Wabara to Wike: I won’t join issues with people who do not have respect for elders

From Okey Sampson, Umuahia

 

The Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Adolphus Wabara, has said he would not join issues with someone who does not have respect for elders, referring to the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike over the latter’s scantling media comment on him.

Wike had in a live interview on a national television over the weekend, said that if Wabara were to be his father, he (Wike) would have disowned him (Wabara).

Wike, while responding to a question on the leadership crisis rocking the PDP, said: “It’s unfortunate they have a man they said is a former Senate President. If that man was my father, I would have disowned him. If he was my father or related to me, I would have disowned him. He doesn’t qualify to be. No wonder President Obasanjo made a presidential broadcast under his tenure about corruption. That’s the man leading PDP BoT.”

However, Senator Wabara, reacting to Wike’s tirade, said the Minister for the FCT, whom he accused of having no respect for elders, was not worthy for him to join issues with.

Wabara said as an elder statesman who had been privileged to be Nigeria’s Number Three Citizen, it would be un-dignifying for him to begin to trade words with Wike.

“I won’t be joining issues with people like Wike who have no respect for elders.”

The former Senate President said he had expected the FCT Minister to refrain from unguarded utterances, at least as a mark of respect for the position “he occupies as a Minister of the Federal Republic, and as a former Governor.”

Senator Wabara said it was disgraceful for a supposed man  of honour to speak without decorum, adding that spewing gibberish like a broken water pipe without a tap is not a mark of maturity.

Distancing himself from corruption, Wabara said:” I will expect a man of his calibre and status to mind his language and words. He should be sure of his facts. But I don’t want to join issues with Wike and dignify him.

“Frankly, for a son to disown his father, his father must have wronged him terribly. Can Wike please tell the world what it is I did wrong to him?

“Talking about corruption, Nigerians know those who are corrupt, and I can proudly say and beat my chest that I’m not one of them  I, Adolphus Wabara, I’m not corrupt”, Wabara asserted.