Rivers: defection doesn't give you automatic party leadership

From Tony John, Port Harcourt

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has declared that defection to another political party cannot give an automatic leadership role in the party.

Wike stated this during his end-of-the-year media chat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Monday, stressing that no candidate can win an election in the state without support from his political camp.

He dismissed the insinuation in some quarters that Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) automatically gives him party leadership in the state.

Fubara had made the declaration after defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC that he is the “001” of the state.

During his registration with the APC in Rivers, the governor was assigned “001” on his membership card.

The former Rivers governor maintained that his supporters control the local government and ward structures across the state.

Wike asked: “He (Governor Fubara) decamped to APC with who? What is ‘001’? Let me tell you, there’s nothing like ‘001’ in the state. You register in your ward and local government. So, if you are ‘001’, it’s in your ward.”

The minister maintained: “Defecting to another party does not make you the leader. There’s nothing like ‘001’. There’s nothing like I have registered in the state as ‘001’.

“Everybody registered in their own ward. You could be the first person to register, but that’s not your position.”

Wike added, “See, leadership is not because I’m a governor. Leadership is not because I’m a minister. You must have something that makes you a leader.

“When you said you are joining the party, you must have something to offer.”

Meanwhile, the FCT minister has revealed that he played a prominent role in making Seyi Makinde the Governor of Oyo State in 2019.

Wike stated that Makinde became governor after he and some party leaders provided him with the PDP structure in Oyo State.

He was reacting to Makinde’s claim of making $1 million when he was in law school.

According to Wike, Makinde never contributed “N1,000” when he contested for the PDP’s presidential ticket.

He said: “I ran for the presidential primary of the PDP. I didn’t see Seyi use N1,000 in my primaries. I did not see it even once.

“Secondly, it’s only in Nigeria that I’ve seen someone awarded a job worth $1 million, and nobody is talking about it.

“But, he came to the man who didn’t have $1 million to help him get structure. We said no, we will not give it to you. We gave it to Teslim. He went to SDP to run as governor and failed with his $1 million dollars.

“Then, before 2019, he came back. We said no, we are ready to give you structure. I was very grounded in politics, but I had no $1 million with me.

“But, the man who made $1 million is going around looking for people to help him build a structure. It was when we gave him that structure that Seyi became governor in 2019.”

Fielding more questions during the media chat, Wike said as governor, he never saw the money the current governors have access to.

He said, “Money can make you not see well, the kind of money governors have now, we never saw it.

“This is why most of them make mistakes, they think everything is about money.

“Money has its own limitations; there are areas money can’t reach, but goodwill can.”