…calls the FCT minister a “nothing”
A senior member of the Peoples Democratic Party, Pedro Obaseki, has accused Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike of planning to undermine the party’s internal workings in order to make it simpler for him to run for president in 2027 on the party’s platform.
Obaseki, who served as the PDP 2023 Presidential Campaign Council’s director of planning and strategy, called Wike a “nothing” who rode the party’s institutions and some of its chieftains’ goodwill to power only to betray them once he attained the top.
He said this on Monday in an interview with a few media in Abuja in response to the FCT minister’s call to expel Atiku from the PDP.
On Thursday, Wike said, “Look at the regions where the PDP did not win because of high-handedness, avarice, or impunity,” when appearing as a guest on the Channels Television program Politics Today.
“You could have discussed it if the PDP had performed as required. I am requesting that the National Working Committee suspend Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate, and individuals like Aminu Tambuwal so that the party can be rebuilt on the principles of equity, justice, and fairness.
Obaseki responded to Wike’s appearance on television by saying, “It is not hidden that Wike’s only concern is winning the presidency of our nation. He will flush away anything that appears to be standing in his way, whether intentionally or not, and that is exactly what he has been doing.
“What we are seeing right now is that he is striving to destroy the PDP so that he can destroy the APC in order to build a platform for himself to run in 2027, but we are not stupid.
“We must warn Wike, it’s crucial. The extent of a man who ought to be thankful to God’s brigandage has a limit. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe forewarns us to remember to be humble for those whose palm kernels were broken for them by kind spirits. But someone like Wike has persisted in pushing his luck too far.
Who is Wike?” He is an unknown. He rose to national fame while riding on the support of the Rivers State voters, betraying everyone he met. From being a Local Government Chairman to a Minister of State, then Governor of Rivers State, and finally a Minister of the FCT.
He remarked that the former governor of Rivers State had long been involved in the business of promoting a cause that was important to him personally. He cited the time he spent working to have his buddy and political ally, Uche Secondus, removed from his position as PDP chairman because he saw Secondus as a barrier to his desire to run for president in 2023.
According to Obaseki, “Wike constructed a graph starting from the time he supported Prince Uche Secondus to arrest the PDP structures. Then he engineered Secondus’ dismissal since he understood that as party chairman, in charge of his own local government, and representing his senatorial district, he would no longer be able to run for president.
But he failed in his bid for the same office. He made a commitment to stand for whoever won, but he broke it at every turn.
“Now is the time for the PDP and anyone who want to improve Nigeria’s democracy to recognize Wike for who he truly is. He has the guts to come into the open and claim that he is the PDP’s single financier, a party that was established in 1998.
“This is a party where he became governor in a state where (Peter) Odili was previously a governor for eight years on the platform of the party; where Rotimi Amaechi had been governor for seven years before defecting to the APC.
Obaseki described what he called a litany of wrongdoings by the former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, which led other PDP leaders to defect to other parties while stating that Wike should be suspended from the PDP.
“Wike needs to justify the expulsion of Atiku from the party. The man who is advocating for others to be kicked out of the party is the one who should be suspended. Wike is responsible for founding the G-5, a cult within the party.
He ran a campaign against the party in defiance of its will, bylaws, and organizational structures. If anyone had committed any anti-party acts, it would be Wike.
In the party, he has engaged in combat with every known member. You may recall that Bello Matawalle, the previous governor of Zamfara State, named him as the reason he left the celebration. He was the reason David Umahi left the gathering, according to him.
He was stated by Prof. Ben Ayade as the reason he left the gathering. He is now the archetypal tortoise that appears in all negative stories.
