A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Segun Sowunmi, has ruled out the possibility that a hidden presidential ambition of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, is responsible for the crisis rocking the party.
According to him, while he can not speak authoritatively on Wike’s 2027 presidential ambition or otherwise, he is sure the FCT Minister is not a pretentious character who would hide his intentions.
Sowunmi, in an interview with Daily Post, which was published on Friday, submitted that if Wike wants to be the president of Nigeria, he is not afraid to say so and the ambition is not something to be hidden.
The former Ogun PDP governorship candidate, however, added that so far, he has not heard anything about Wike’s interest in the 2027 presidency.
“I’m not his spokesperson and do not have the power to speak for him but the truth of the matter is that Wike is not a pretentious character. He is even so unpretentious which is part of the problem, so I don’t think that if Wike wants to run for the presidency he will be hiding; that’s not who he is. At least, I have been in this party since he has been here and we have been seeing ourselves, we’ve had the benefit of lots of good positions in the party, he’s not made of that kind of pretentious material to say he wants to be president when he doesn’t want to be or being afraid to say when he wants to be president.
“At least, for the 2027 circle, I have not heard anything to that effect, and if he wants to be president, he will obviously say it at some point; but certainly, you can’t be accusing him of such because it will be uncharitable to do so,” Sowunmi stated.
He added that the genesis of the current PDP crisis can be traced back to how the selection of the party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 elections was handled.
He noted that some people feel hurt as a result of the outcome and are reacting based on such feelings.
“What I think is going on is that everybody has a way they react to what they consider to be a hurt or an injustice for the breach of their right. And if people have the ability to fight or react to the breach of their right, you may not like it but it will be a bit too much to say they don’t have the right. When you injure people, you can only be sure of your own action and not predict the action of the person who feels injured.
“This particular matter, when you talk people expect you to follow their narrow prism, its not so, the truth is that 2023 became complicated as a result of what we call the Delta Accord – Asaba Accord where governors of Southern extractions went to Asaba hosted by former governor Okowa and they came out with a communique claiming that the presidency of Nigeria should go to the South in the next election.
“If you had followed me or searched through the internet, I was on television the very day screaming and shouting that PDP should not be forced into zoning that will not be to their advantage, after all, for a political party to be able to run, it needs to run where it can have some advantage and numbers.
“And like I said in case, it becomes compulsory that it wants to zone South, then they should simply say we are going to the Southeast because at that time, I said we have gone Southwest with Obasanjo, gone South-south with Jonathan, so nobody should pretend to PDP that we do not know where our liability is; and I said our liability as far as Southern presidency is concern is with the Southeast. I said that very clearly but you know people like to think that they are smart and at the end of the day, they create a complication,” Sowunmi submitted.