The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, Tuesday in Abuja tasked the National Working Committee of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, to repay him with the party\u2019s presidential ticket for his loyalty and struggle against the Uche Secundus-led NWC, which he said, has brought them into office.<\/p>\n
This is as he warned the leaders against appointing delegates who have taken sides with some aspirants on the Primary Election Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n Wike also alleged sabotage over a power outage that almost marred his visit to Wadata Plaza. <\/span><\/p>\n The power outage, our correspondent observed, was a result of lack of diesel to power the Secretariat generator; forcing the presidential aspirant to address the audience without a public address system.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe household name now is Wike, so don\u2019t make a mistake and lose Wike. Because if you lose Wike, you have lost the election. It is not our prayer that we should lose the election.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt is important I take this opportunity and let you know that I am prepared. Psychologically, mentally and in all aspects I am very much prepared.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo let us not waste time. Go and tell our people that you have seen the right person and the right person is Wike. It is important you do the campaign for me, that was how I did it for you too.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was fighting the former NWC, some of you were supporting them. Now all of you are here. One good turn deserves another. So you people should also payback. Because you didn\u2019t go to campaign, but now are seated here. So payback.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut please do us the favor of conducting a free and fair election, that will be an advantage for us to win in 2023.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On the sudden power outage that greeted his arrival, Wike said \u201cI hope there was no sabotage and if there was no sabotage, and we want to take over from the APC, we must have to be ready.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is a part of what we are talking about. If you are in charge of the secretariat, and the secretary does not know that there is no fuel; then it is also a failure on the part of the secretariat.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo, Mr. Secretary, I hope your boys did not sabotage us and if they did not, they will only be held responsible for not doing their job very well,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n The former minister of state for education said, in choosing a flagbearer ahead of next year\u2019s election, the party must not consider those aspirants who lost their states and couldn\u2019t deliver victory to the PDP in the 2019 presidential elections.<\/span><\/p>\n He noted the party must be wary of opportunistic aspirants who fizzle away once they don\u2019t clinch the presidential ticket.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI have tried it in my state, and it has worked. Most of you who go to Rivers State will always see me with my leaders, trying to find out what we\u2019re going to do. It is not easy, but it works. Every person in government must carry the party along.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd here\u2019s what I think if I\u2019m given the opportunity that I will liaise with the party, find out the views of the party. And then with that synergy, you will see how the government will perform.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut again, Nigerians are waiting. Who are we going to present? What is the track record of that person? What is your track record? Not those who you give tickets to, tomorrow they fail, you won\u2019t see them at the party again. And when you don\u2019t give them the ticket, they will also leave the party, no that is not the way it should be.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo I believe I am a thorough party person. And should be encouraged to lead the party. It\u2019s very, very important. And I want to too, I know the modus operandi of APC, I can withstand the APC, I can withstand the Federal Government, just give me the ticket,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Wike also distanced himself from the consensus efforts by the trio of former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and governors Aminu Tambuwal and Bala Mohammed saying \u201cI don\u2019t believe in these people going around on consensus. I told them that their consensus move is shine shine bobo, the more you look, the less you see. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI say I am not going to buy it. It will not work and I am not a party to it. I believe in consensus, but based on equity, justice, and fairness. But not consensus by those who have conspired, they think they can bring me in, but nobody can bring me into it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMr. Chairman, since I know that members of NWC are also delegates, I come to present myself to you and also woo you because you are entitled to vote. I am wooing you to vote for me because I have the capacity to make PDP win the election in 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo show you how serious I am, I did not come here to negotiate for the Vice President. I came here to win this election and I will win the primaries on May 28\/29.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI did not buy Senate forms or told somebody to buy form and hold it for me. No! It is the only form I bought and that is for the presidency of Nigeria. I am not going to run for any other election.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In his response, the Party\u2019s Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, noted that it is impossible to heed Wike\u2019s call for support and hold a free and fair primary at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n He assured the governor of the party\u2019s determination to deliver a candidate with whom it can win next year\u2019s election.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI can assure you that there is no sabotage. The power outage we have experienced is part of the challenges PDP is trying to solve when we get power in 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOn one hand, you want s level-playing field. On another hand, you want the NWC to canvass votes for you. But we can assure you they\u2019ll be no power play or manipulation. We will hold a fair convention,\u201d Ayu said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, Tuesday in Abuja tasked the National Working Committee of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, to repay him with the party\u2019s presidential ticket for his loyalty and struggle against the Uche Secundus-led NWC, which he said, has brought them into office. This is as he warned the leaders against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1985,110,1536],"class_list":["post-7229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-nyesom-wike","tag-pdp","tag-presidential-ticket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7230,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7229\/revisions\/7230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}