From Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, has declared that he would not support former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, if he decides to contest for presidency in 2023, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Governor Wike described the APC as a party suffering from high level of cancer, which used propaganda to push the former president out of office.
Wike stated that as member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), he would support Jonathan, if he picks the party’s ticket, but he would not play anti-party should the former president get the APC ticket.
He spoke in a BBC Pidgin interview at the Government House, Port Harcourt, yesterday, stressing that there was no way he would leave the PDP for APC.
The governor said: “Pick ticket from which of the parties, PDP or APC? If it’s PDP, I will support him (Jonathan). But, if it is APC, he knows I will not support him. I won’t play anti-party, even if he is from the South-South. I don’t play ethnicity.
He further declared: “Where will I go (APC)? I have malaria. Am I looking for cancer? I have malaria that is easy to treat, is it cancer that kills I will go to? APC has killed Nigerians.”
Governor Wike declared that he would remain in PDP, no matter the outcome of any election, maintaining that he would not leave the party.
He stressed: “Every fight I fight will be in PDP. If they win me, they win me. If I win them, I win them. But not to leave PDP, which has malaria to APC, which has cancer, and the stage of the cancer is the fourth stage which doctors say kills.”
On insecurity, the governor declared that the APC-led Federal Government was not prepared to tackle the menace, maintaining that the party has failed.
His words: “The Federal Government has no solution for the insecurity in Nigeria. Government has failed. Remember, during the time of President Jonathan, they (APC) said they would use six months to tackle Boko Haram. The party was not prepared. Not that Boko Haram has stopped; another system of insecurity that is everywhere now is banditry. Kidnapping and cultism have spread in Nigeria. The government does not have solution for insecurity because they were not prepared.
“They (APC) carried out propaganda because they knew the man (President Jonathan) is from the minority (South-South) and he did not have people to help him.”
On the current spate of abduction of school children, who are released several hours after the incident, Wike alleged that the trend has become political business.
