By Adesina Soyooye
The rumour has been on for a long time. It has been strong too. The rumour of the no-love-lost between the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, and the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
Nobody has been able to confirm anything. Any inkling of any spat between them is only gleaned from a number of utterances by Wike, which not a few people interpreted as both untidy, and a dig at Secondus and the National Working Committee, NWC, of the Party which he leads.
Incidentally, aside from the fact that both men are from the same State, it was Wike who, allegedly, lorded it on everybody, and installed Secondus as the Chairman of the Party.
Nobody knows exactly from where the rumour of a misunderstanding between the two men started, but sources told the Magazine that Secondus was beginning to get uncomfortable and tired of Wike’s alleged overbearing attitude in the affairs of the party.
The claim is that the feeling is not just the exclusive of Secondus, but that of a number of PDP bigwigs, including Governors.
For instance, it is said that it was the overbearing attitude that led to the defection of the Cross Rivers State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade to the All Progressives Congres, APC, and could lead to that of Zamfara Governor, Bello Matallawe, soon.
However, Secondus has flatly denied any such rift between him and his Governor. The denial came from his Media Office which was reacting to a story in the ThisDay of Sunday, June 13.
The newspaper had cited the alleged rift between Secondus and Wike as a headache for the Party.
But in a statement signed on his behalf by Ike Abonyi, his Special Assistant on Media, Secondus said there was no such rift, and so no such headache for the party.
The statement, instead, located the headache at the corner of the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari who he said had killed democracy and free speech in the country.
Following is the full statement from the Chairman’s Media Office.
“Thisday newspaper on Sunday published a story in its political notes column with the above headline insinuating a non-existent issue within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, trying to make their large reading public misread the situation in the party.
“The story claimed among others that there is a disagreement between the National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus and the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike such that could affect the party’s operations.
“This is not true, and since the premise is wrong the conclusion cannot also be right. It’s a faulty reasoning that renders argument invalid.
“The media office of the National Chairman therefore wishes to state categorically and unequivocally that PDP is a political party of Nigerians that cannot be in control or direction of one individual or group.
“And history is a witness that those who tried to control the party in the past failed woefully because it derives its existence from the people and indeed Nigerians, hence its name and motto, ‘power to the people’
“The story is, therefore, not true as the National Chairman, Prince Secondus along with members of the National Working Committee, NWC, are effectively piloting the affairs of the party to the satisfaction of majority of its members and leaders across the country.
“And Governor Wike as one of the effective PDP state Governors is also delivering democracy dividends to the good people of Rivers State.
“For records, the office of the National Chairman of PDP wants to put it on record that the real headache of the party is the steady destruction of democracy tenets by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and in particular the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to put into action the speedy Electoral reform so that votes of Nigerians can count.
“Also as a huge headache to PDP today is the insecurity situation in the country that has not only remained a threat to democracy but to the corporate existence of the country.
“The office of the PDP National Chairman therefore desires that innuendos of any kind aimed at injecting bad blood in the party should be disregarded and seen as a distraction from the real focus of getting APC out of the way to save Nigeria.”
There has been no response from Wike to the story.
