Governor Nyeson Wike of Rivers State has called on members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to unite and take over power in 2023.
He said the country is bleeding and needed to be rescued.
Governor Wike, who was in Kaduna on a visit to former Governor Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, explained that going by election results in recent times, where the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had lost many units at the grassroots levels, Nigerians were now tired and were waiting for the PDP to take over power to restore the lost glory of the country.
Governor Wike told the crowd that besieged Makarfi’s residence that, “the PDP is the only party in Nigeria that has hope. I didn’t come here to tell you I want to run for President. There must be a party first of all for you to run for President. Our own is to make sure that our party is intact. Tomorrow I am going to Plateau to tell Useni, to tell Jang that we cannot continue the way we are going.”
“This APC has finished Nigeria, let nobody tell you another story. There is nothing they can tell us now. They have no idea. If they had any idea, they didn’t use it. If APC had promises for six years, is it one and a half years they are going to fulfill it?”
He said that former governor Makarfi was important and was being held in high esteem by PDP members all over the country because of his leadership qualities and the gallantry he displayed to save the party when Ali Modu Sheriff was being used to break the PDP.
He described former governor Makarfi as a man that had committed himself to sustainability of the party, stressing that when the party was in crisis, Makarfi stood firm, committed and showed boldness and built the party from the shackles of Ali Modu Sheriff.
Makarfi, in his remarks, thanked Governor Wike for coming, disclosing that without the solid support Wike gave to his leadership then, there would not have been PDP.
According to him, “we played our role, but you played a key role.”
The former Governor said he absolutely believed that with the same energy and perseverance, “the party can do it again”.
He added that, “If there is no party, what is the point of your ticket; therefore, we have to build the party first, we have to be united and when a consensus is decided, we should all have one voice.”