•APC chieftain cautions members against ‘unholy romance’ with Wike
•Ayu leaves for Europe today, hands over to deputy
•Ohuabunwa: Rivers gov, others fighting for justice, equity
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
In order not to leave anything to chance as far as the 2023 general election is concerned, former principal officers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives, have begun to mobilise to lead the Atiku Abubakar campaign to enable them win the presidency in 2023.
This is just as it was announced yesterday that the PDP National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, will leave Nigeria for Europe tomorrow ( today).
In a statement by Simon Imobo-Tswam, the Special Adviser to the National Chairman Media and Communications, he said Ayu will be out of the country for about two weeks. While away, the statement said that the Deputy Chairman (North), Amb. Iliya Damagun, will act in his place. The statement went on to state that the National chairman has communicated the handover to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He is expected back at month-end.
The group of former principal officers, which includes the first Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, who later resigned over falsification of certificate, Aminu Tambuwal, Emeka Ihedioha, Usman Bayero Nafada, Chibudom Nwuche and Austin Opara were to lead thousands of other House members to a meeting in support of Atiku.
It was gathered that the meeting scheduled for today in Abuja, has been communicated to all the former legislators.
The meeting is the second in a series to mobilise support for the PDP presidential candidate Atiku and his running mate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, ahead of the official flagging of presidential campaigns.
In a statement by former deputy leader of the House, Hon Muktar Ahmed, the meeting would discuss strategies for winning the coming general election and other burning issues, major happenings in the country under the failed APC government, and why it was important for the former vice-president to take over power come next year.
Muktar said the meeting would be a gathering of key political actors, cutting across all the nation’s federal constituencies with the aim of mobilising support and wooing Nigerians to support Atiku, whom he described as,” a leader Nigeria needs”.
In their last meeting, the former lawmakers had agreed to meet monthly as a way of marketing the capacity and capabilities of the former Vice President and reawakening new leadership ideas needed for a contemporary democratic administration.
“The significance of such a gathering is better imagined than described. It is fallout of patriotic concern for the nation and the sheer willingness to put heads together to change the course of governance for the better.
“As politicians committed to the nation, it is not palatable to be watching the diminishing style of governance in the country under the current dispensation in which the strong legacies of the PDP are being depleted. The truth is that governance has been reduced to its lowest ebb.
“Having lost power in 2015 and 2019 to the APC, the ruling party has not done anything close to what was achieved by the PDP between 1999 and 2015, hence the fervent desire to reinvent previous successes and prosperity for Nigeria Kudos to the former lawmakers,” Muktar said.
However, as the leadership crisis in the PDP festers, Dr Blessing Agbomhere, the South-south Zonal Organising Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), has cautioned party leaders over the frequent invitation of APC chieftains to commission projects in Rivers State by Governor Nyesom Wike, arguing that it does not augur well for the expected victory of the party in the state and at national level in the 2023 election.
He said if Wike wanted to join the APC, he should do it through the front door, but not through the back door.
He said the influx of APC chieftains to Rivers, could affect the moral of its members in the state while boosting that of the PDP members.
“We cannot afford to promote the policies and projects of an opposition ruling party in a state on the one hand and expect to win elections in that state as an opposition party,” he said.
Meanwhile, a former presidential aspirant of the PDP, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, has described the ongoing leadership crisis in the party as a demand for justice and equity.
Ohuabunwa said this was the essence of the demand by Wike and his associates, explaining that their demands were genuine.
Speaking on a television programme monitored in Abuja, Ohuabunwa said the leadership of the party should “appreciate Wike’s circumstances. If you can empathise with the situation of the southern governors or Governor Wike. Appreciate his circumstances, appreciate what he’s talking about. Listen to him, put yourself in his own shoes.
“You begin to understand that he is not a crying wolf. He is demanding justice, he is demanding equity. And that is right for him to do. If things from the beginning were done in the right way, I wouldn’t say there won’t be any disagreement but it won’t have been this way. I don’t think Wike is impossible to deal with. He has shown that he is a team player, when the team is a reasonable team,” he stated.
