Unless there is unity within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), dislodging the All Progressives Congress (APC) from office will remain an unfulfilled dream, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, warned yesterday.
The governor cautioned that critical stakeholders must first of all drop personal ambitions against the ruling party to reclaim power.
Wike, who spoke in Kaduna after a visit to wish ailing Senator Ahmed Makarfi speedy recovery, said: “This is not about who wants to run for presidency, that is not the issue. Who wants to zone presidency; that is not the issue at all. The issue here is all of you as a matter of duty must be united. If you like, zone presidency to the West, if you are not united, can you win election?”
In a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, Wike was quoted as encouraging the opposition party to rising to the challenge of rescuing Nigeria.
He said: “Nigeria is bleeding and so, if we are not united Nigeria will not forgive us because every Nigerian is hoping that PDP must come and stop this bleeding. And we require everybody.”
According to him, “Nigeria as a nation desperately in need of rescue from the APC stressing that “all well-meaning Nigerians, particularly members of the PDP” must come together and wrest power from the APC in 2023.
Wike said the ruling APC was deficient in ideas and could not provide solution to the numerous challenges facing the Nigerian state.
“There is nothing they can tell us now. They don’t have any other idea. If they have any idea, they didn’t use it. Now is what we call injury time. All promises made now cannot be fulfilled. If they had made promise for six years and didn’t fulfil it, is it one and half years left that they will fulfil it?” he asked.
Wike said he and other stakeholders in the party remained eternally grateful to the former Kaduna State governor, who as acting national caretaker committee chairman of the PDP, prevented the party from being destroyed by some extraneous forces under the watch of former Borno State Governor Ali Modu Sheriff.
He said: “Leadership is given by God and you see, when a party is in crisis, that is when you know who has leadership quality. When our party was in crisis …he stood firm, committed and showed braveness and said look, I have no other place to go other than the PDP. So he removed this party from the shackles of Ali Modu Sheriff.”
Wike commended Makarfi, who was governor in Kaduna and PDP leaders in the state, for ensuring that the party remained politically relevant.
He applauded them for the remarkable performance of the PDP in the last local government election in the state, particularly at the grassroots.
Senator Makarfi expressed profound gratitude to the Rivers State governor and his entourage for the visit.
He commended Wike and his colleagues for ensuring the success of the party last national convention.