An aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Phrank Shaibu said Rivers State governor, Nyesome Wike has no other option than to remain in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Shaibu reacted to the APC governors’ recent visit to Wike in Port Harcourt, saying that the Rivers State Governor would not yield to the invitation to join APC.
Governors of Ekiti, Ondo and Lagos states, Kayode Fayemi, Rotimi Akeredolu and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, respectively, had met Wike in Port Harcourt.
But Shaibu said the trip was to “bring Wike to their fold or strike a deal with him, courtesy of one of their newest converts”.
“However, what’s the sense in their move? Have you ever seen a crowned prince contest for a chieftaincy title?” He queried.
Shaibu said the governors’ move was a sign that the ruling APC is desperate to retain power and asked what record they have to attract Wike.
He noted that Wike would not join a party under whose watch the Nigerian economy, potentially Africa’s most viable, “is now one of the continent’s most disastrous”.
Shaibu said the people were not interested in the APC because they sleep with one of their eyes open due to a high level of insecurity.
He said a further pauperisation of the marginalised Nigerian majority has been achieved under President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The Naira has been devalued by more than 300% since 2015– one dollar which sold for about N230 in December 2015 at the parallel market is now going for almost N600,” he said.
The author wondered how Wike would leave the PDP when the APC in Rivers is being led by his predecessor and former minister, Rotimi Amaechi.
Shaibu said there are many reasons the move by the APC to poach the governor “is not looking tidy”.
“If they lure Wike to APC, are they going to make him Rotimi Amaechi’s leader since he is a sitting governor?
“What becomes the fate of Siminialayi Fubara, the PDP gubernatorial candidate and others who have been picked to fly the party’s flag in 2023?” He added.
Shaibu said that the mood of the people of Rivers and the South-South as a whole showed that they are PDP sympathizers.
“The electorate have no alternative to continued and intensified struggle to put a decisive end to APC’s satanic rule…This is why PDP is Wike’s last bus stop!” He declared.