By Gideon Njoku
Accomplished Journalist, Politician and a Director on the Presidential Campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 25 election, Dele Momodu, has dismissed the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, as an arrogant liar. Momodu, also, mocked Wike for dumping members of his G5 after using them to grab a ministerial position.
Momodu, in a post in reaction to an interview granted by Wike to Channels Television where he taunted the leadership of the PDP, and boasted that nobody can suspend or expel him from the Party, accused the former Governor as deceitful behaviour.
Wike, a PDP member, along with four other PDP Governors then – Samuel Ortom, Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu, and Seyi Makinde, Oyo – openly worked against the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in favour of President Bola Tinubu, then the APC Presidential candidate.
Wike’s anger was because aside from losing the Presidential ticket to Atiku, the Presidential Candidate snubbed him and settled for Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, his Delta State counterpart, as his Vice Presidential Candidate, a position Wike desperately wanted.
It was after he lost the Vice Presidential slot that Wike began to talk of Presidential seat rotation between the North and the South in PDP’s constitution and vowed with his G5 colleagues not to support Atiku. All of them worked for Tinubu.
But tackling Wike, Momodu asked him when he, Wike, became a champion of the South. He asked if it was before Atiku rejected him as his running mate or after. He wondered if Wike would have talked about rotation if Atiku had picked him as his running mate. Momodu noted that Wike should be ashamed that after all the noise, he was able to deliver only Rivers State, controversially, to Tinubu.
He also mocked the FCT Minister for abandoning the other members of the G5, except Makinde, who is still a Governor. He noted that only Wike grabbed a Ministerial position, and left the others in the lurch after they failed in their Senatorial bids. Where are they now?, Momodu said.
Asked Momodu: “When did Wike become the champion of the South; was it after his bid to be Vice President to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was rejected or after requests to handpick the juiciest ministerial portfolios, like the ones he got from Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, were rebuffed? Would he have continued to flagrantly badmouth Alhaji Atiku Abubakar if he had selected him as his runningmate?”
He dismissed Wike as a poor student of history, and chided him for not learning from the experience of former President Muhammadu Buhari who thought he was the alpha and omega a few months ago. Three months out of power, Momodu pointed out, Buhari has been thrown under the bus by Tinubu.
Momodu challenged Wike to show where rotation of the Presidential seat was written in the PDP constitution.
Momodu: “When did Wike become the sole owner of PDP that he cannot be disciplined by a 24-year-old political party? It would have been nice to know if he founded the party or when he acquired majority shares in it since he now has more money than Aliko Dangote.
“Wike should quote the portion of the PDP Constitution that says power must come to the South. He should tell the world the Chairman of the Zoning Committee that threw the contest open to all zones of the party and why he agreed to buy the Presidential nomination form.
“When did Wike become the champion of the South; was it after his bid to be Vice President to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was rejected or after requests to handpick the juiciest ministerial portfolios, like the ones he got from Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, were rebuffed?
“Would he have continued to flagrantly badmouth Alhaji Atiku Abubakar if he had selected him as his runningmate?
“Wike and four other governors were parading themselves as G5 while frolicking from Nigeria to Europe and back. Three of them from Benue, Enugu and Abia lost their Senatorial bids, spectacularly and resoundingly.
“Seun should have asked Wike, where are the other ‘suicide bombers’ today? Gone with the wind. The G5 was always about one man’s ego and ambition.
“Wike claimed, contentiously, that he delivered Rivers State to Tinubu, only one state out of six in the South/South region. Was that enough to justify all this grandiloquent vituperation by Nigeria’s co-President, Wike? His three acolytes couldn’t deliver and they’ve since been abandoned in the lurch!! What happened to their regular joint press conferences?
“Wike claims all PDP governors sent Ministerial nominations to Tinubu. He should tell us how many of them were eventually approved, except the one he handpicked from a neighboring state. Wike forgot to recommend any member of the G5. No nominee of Governor Seyi Makinde was visible on the Ministerial list.
“Wike seems to know more about the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal verdict ahead of the rest of us by saying on television that he and his people are only waiting for PEPT to finish, in order to unleash a reign of one party state on Nigeria. His mission is very clear, collapse PDP and hand over its remnants to APC, as long as he remains the co-President of Tinubu and allowed to go all out on his vengeful mission.
“Wike is obviously a poor student of history, he would have seen the dead end ahead. Barely three months ago, President Buhari was the alpha & omega of APC. His word was Law. Where’s he today? All the blames for the failure of Nigeria are being heaped on him. His most fastidiously loyal men, EFCC’s Bawa and Central Bank’s Emefiele are already in Tinubu’s gulag, indefinitely.
“Buhari must be wondering how quickly he’s been thrown under the bus. Truth is, as they say in America, that is how the COOKIE crumbles…”
