By Aminu Kutama
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has blamed the lingering crisis within the camp of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the failure to zone the party’s presidential ticket to a particular region.
Governor Wike stated this while fielding questions from select journalists during a chat on Friday in Rivers State, stating that the main opposition party ignorantly planted a seed of discord by leaving the ticket open for all to contest.
“Those who thought they are too powerful, highly connected, and that they own the party said there should be no zoning of the presidential ticket – ‘leave it open and let the best candidate emerge’ – because they think they have the numbers.
“We jettisoned our constitution not knowing that we are laying the foundation, the seed of discord in the future,” he said.
Although there could be some underlying issues, a major crisis in the PDP began weeks before the party held its primary in May.
This disagreement was a result of the failure of the party’s leadership through a special committee to yield to the demand that its presidential ticket is zoned to the southern region of the country.
The aggrieved persons, especially party leaders from the South, said it would be morally right to zone the ticket to the region since the PDP national chairman had emerged from the North.
Despite the outcry, the party went ahead with the open primary which saw a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, emerged as the PDP presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections.
Speaking on the way forward, Governor Wike stated that sacrifices must be made in order for PDP to win the election. Specifically adding that an existing agreement for Ayu to step down as the party’s chairman has to be respected.
“We sat there and he (Atiku) agreed with us that Ayu has to go what was remaining, he said we should give him one week… let Governor (Ahmadu) Finitiri, who is the governor of Adamawa State, let him tell Nigerians it is not correct.
“Let Governor Seyi (Makinde) tell Nigerians it is not correct. For us to have peace let us move on, let bygone be bygone. What is the problem? You are the presidential candidate, just give chairmanship to the South. Within that one week, we didn’t hear from the presidential candidate again”, Wike added.
