2023: Nyesom Wike insists PDP must zone national chairmanship to southern Nigeria
The People's Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairmanship must be zoned to the South, according to Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike.
In a television interview with Channels TV today, Wike made this claim (Friday).
Recall that Wike and Senator Iyorchia Ayu had a falling out over the PDP chairman's refusal to step down after he had promised to do so if the party's presidential candidate came from the North.
Wike had already claimed that Ayu had done everything to prevent him (Wike) from becoming the party's nominee for president.
He said, “I believed the PDP presidency would be zoned. But, all of a sudden people begin to show how clever they are. Now they are falling back to the constitution. You cannot eat your cake and have it.
“Sacrifice must be made in order to come out of this. Let us do things right so that peace will reign. We must do the right thing. We must show Nigerians that this is where we are coming to.
“Why did we jettisoned the constitution of our party and now start talking about the rule of law. If we had followed Section 7 : 3 c we would not have ended up in this crisis. I will stay in the PDP to fight for the right. I am not a man that will see fire and run away,” he said.
The River state governor further stated, “For inclusivity so we can be sure that everybody belongs to one house. For the unity of the country. As it is today, we can not undermine this factor of marginalization. You must show that you have the capacity to bring everybody together.
“Why did they put pressure on the BOT chairman to resign, but could not put pressure on the National chairman of the party to resign?
“Instead of doing the right thing, what they are doing is name calling. Wike is this and that one. All this will not help us get anywhere. We have not even won an election, we have become so arrogant,” he said.