According to Governor Nyesom Wike, the People Democratic Party is simply encouraging Nigerians not to trust them in advance of the 2023 elections because of the current turmoil that is roiling the party.
At a press conference on Friday in Port Harcourt, the governor of Rivers State expressed his belief that the party's current pride problem could spell its demise when Nigerians go back to the elections.
“We have not won election we are too arrogant, we have not won election and we are telling Nigerians look you cannot trust us, we say one thing and we do a different thing,” Wike asserted.
Speaking further on the issue threatening the peace within PDP, Wike said it is sad that no southerner occupies any of the three top positions within the party.
He added that the seed of discord was planted when the PDP shunned the zoning formula which would have seen a Southern candidate emerge as presidential flagbearer.
Speaking on the way forward, Governor Wike stated that sacrifices must be made in order for PDP to win the election.
“We sat there and he (Atiku) agreed with us that Ayu has to go what was remaining, he said we should give him one week… let Governor (Ahmadu) Finitiri, who is the governor of Adamawa State, let him tell Nigerians it is not correct.
“Let Governor Seyi (Makinde) tell Nigerians it is not correct. For us to have peace let us move on, let bygone be bygone. What is the problem? You are the presidential candidate, just give chairmanship to the South…. Within that one week, we didn’t hear from the presidential candidate again. If the presidential candidate respects us, what stops him from calling us and saying, ‘look, I have gone to look at this thing and the constitutional issues’?
“Even in that meeting, we told him to bring your lawyer, we will bring our lawyer let us sit down and work it out, but he never told us (no). All we now heard on TV was that there will be constitutional issues. We forgot that we have constitutional matters, that the constitution says we must zone, but now we have forgotten the constitution (and) now you are bringing constitutional matters,” Wike contended.