is irritating for people like this writer who know how the party called PDP emerged that the party is reduced to one single individual like Wike, who because he lost out as the presidential candidate of the party threw tantrums and even made sure the party lost the 2023 presidential election now trying to be the sole owner of the party.
If Wike thought that he invested a lot of resources in the party, he did that because of his inordinate ambition of becoming the flag bearer of the party in the 2023 presidential election but was resoundingly defeated by Atiku Abubakar.
The behaviour of Wike after the party’s primaries and the election proper cannot be tolerated by any political party. Nobody is bigger than the political party as such, Wike ought to have been disciplined by the party rather than being celebrated.
He poured invectives on the party’s presidential candidate and some stalwarts especially from Rivers state such as Uche Secondus, for standing behind the flag bearer of the party in the 2023 presidential election.
A lot of the party faithful found the attitude of Wike intrusive and had a lot of misgivings about having the party at his hands. The party needs to assert its authority over the former governor. As things stand Wike is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Usman Santuraki,
No 2, Santuraki Close, Demsawo,
Jimeta, Yola,
Adamawa state