Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has said that if zoning the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential ticket to the North will cause the party to win the 2023 general election, he will support the decision.
The governor ruled out the possibility of him supporting any All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate even if the person was of Rivers State or Southern Nigerian extraction.
Wike shared this view during an interview with BBC Pigin at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
He explained that the reason why the PDP had not taken a final decision on whether its presidential candidate for the 2023 general election should be from the North or South of the country was because stakeholders were still strategising over the best options that would guarantee the party’s victory in the polls.
He stated that PDP was keen to take over the rein of power in 2023.
“I am from Southern part of Nigeria. I will be happy if power returns to the South, but if PDP will win the 2023 presidential election by zoning the presidential ticket to the North, I will not be opposed to it,” he said.
The governor, while reacting to a question on whether he would support former President Goodluck Jonathan if the APC picks him as its presidential candidate, declared that it was not in his nature to engage in anti-party activity.
“If former President Jonathan is given the All Progressives Congress presidential ticket, he knows that I will not support him. I will not engage in anti-party activity. Even if he is from the South, I will not endorse him. What is paramount is my party’s interest,” he said.
Wike affirmed that if Jonathan secured PDP presidential ticket, Rivers State would overwhelmingly support him.
The governor declared that nothing would make him defect from the PDP to the APC.
Governor Wike revealed that the decision concerning his political future would be taken by July 2022 when he must have completed all the projects started by his administration.
On the relationship between him and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, the governor said God had used him to enthrone the minister as governor of Rivers State in 2007.
“God used me to make Amaechi Governor of Rivers State. There is even a video where he confessed during a church thanksgiving that after God, I was the person that made him governor.”
The governor said he had never personally accused his predecessor of corruption, instead a judicial commission of inquiry in the state had indicted the minister of misappropriation of the $308 million realised from the sale of the Rivers State assets.
He also explained that the judicial commission also indicted Amaechi’s administration of wasting N54 billion on the abandoned 1.4 kilometer monorail project.
According to him, the minister had challenged his indictment in both Federal High Court and Court of Appeal, and lost the case.
Governor Wike said he had conscientiously made efforts that developmental projects were equitably distributed in all the 23 local government areas of the state.
