Why I Have No Regrets Supporting LP Candidate, Peter Obi – Wike

By Charles Igbo

Nyesom Wike,  Rivers State Governor, has explained why he is supporting the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.

Wike, a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Governor, had ruffled feathers a few days ago when he publicly said he would give logistic support to Obi any time he comes to Rivers State for Campaign. “Anytime you are coming to Rivers State, tell me, I will give you logistic support”, Wike told Obi who was in the State, on Wike’s invitation, to commission one of Wike’s landmark projects.

Since then, Wike’s stand on Obi has shaken the PDP, and all kinds of interpretation have been given as to why the Governor publicly made the offer.

Wike and four other Governors who he leads – Samuel Ortom, Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu, Seyi Makinde, Oyo – and a sizeable number of PDP stakeholders, including a couple of former Governors and former Ministers, have been at loggerheads with the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, and its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, since the Presidential Primary.

Wike, a Presidential aspirant was beaten by Atiku to a respectable second place.

And since then, especially, when Atiku skipped a very expectant Wike, and picked Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta State Governor, as his running mate, nothing has been the same in the Party.

Believing that Ayu rigged the Primary in favour of Atiku Wike’s Group, which now calls itself, the Integrity Group, insists that Ayu must quit office as the National Chairman. This, especially, as Ayu had promised, before  the Primary, that he would step down from office if a Northerner becomes the Candidate. Ayu has refused to keep the promise. He has the support of Atiku, who had also made same promise, not to quit.

But Wike’s Group insists that it would not support Atiku’s Presidential ambition unless Ayu quits for a Southerner as Chairman. It says the National Chairman and the Presidential Candidate cannot come from the same Zone.

All efforts to make peace have, so far, failed. And the PDP is not sure where the five States under the Governors would vote in 2023.

But at a State banquet he held for the four Governors in his group when they were in Porthacourt to flag-off the Rivers PDP campaigns for its candidates, Wike said he had no regrets to say he would give Obi logistic support.

He said:”They say I am supporting Obi, I have no regrets offering him logistic support. Obi us a former Governor. As a former Governor, I must, I must give him logistic support. I will give him security and I will give him vehicles. Should I say as former Governor I will not give him security, and I will not give him vehicles?”

Given an inkling to who he could eventually work for, Wike said he told Obi: “My brother, let the truth be told not one, not one, House of Assembly, National Assembly is available. ‘If it didn’t de, it didn’t de.’

Wike cleverly left out the Presidency. He also said there is no other party in Rivers State, except PDP Rivers State Chapter. He made sure he added “Rivers State Chapter” instead of saying PDP.

For the records, on Monday when Rabiu Kwankwaso, the Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP went to Rivers State, Wike also promised to give him logistic support. Kwankwaso was a two-term Governor of Kano State.