Governor Nyesom Wike has mocked Atiku Abubakar over former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s endorsement of Labour Party’s Peter Obi.
Atiku was vice president during the Obasanjo administration between 1999-2007. But on Sunday, the former Nigerian president recommended Obi for the country’s number one seat next year, a move the Rivers State Governor said means “there is something fundamentally wrong”.
“I was praying that Obasanjo should not say anything. When I saw the letter last night, I was touched. If your principal cannot recommend you, then there is something fundamentally wrong,” Wike said on Monday at the flag-off of the construction of Akpabu-Odido Road in Emohua and Ahoada West local government areas.
“After all, you people went to see your principal to lobby him to recommend you. It took your principal a long time before he now wrote a letter to all Nigerians, saying, ‘Look, I am not too comfortable [with Atiku]’. I am not bothered about other people but this one [Obasanjo] worked with you and he knows [why he took that decision].”
Wike, who fell out with Atiku following the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary in May, is leading a group of governors called the G-5. The group has pulled out of the party’s presidential campaign, insisting that PDP’s National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu (from the northern region like the Adamawa-born) should quit for equity and fairness.
While efforts to reconcile them have failed, the former minister and his group were accused of frustrating the party’s move to microzone the PDP’s presidential ticket to the South-East in the lead-up to the primary election.
But Wike has dismissed the allegations, maintaining that he is the one that endorsed Obi instead of Atiku.
“So, I am not the one who said this one or that one. Everyone should carry their problems and go where their problems are,” Wike added.
“Leave me alone. Leave Ortom alone. Leave G-5 Governors alone. Face your problem where your problem is.”
