Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, expressed strong displeasure at recent comments by his political rival and former National Chairman of the Peoples Demoractic Party, PDP, Uche Secondus over the former’s reluctance to support the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Wike, on Thursday, December 22, 2022, promised to reveal his preferred candidate in January 2023. In response, Secondus reportedly gave an assurance that the people of Rivers were too sophisticated for anyone to impose a candidate on them.
But on Saturday, December 24, 2022, the governor countered the former PDP chairman while during the commissioning of Aluu-Omagwa Road in Ikwerre Local Government Area, LGA.
“I read in the newspaper this morning where a former member of our party, one Prince Uche Secondus said that no one man can impose a presidential candidate on Rivers people. He’s not a member of our party.
“His ward expelled him from this party; the court affirmed it. He went to the Court of Appeal – he lost. He went to the Supreme Court, the matter is coming up on October 23rd, 2023,” he said.
Wike bragged to the attendees, “I told him he would not be national chairman or conduct the convention. Did he conduct it? Was he at the national convention?” to which the crowd chorused, “No!”
“In any case, I never said I was going to impose my candidate on Rivers people,” he added. “I said I was going to tell Rivers people whom I’m going to support, whom I’m going to campaign for. But you see, you don’t blame them.
“When you didn’t finish secondary school, you will not understand the grammar that ‘I will tell Rivers people whom I want to support’ does not mean I said, ‘Rivers people, I will impose a candidate on you.’”
Wike argued that the only person that would defend the people of Rivers had their ear, adding that Secondus allegedly had no influence on them.
“You (Secondus) cannot defend the interest of Rivers people is that Atiku wins so you can get an oil block. That’s all. Just like the one you forced to be a senator in Rivers South-East because he was not supposed to be a senator. It was Magnus Abe that was supposed to be senator, an educated man at that level,” he said.
“I don’t know how Secondus would have the effrontery, the temerity to talk to somebody like me who finished primary school, secondary school very well, who went to university very well, went for youth service, came back for university, went to law school, was called to bar.
“I’m going to Rumuepirikom where I come from. I’m going to mobilise them to vote where I want them to vote. I will bring 98 percent of the vote. Let them assure their own candidate that they will bring five percent; I will bring 98 in my community.
“The community will say, ‘Look at it; what don’t we have, from chairman of local government, he gave us this. As chief of staff, he gave us this. As minister, we had this. As governor, see what we’re having.’”
Following the PDP presidential primary in May where he lost out, Wike has been at loggerheads with Atiku Abubakar over the chairmanship of Iyorchia Ayu.
After the presidential primary, Atiku, a former Vice President, stung Wike when he passed over his closest rival at the primary and chose Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate.
Wike, with four other PDP governors known as the G5 or the Integrity Group, have insisted that Benue-born Ayu must step down for a southerner as a precondition to support the 2023 ambition of Atiku. Members of the G5 are Wike, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.
