Still reeling in pains of his party’s shameful defeat from re-clinching power in the 2015 general elections, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike revisited why the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lost out at the elections.
In a new comment he made, Wike alleged that PDP leaders from the North, including governors and ministers, ganged up against ex-President, Goodluck Jonathan, in the 2015 general elections and paved the way for victorious General Muhammadu Buhari to emerge President.
He also said the PDP was in touch with high profile ex-PDP leaders and many APC chieftains for possible realignment ahead of 2019.
Governor Wike hinted that the former ruling party currently hinges on the hope that the ongoing reconciliation and political realighnment, which have former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and top members of APC, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, among others on the line will help bring the party back to power come 2019.
He alleged that members of Jonathan’s cabinet while he was in power, and ranking members of PDP, from the party’s former Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, deceived the former president and told him outright lies about his chances.
Wike stated this in the current edition of The Interview magazine.
In a statement by Azu Ishiekwene, the MD/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview, Wike said, “Let me tell you the truth; so many people were not sincere with Jonathan. You saw that even in the way some were being unduly sycophantic on issues that were totally out of point…I saw there was a lot of deceit.”
Wike said at the height of the presidential election, there were situations where politicians who were supposed to be in the field holed up in Abuja, filing false reports.
“Some of them would say, ‘Your Excellency, Sir, (Jonathan), as I’m speaking with you now, so and so state is down for PDP.’ They were all lies,” Wike said.
He specifically attacked northern leaders of the party, saying, “PDP in the North ganged up against Jonathan. Let the truth be told. Nobody will die. They were not sincere to him.
He said it was a mark of complicity that Jonathan was stoned in some states and the governors in those states watched idly by, adding that, “If I were in Jonathan’s shoes, I won’t take it; let the heavens fall.”
Wike, who was Minister of State for Education under Jonathan, and generally perceived as First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan’s “anointed”, attacked “most cabinet members” for taking advantage of the former president’s gentility.
He, however, said the PDP reconciliation committee of which he was chairman, had in sight, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, and top members of APC, including former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, among others.
Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike.
