Samuel Ortom, Benue State governor, may soon jump the Wike ship to protect own self-interest. Ortom is the mythical rich onion of the PDP crisis. The more you peel, the more the rot festers.
For starters: unlike Wike ever crowing over his project strides, Ortom is no high performer. Indeed, whenever Ortom dives into his bruising “Fulani herdsmen” tales, a fellow on Facebook always notes: end of the month; salaries as usual have entered “voice mail” and our Tiv ultra-nationalist is on to his normal attention-diverting stunts, from Benue hurting pockets!
Besides, as first, emergency APC governor; then, as return-of-the-native second-term PDP governor, Ortom is guilty of what Wike accuses Abubakar Atiku, Aminu Tambuwal and Bukola Saraki of: rank opportunistic fellas that abandoned their party at its time of need, only to rally back to call the shots.
For Ortom, that cynical opportunism hasn’t reached an expiry date. He has a Senate race to run — a ticket from PDP. Would it not be suicidal campaigning against Atiku, his party’s presidential candidate? So long, Wike!
It appears Fulani wiles may yet triumph over Ikwerre brashness! Still, that hardly hands Atiku a lasting victory when the crunch comes.
How the rut and stench of cross-party whoredom oozes from the PDP crisis is simply benumbing. Daniel Bwala, virtually last night’s APC spokesperson-nominee, this morning doing just fine as PDP’s Atiku Campaign Organization (ACO) spokesperson, is dreaming dreams about Atiku winning the presidency without Rivers votes. Rich dreams!
But if you think Wike is the victim here, thus condoning his brashly, trashy bragging, you’re not entirely correct. His fate too is crass opportunism gone awry. That led to his bloc’s “enthronement” of Iyorchia Ayu as national chair — the same Ayu Wike and co now decree must fall on his sword!
The Wike bloc checkmated everyone to “instal” Ayu. On that, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, was a double victim: first kissing bye-bye his dream of national chair; then being crushed by Seyi Makinde’s candidate, Taofeek Arapaja. Arapaja! That fellow indeed boasts busy and powerful arms to fight and brawl — that’s what that evocative name means in Yoruba — the way he badly thrashed Oyinlola for PDP deputy national chair (South)!
Still, all these manoeuvres were undertaken by Wike and co, for Wike’s own presidential dream (read: “southern” presidency). The plan was that with the North grossing the PDP national chair, the presidential ticket was exclusively the South’s. That has proven a costly delusion, which brews fresher crises by the second!
The PDP has put itself in a terrible bind. It’s not looking pretty, since every solution seems to resurrect past griefs and old hurts. This is no place for any party to be, seven months to a crucial election — and with no crow-able records to flaunt for its earlier 16 years in power, it just might be morning yet on the party’s long, long day of woe.