On Tuesday, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State revealed how former President Goodluck Jonathan was embarrassed by Atiku Abubakar in 2015.
Wike said that Jonathan, in 2015, had begged Atiku, the current PDP presidential candidate to return to the PDP and support his candidacy for reelection, but the that the former vice president rejected the plea from Jonathan.
Wike spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Akpabu-Itu-Umudiogha road in Rivers’ Emohua Local Government Area, which was presided over by Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi.
According to the Rivers State governor, Jonathan travelled to the Dorchester Hotel in London in 2015 to meet Atiku but rather, the former VP “embarrassed” Jonathan and told him to relinquish his ticket to him.
Atiku defeated Wike and other to emerge as the candidate of the PDP for the 2023 elections.
But Wike said he was not making the type of demand Atiku made to Jonathan but only requesting that Iyorchia Ayu was replaced as PDP national chairman by a southerner.
He said, “We forget history. In 2015 when Jonathan as a sitting President, I am not talking as a presidential candidate but as a sitting President, when he had won his primary, Jonathan went to London to Dorchester Hotel, he went to plead with Atiku Abubakar to come back to the party and support him.
“You know the condition he (Atiku) gave Jonathan? He should relinquish his ticket not to run as the President of Nigeria. That was the presidential candidate of a ruling party. He gave him a condition, telling him to relinquish that ticket.
“Today, we are not saying the presidential candidate should relinquish his ticket; we are not being selfish, we are saying since you are now the presidential candidate, let our people take chairmanship.”
Jonathan, as incumbent president, lost the 2015 re-election bid to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).