Federal Capital Territory FCT minister, Nyesom Wike on Friday praised President Bola Tinubu for proclaiming a state of emergency in Rivers state, saying as a politician, he (Wike) actually wanted an outright removal of the suspended governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
According to him, the emergency declaration saved Fubara from being impeached by the State House of Assembly, saying the embattled governor and his supporters ought to be thanking the president every morning rather than castigating him as they are currently doing.
Wike spoke in Abuja during a live media chat with some television stations.
Noting that his own Peoples Democratic Party PDP appears not serious ahead of the 2027 general election and the forthcoming FCT Council Polls, the former Rivers State Governor said he would not support the party except it puts its house in order
According to him, the PDP Governors’ Forum also lacks capacity and is incapable of making necessary sacrifices for the party, asserting that the forum is merely a pressure group and not an organ of the party. While he noted that the PDP was likely to crash until the right thing is done, Wike also took a swipe at a former vice president and the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar saying the former vice president has not kept to agreements and promises he made.
On Fubara, he said; “As a politician, I am not happy with the declaration of emergency rule in Rivers state. I wanted the outright removal of the governor. But for the interest of the state, the president did the right thing to prevent anarchy in the state. However, people must tell the truth. The governor was gone. He was gone, yes… so when people say the president did this, I say they should be praising him. Mr president came in and saved the situation, saved Rivers people from that calamity and anarchy”.
Speaking on Atiku and the PDP, Wike said; “PDP is not ready and it is very obvious. You don’t need to like me, what I am saying is that all this power struggle is not going to help the party. In 2023 I stood firm that I would not support the PDP candidate. As of 2023, APC was down because the Buhari government was not doing well. A decision had to be made on who to support and when I looked at it, Atiku was not an option, so it was a no-go area. If the PDP does not keep its house in order as far as far as I am concerned, I am not going to support them in an area council election. I don’t know about the APC or any party. If the PDP goes the way it is going, I will not. Everybody knows me, I don’t play hide-and-seek.
“If you listened to Seyi Makinde when he interviewed on Politics Today, on Channels Television, he said ‘when Wike was governor, he brought out his chest and fought for the party. He made the party not to die’. Mention one governor today in the PDP that has come out and say I will lead this war as the head of the opposition. Before 2019, APC tried to muzzle the PDP. And some of us said no, we would not accept it. Today, how many governors can say I am the one funding this party? In 2019, I said I was not going to the Villa, and I would be in the opposition. Today, how many governors can say he doesn’t go to the Villa by night? You don’t give what you don’t have. You have to make sacrifices. I made sacrifices, and I can tell you authoritatively that it is not an easy thing. For you to say I want to lead the opposition party to eldorado, it is not by mouth. You have to do a lot of things.
“One thing you must know is that Atiku does not keep to his words. I can tell you authoritatively what happened in 2019. Atiku, (Bukola) Saraki, and (Uche) Secondus came to see me and told me that I was going to nominate the Attorney General and Minister of Petroleum. When we lost the election, the man who was supposed to be the Attorney General did not know when the legal team was constituted.
“I called Saraki, you people constituted a legal team but you said I was going to bring the AGF. That is the point I am making, people don’t keep to their words. I know from day one that Atiku will never keep to his words and I have never banked on that. It was very clear that I made the right decision and you can’t see me now saying I will support ‘who’ for president? How?”, he queried.
Wike also berated the PDP Governors Forum for usurping the powers of the party’s National Working Committee NWC, saying such impunity would never go unchallenged.
His words: “Members of the Governors Forum are not sincere to themselves and they are not sincere to the party. I didn’t say the Governors’ Forum is not strong. But by the constitution of the party, they are not part of the organs of the party. It is a pressure group that can exert influence. It can not take away the responsibility of the National Working Committee. On Tuesday, after watching Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde, who is my friend, on Channels Television, I called him and said, listen, I heard what you said, but you know you didn’t say the truth as regards some issues. Fundamentally, you said one of the reasons PDP lost was impunity. You are right. Some people believed that they had all it took and so refused to respect the constitution of the party as regards power sharing between the North and the South. Now, you are also making the same mistake. By the impunity of the Governors’ Forum, you are repeating the same thing. Now, what happened to the PDP in 2023 may likely happen in 2027. If you don’t stop this impunity, it will affect the party. And how will it affect the party? Very clear. The Governors’ Forum is not an organ of the party. The Governors’ Forum is a pressure group that can exert influence on the National Working Committee. You cannot take over the function of the National Working Committee. I do what I have always told people. He then said, okay, what about when I was a governor? I agree. I said, because it happened yesterday, it does not mean that it will happen today. Even if it happened yesterday, was it right? And in any case, there was never a time when I was a governor, where governors came out to say, we have done this, we have done that, Never! We influenced what will happen in the National Working Committee. How can you come out on national television to say that the governors have set up a Zoning Committee to be headed by this person. You don’t have the authority to say that somebody should be acting as the National Secretary when there is a National Secretary who has not resigned. Being instrumental or having influence does not mean that you come and take over. I used influence to see that my candidate wins”
On a faction of the PDP forming an alliance with other political parties to confront the APC in 2027, he said, “Sincerely speaking, none of the factions have been truthful. Those who say they want to form a coalition are not truthful to themselves. Those who say they don’t want a coalition are also not truthful to themselves. It is all about selfish interest. Coalition with whom? Everybody wants to be president of the country. Nobody wants to say let me lead our party, so that at the end of the day, our party will be in a formidable position as an opposition party to take over power. We don’t do that. Only what you want is, let me find a way to be the one. If that does not happen, your tent oh, Israel. You made the mistake yesterday and you want to make the same mistake today. Tomorrow you make the same mistake and then you come out to say, we were rigged out. Who rigged you out? People are not sincere to themselves, and people like me will not accept that. Those who say they want to be alone are also not sincere. You are not sure that you want to be alone. You are not sure that you want cohesion in the party”.