By Adadainfo
Governors and other stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-East region of the country are politically naive, selfish and ‘ready to play second fiddle to feed on the region’.
This was the view of a cross-section of residents of Awka who spoke with Adadainfo on Thursday. They reacted to the refusal of the camp of Gov Nyesome Wike of River State to join the presidential campaign council of the Peoples Democratic Party ahead of the 2023 general elections. The camp rejected the North having both the presidential candidate of the party and its national chairman.
Joe Ikuku, a student, said, “I am just looking at our leaders. The way they are comfortable that Atiku Abubakar of the north is PDP’s presidential standard-bearer beats my imagination. They didn’t protest even when it is the turn of the Southeast. I expected them to pull out of PDP on the day the party’s convention took place, but they began to seek VP slot. Till date, no protest from them.”
A newspaper columnist, Nze Osita Offor, said, “We have no leaders, except a bunch people smoking us dry. That is why our people readily listen to pro-Biafra groups because we are being milked by our leaders.
“What Nyesom Wike is doing is what our leaders would have done. But he knew they won’t because of selfishness. Wike is from the South South, which the zoning didn’t favour. Today, he is the one championing the cause of justice in the PDP. Other well-meaning Nigerians see reasons with him, except our South-East leader.
“People of the north put in Adolphus Wabara as the party’s BoT chairman to appease us. What does a BoT chairman do in this scenario? And Wabara is celebrating it because he will have food on his table from there. My headache is that the same South-East leaders will collect bribery allocations from Atiku and his likes to woo South-East people not to vote for Peter Obi of the Labour Party.”
For Omeife Okwosa, “Atiku is unbridled, selfish, inconsiderate. The same man who championed the fall of Jonathan on the basis of power return to the North now wants to keep the power in the North after eight years. And our people are in his campaign council. After this loss, Atiku would have contested for ten times. This will also send the PDP to its deserved grave.”
The Wike camp yesterday announced their non-participation in the presidential campaign of Atiku Abubakar following Atiku’s inability to effect the resignation of Dr Ayu as the party’s national chairman.”
