THIS DAWN — The best way to ascertain the role played by Nyesom Ezenwo Wike as far as zoning of the Presidential ticket of PDP is concerned, is to objectively look at events leading to the primary election of the party on May 27, 2022 in Abuja. Many supporters of Atiku Abubakar have come out to tell Nigerians that Wike was responsible for PDP not zoning its Presidential seat to South East, in particular, to Peter Obi.
They further alleged that he, Wike chased Peter Obi out of the PDP. Wike, in turn, has on many occasions, defended himself of these allegations. But the more Wike defends himself, the more Atiku’s supporters intensify effort at heaping blame of the collapse of zoning, in particular, at him.
But, is this allegation true? It is difficult to know what happened behind closed doors in politics, in terms of agreement on zoning. For instance, between Senator Ben Obi’s political block and Atiku, as recently claimed by Senator Ben Obi himself, because there were no independent witnesses to such agreement between Senator Obi’s group and Atiku. We can however, use the body language of actors directly involved in the allegation on zoning, before Presidential primary, to gain understanding of whether there was true commitment from any of the actor(s) in the first place.
Reeling from the defeat of 2015, in 2019, PDP embarked on confidence building process, by zoning its Presidential seat to the North which felt short- changed because Goodluck Jonathan became President after the death of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who died midway into his first term in office.
The Port Harcourt convention of PDP in 2019 thus, saw the party zoning its Presidential ticket to North. In a nutshell, Atiku Abubakar emerged as flagbearer of PDP in that keenly contested primary in Rivers State. In the Presidential election, proper, Atiku lost to incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari.
In 2023, PDP threw its Presidential primary open, but before the primary, the party setup what it called “Zoning Committee” to determine which zone will produce the Presidential candidate of the party. On March 23, 2023, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nominated three Governors Samuel Ortom (Benue), Darius Ishaku (Taraba) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) as members of its 37-member committee to determine the zoning of the party’s 2023 presidential ticket. According to the party,
the decision to set up the committee was taken at the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on March 16, 2022.
The committee will also work out modalities for the sharing of positions of Senate President, Speaker of House of Representatives, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and other leadership positions in the two chambers of the National Assembly among the six geopolitical zones.
This committee never sat for one day to determine the zoning of its presidential seat. The question is, what stopped the committee from doing the assigned task? One million dollars question! On Friday 18, March 2022, Atiku Abubakar purchased expression of interest form to contest presidential primary of the PDP.
Note that the zoning committee came into effect on March 23, 2022 and Atiku Abubakar bought form to contest the presidential primary of PDP on March 18, 2022. Who then scuttled zoning of presidential ticket of PDP to SE in 2022? Who made it impossible for Governor Samuel Ortom’s zoning Committee to meet for one day?
On November 17, 2022, Governor Wike as he then was, invited Peter Obi and his deputy, to commission one of his numerous projects in Rivers State. Wike told the whole world, in the presence of Obi “I know why you left PDP, on principle you were right to have done so, but me, Wike, I will stay in the party and chase away the Armed Robbers” if Wike was the one that chased Peter Obi out of PDP as they claimed, why was Obi silent when he revealed to the audience, the reason he, Obi left PDP?
How is it even possible that the same Wike that was accused of scuttling zoning of Presidency to South East and chasing Obi out of PDP, invited the same Obi to commission one of his numerous projects in Rivers State?
In yet another occasion, Governor Wike as he then was, revealed, “Obi left PDP because Sule Lamido told him north would produce next president after Buhari”. Specifically, on March 10, 2023, while hosting members of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide at Government House in Port-Harcourt, Governor Nyesom Wike disclosed: “Obi was running with us. I knew when Obi left. He was principled and he said he can’t stand it, people should say the truth. He went to see Sule Lamido in Jigawa, not in Dutse, but in a village that will take you more than four or five hours drive from Dutse the capital.
“You know what he told Obi? He didn’t tell him that look, you came late and I have chosen somebody. He said it is the north that will produce the next president. That was how Obi left saying why is he wasting time. Ask him, that’s how he left PDP,”
Senator Ben Obi, in an interview he recently granted to Tamarapreyenews, talked about how Atiku Abubakar, made commitment to them (select leaders of South East in PDP, in his living room) that, if the leadership of PDP zoned Presidential seat to South East, he, Atiku will support it, both financially and otherwise. Senator Obi went on to say that if other Presidential aspirants had made the same pledge as Atiku did, there wouldn’t have been any problems in the party.
Although Senator Obi did not mention any aspirant in the interview, but many Nigerians may assume he had Wike in mind, considering that Atiku supposedly told them, Senator Obi and co, if PDP zoned Presidency to “South East”, that it will receive his blessing. But is Senator Obi’s assertion true?
Nigerians may want to ask Senator Obi, if he was aware that Atiku bought expression of interest form to contest Presidential primary of PDP on the 18th of March 2022, three working days, before Governor Samuel Ortom’s zoning committee was inaugurated?
If Senator Obi was aware, won’t rational Nigerians see the action of Atiku as ambushing the committee on zoning? If Atiku was committed to South East Presidency in PDP as Senator Obi claimed, why buying the expression of interest form in the first place? And why reminding PDP that zoning was unconstutional?
Nigerians can clearly see from the foregoing that barrister Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, was not responsible for PDP not zoning its Presidential seat to South East, particularly, to Peter Obi. Credible and Verifiable events that took place after Obi’s departure from PDP proved this fact.
Emeka Oraetoka, an Information and Perception Management Strategist, wrote in from Abuja; E-mail: giltsdaimension@gmail.com.
