I am not writing this piece because I am a member of PDP or because of any special interest in the party. This opinion is purely based on principle. I support a two-party system and would like a situation where either of the two main political parties alternate power at intervals, hence I am opposed to politicians in both APC and PDP finding it difficult to settle their political differences as politicians would do. I wish neither APC nor PDP dead. I wish our politicians become more mature to find political solutions to their political differences.
Someone told me that Wike is fighting for the South and I don’t think this is true. Wike is fighting for Wike. Gov. Ortom who doubles as his second brain revealed this much in a media chat where he said that the leadership of PDP was unfair to Wike. He didn’t say the leadership of PDP is unfair to the South. But, come to think of it; it was the same Ortom that chaired the PDP presidential committee on zoning, whose members were handpicked by Wike. It was the Ortom Committee that voted to throw the presidential ticket open rather than zone the ticket to the South East. I guess they must be thinking that their man will win once the South East is sidelined.
Atiku challenged PDP’s Southern Governors that were under Wike’s spell to zone the ticket to the South East in the interest of justice, equity and fairness, but they balked. Governor Bala Mohammed who was also an aspirant made similar challenge but neither Wike nor his Man Fridays spent a thought on justice and equity for the South East. They thought they had the PDP presidential ticket under wrap but were disappointed and still cannot hide their disappointment when after Atiku trounced them to become the party’s flag bearer.
As far as they are concerned, Atiku stole their pile and they will never forgive him. Ayu’s crime was superintending a free, fair and credible presidential primary election. His being fair and firm made them mad. They didn’t install him the National Chairman for him to be impartial, he was meant to be an asset.
General cannot get over the loss of his haughty and pompous grip on the party and its leadership. Sometimes in March 2022, while masking his well nursed presidential ambition, he told the press that he would support zoning the presidential ticket to the North if that would guarantee the party winning the presidential election. Now that the party has a candidate from the North that is poised to win, Wike is angry and doing everything under the sun to sink the party. I don’t expect politicians to keep 100 per cent to their words, however, even among thieves, there should be honour.
The silent part is still part of the song, According to Wike, Atiku, Saraki and Tambuwal humiliated Jonathan out of office in 2015. Now, it’s Wike’s turn to seek revenge, and he has willing consorts in Ortom, Ikpeazu, Ugwuanyi and Makinde, all pretending to be leading a battle of the South.
Wike is too angry that when he sat down for a media chat recently, he said a lot of horrible things about PDP, Atiku and Prof Ayu. Without any proof, he claimed that Ayu is very corrupt, that PDP is deceitful and Atiku dishonest. He went further to assert that the PDP Presidential Primary election was manipulated.
On the issue of Ayu stepping aside, I don’t think there is anything wrong with Ayu making that onerous sacrifice to step aside if that will restore peace within the fold of the party. After all, politics is all about compromise, consensus, compensation and concordance. However, that should be his personal decision to make but not on the order and command of Gov Wike.
So far, I think Wike has already overreached himself. Elementary politics taught that the fastest way to quit active politics is to scream, punch and kick at the same time. These are exactly what Wike is doing now. Deep down in his heart, he knows he has no future in politics. But rather than fade quietly, he wishes to be remembered as ‘the man that killed PDP’. What a befitting epitaph!
If he understood politics, he should know that in this game, you don’t allow yourself to get too angry with your opponent to the extent of destroying both your opponent and yourself. There is no profit in scorch earth politics other than mutual destruction. Those that engage in this act, end up in regrets.
In politics, forgiveness is important and it takes a lot of energy to remain unforgiving than to forgive. Wike’s recent media chats exposed him as a man lacking in these fine principles. Looking back, I consider Atiku a very lucky man. It is God that delivered him. Imagine for a moment if he made the mistake of choosing him as his running mate?
In all my years as a political writer, I am yet to come across a politician so crude, too haughty and very venomous like the Wike that I watched on the TV media chat. He doesn’t care about what he says about others. He was insulting and reckless in his use of words and cannot hide the fact that he hates and despises his rivals.
Funny enough, he claimed he is fighting for the South, whereas he is the reason the South lost the PDP presidential ticket. He emasculated the South East and frustrated Peter Obi out of the party and today the Obi-Datti movement is powering on beyond imagination. When Atiku and Bala Mohammed declared their readiness to mute their presidential campaign in the interest of justice, equity and fairness on the condition that Southern Governors forum will be gracious to concede the ticket to the South East, being the only zone in the South which has not produced either Vice President or President, it was Wike who made this mission impossible. He declared that zoning is not important; he said that what is important is a candidate that will win the election. He asserted that you don’t share a power that you don’t have. All these made sense to him until he lost the presidential primary election.
As a dictator it’s either his way or the high way. He hired and fired the party’s leadership at his whims. It’s him that foisted the current National Chairman and his executives on the party. When he wanted to remove Uche Secondus, he accused the former of corruption. But, now he claimed Secondus was removed to pave way for a Southern President.
He cared less about Secondus when he invented and manufactured tissues of lies of how Secondus was corrupt and incompetent, and in particular how Secondus turned WADATA House into WADATA casino. He hired and paid hack writers to write and promote negative narratives against Secondus. He also ensured that his minions in the judiciary frustrated all litigations to redress the injustice. He told lies against Secondus and is telling similar lies against Ayu. Who will be the next!