By Adesina Soyooye
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is playing the beautiful bride with the three main Political Parties/Presidential aspirants.
He is playing games with them. And he is not hiding it.
Relaxed in London with a good number of the high profile members of his Camp in the PDP, he is not only playing the big boy, Wike is playing the role of the lord of the manor.
About 48 hours after Wike and his team’s much celebrated, but unconfirmed (no pictorial evidence unlike of other meetings) meeting in London with Bola Tinubu, Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Wike held a high profile meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi. Present at the meeting alleged to have been arranged by Obasanjo, were a number of Team Wike. They included the Governors of Benue, Abia, Oyo – Samuel Ortom, Okezie Ikpeazu, Seyi Makinde, and a former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke.
The Media went frenzy over the meeting, especially, with the presence of Obasanjo. Questions such as: Why was Obasanjo present? Why would Wike hold such a meeting with Obasanjo and Obi? What was the subject of discussion? Is Wike planning to decamp to the LP? Or is he reaching a working arrangement with Obi – like telling his State to vote Obi for the Presidency and vote PDP in the rest of the elections? Is the Rivers State electorate that sophisticated, especially, as the Presidential election and that of the National Assembly hold same day?
While, obviously, PDP is nervous about these meetings, the tension was suddenly doused.
Here’s why.
The same Thursday, the story, backed by photographs, emerged of Wike and Team in a meeting with Atiku in London. The meeting coincided with a press statement issued by Atiku, signed on his behalf by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, warning his supporters to stop the attack on Wike. He preached unity.
It is not known yet if Atiku’s London meeting with Wike will bring the much needed peace within the PDP. What, for instance, will Atiku and the PDP concede to Wike and his Camp? They are asking for a couple of things.
For one, Wike and not a few people believe Atiku should not have been part of the PDP Presidential Primary.
When the PDP suddenly threw the race open, after it had elected Dr Iyorchia Ayu, a Northerner, as the National Chairman of the Party, many people cried foul.
The belief, after Ayu’s election, was that the PDP candidate would come from the South. But the PDP did the opposite. One of the requests, therefore, by the Wike Camp is that Ayu must give way as the National Chairman for a Southerner.
Before now, Ayu had promised to step down if the Presidential candidate came from the North. But, he has since changed his mind, insisting he was elected for a four-year tenure and would serve it out.
Atiku took a middle level position. In an interview, he said Ayu would step down once he wins the Presidential race.
But the Wike Camp disagrees, and condemns what is now called as the “Northernisation” of the PDP.
The Chairman of the Biard of Trustees, the National Chairman, and the Presidential candidate all come from the North.
This other day, the BOT Chairman, Senator Wahid Jibrin worried about the Northern monopoly of high profile offices in the Party. He described it as unfair.
While the outcome of the Atiku-Wike meeting in London is being awaited, the questions are: Can the PDP afford to lose Wike, and so, Rivers State? And can Wike afford to decamp to another Party from PDP?
Not a few people think it is not likely Wike would decamp, even with his threats. Said a source close to him: “He knows where his bread is buttered. He dares not go to APC, for instance. He is not likely to work against the PDP in 2023. PDP remains his only refuge. It is in his interest that the PDP wins at the centre.”
