Are APC governors politically lazy and fraudsters?

The All Progressive Congress, APC, governors and the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike are currently at daggers drawn. The FCT minister has publicly declared his interest in working for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu using his Rainbow Coalition comprising people of different parties which is not acceptable to the progressive governors.

Indication that things were not going well between Wike and the ruling party emerged a few days ago when the Chairman of Progressive Governors Forum and governor of Imo state, Senator Hope Uzodimma, with his colleagues backing him rejected any coalition to re-elect the president for a second term. They described the Wike-led Rainbow Coalition as a destabilizing influence in their respective states, working at cross-purposes with the president’s 2027 re-election agenda. In his reaction, Wike described the governors as politically lazy and behaving like Advance Fee Fraudsters who are lacking the strategy to work for the president’s re-election.

APC Chieftain, and former Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Hon Farouk Adamu Aliyu, while appearing on both The Morning Show programme on Arise News television and Politics Today on Channels television objected to Wike’s choice of words calling the APC governors lazy. He said that the fact that Wike was working for the reelection of President Tinubu was not an excuse to insult APC leaders.

Excerpts:

Are the APC governors actually lazy as Wike described them?

You forgot to add that he also said they were behaving like 419ers. He’s completely wrong. We in APC, we reject this name calling that our governors are lazy, we resent that and we don’t want it, that is not the right way to go about it. We’re harvesting from anyone who wants to support President Bola Tinubu. But as APC we have a system, the governors are the leaders of the party in their states. Nobody will change that.

We thank Wike for what he did for APC and also for what he is doing as a minister. But as far as we’re concerned, there’s no Rainbow Coalition. Wike is a member of PDP and he should continue to work for PDP. But Wike cannot decide for us how we will run our campaign and it is totally unacceptable to us for any coalition that will mean the electorate will vote for Tinubu and vote for another party, no, it is unacceptable.

We are not going to sit by and watch President Tinubu win alone without members of the National Assembly from his own party. No mixture, you will vote for Tinubu and vote for members of the National Assembly from his party. We don’t want Tinubu to be left barren whereby he will not be able to form the National Assembly leadership. That is the danger we’re seeing from what Wike and others are doing which is totally unacceptable to us.

Is Wike a danger to Tinubu’s victory?

In some cases, yes honestly.

Could he have triggered anger in some people?

Wike is serving in our government and there are a lot of people in this country who are not happy with our policies. So, we want to beg and appeal and appease people and talk to people so that they will vote for us again, we don’t want anybody that will come and insult Nigerians.

Just because you want to support the president, you insult the people anyhow, insult our leaders. He is not a member of our party, we will treat Wike as a member of the opposition.

Some people say Wike is an asset to the APC

We appreciate what he did for us and anybody who is willing to destroy his party for us, we will welcome him like Wike trying to destroy his party. But we will not allow Wike to use our party to build his own party.

Wike said Tinubu is aware of his Rainbow Coalition agenda and if President Tinubu has approved it, why are you in the APC angry with Wike?

We’re not angry with him but we don’t agree with his style of supporting the president. I’m telling Nigerians that President Tinubu has not told us that he wants this kind of thing. If he has told Wike, maybe he has told him but he didn’t tell us as leaders of the party. Because if he had told us that this is where to go, then maybe we would not have been exchanging words with Wike.

As the leader of the party, the president has not told us that we should allow Wike to do whatever he wants and however he wants it.

Why is it that the APC governors don’t want a coalition now when it worked for the president in 2023 and nobody said anything about the unity of the APC at the time. Some people have said it’s because there are some personal interests of some governors in certain states

No, no, we have not said we don’t want to work with either Rainbow or whatever coalition. But 2023 is completely different from now. Remember in 2023, Wike made it open that he was going to campaign against his own party, and so, that situation was completely different from now. Wike wasn’t part of us, although he’s a minister in our government now.

Wike should watch his tongue. He is in PDP, but working in a rainbow government where persons from other parties like Bianca and himself are serving in our government. So, certainly Wike should watch his words, there are allegations about the way he conducts himself, the way he talks to people, and so on. And you see, this life is transient. It is not only Wike but all those in positions of authority today. Whether you are a governor or you are a minister or you are a president, you should know that a day of reckoning is coming either here or in the hereafter.

So, I call on Wike to be humble honestly. The governors, in their wisdom, never called his name. I watched his interview with Arise TV two days ago where he specifically called out the names of Hope Uzodimma or Kwara state governor. He doesn’t need to do that, he doesn’t need to go that far. He does not need to be this arrogant because to me, it’s arrogance calling people out by their names. He was specific, calling out the names of our governors, while they didn’t call out his name in their statement. I think both parties need to watch what they say actually so that we don’t overheat the polity.

When Wike was calling out his fellow PDP members, making scathing allegations against them, it was okay by you in APC because he was doing it to his own people and you felt he was on your side, he was going to deliver for you. Why are you people scared of his Rainbow Coalition when you all did the same thing in the past including President Tinubu?

I am not attacking Wike as a person, no. And then when Wike was doing that to his party, that’s his party, really. But now this is our own party. So just because he did it to his party, you think we should condone it, bring it to our party? No, we will not condone it, certainly we will not. We cannot say because Wike did that to his party, then we should allow him to do it to our party. We as a party will not allow these kinds of things to happen.

And when the President comes back, he will certainly speak to Wike, he will also speak to our leaders, that look, we don’t need these things in public. Even if Wike has disagreements with certain governors, he’s free to have those kinds of disagreements. Wike should know that it is not only Rivers, or Kwara, or Imo that we have in Nigeria. There are 36 states in this country. And so, as a party, we are doing APC top-to-bottom. Simple. None of the other governors, who have openly come out just like him, to say they will support Mr. President is talking the way he is talking. We have the governor of Anambra state who said he was going to support Mr. President.

The governor of Osun who defeated us recently also said he’s going to support Mr. President as well as Abia governor, and they are not coming out with these kinds of things. Why the insults because you want to help us? And if you say that Wike has helped us, we accept that, we agree he has done that. But I think he has also been adequately compensated. So we don’t want either Wike, Soludo, or any other person from any other party to insult our leaders just because you have helped us.

Wike himself already said members of the APC are not happy that he was made the minister of the FCT. Is that the compensation? And how do you think that President Tinubu should handle this matter, now that he has two groups supporting him fighting each other, but both of them are seeking the same objective? Is this about rivalry or relevance or intrigue?

It is all of that; influence, intrigues, rivalry which is normal in politics. Another name for politics is intrigue which we’re used to. But as for being compensated, I am not aware that anybody is against him being appointed minister. We are happy with him being a minister, because I don’t think in this country there has been a minister of FCT that has done what Wike has done or is doing.

So we’re absolutely happy with his performance. And as a minister, he’s been compensated with that position. The position of FCT minister is good and huge compensation in the political setting of this country. So, we are not quarrelling with that. He is compensated, and then of course, there will be rivalry, some people will not be happy with him and so on. But I and so many of us are not part of those that are not happy with Wike, because he became a minister.

It is true Wike helped us to bring Rivers state, also at the last election in FCT. Yes, he did that. But what I’m saying is, no matter what you do, Wike, Tinubu, myself, all of us should remember there will be a day of reckoning someday. So just let’s be humble with this life. Everything is transient.

This life is transient, so we should be careful with what we say, how we treat people, because someday, one day we will not even be alive. And for those of us that are alive, one day you might not be in that office.

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