Weep Not, Governor Wike

No matter how he pretends, it very obvious that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is still pained that he lost the May 28 presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Last week, he opened up when he said he would have won the party’s ticket if the process had not been manipulated.

Speaking when his political associates and Rivers elders, led by the chairman, Rivers Elders Council, Chief Ferdinand Alabraba, visited to felicitate with him on his 55th birthday, Wike, to show that he has not forgotten about all that transpired during the presidential primary where he lost, again reiterated that with Dr. Iyorchia Ayu in office as National Chairman of the party, the aggrieved governors under the aegis of G-5 and their allies would not give their support to the party’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).

The aggrieved PDP members are demanding the exit of Ayu to pave the way for the South to fill his position. They hinged their demand on the fact that the party’s presidential standard-bearer, Atiku Abubakar, and Ayu come from the North.

But many analysts have dismissed his cry of ‘manipulation’ as a joke, saying that his undoing was his inability and refusal to carry southern governors along with his presidential ambition. They feel that he did not carry any of them along with his ambition.

For this reason, one of the analysts who spoke with THISDAY said the Rivers governor was only grandstanding. She described him as a weeping child.

“Wike is only grandstanding. Let Wike for once keep quiet. Ask him if he at any time sat any governor in the South down to tell them of his ambition. He didn’t tell any of them that he was interested in running for the presidency. He didn’t tell the people of his state, Rivers. Instead, he went to Benue to declare his ambition. Who does that? Why did he not declare in Rivers?

“He went to Edo and refused to visit Governor Obaseki – a man who wants to be president? He was at loggerheads with many of his fellow governors. How he thought he would win the PDP ticket beats my imagination.

“Rather than meet with the governors, he preferred to be plotting to hijack their state party structures behind them – something he won’t tolerate in his state,” she added.