Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike has said that the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential aspirants allegedly opposed to the holding of the party’s National Convention in Port Harcourt, are by their action showing they are against the economic interest of the state and Niger Delta.
Wike said such aspirants are also not living up to their campaign for the restructuring of the country.
PDP is scheduled to hold its convention for the election of its presidential candidate on October 5 and 6 in Port Harcourt.
While the Port Harcourt venue is endorsed by some of the 13 aspirants, there has been disquiet over the choice of the venue by some other unnamed aspirants.
Describing the opposition to Port Harcourt as strange, Wike said there was no other way to explain such cold feeling towards holding the convention in Port Harcourt apart from the fact that the aspirants involved had no economic interest of Rivers and Niger Delta at heart.
According to him “Those who are against the PDP convention holding in Port Harcourt don’t have the economic interest of Rivers and Niger Delta at heart.”
“If you are telling the people of the state and by extension Niger Delta that you don’t want such event to hold in their domain as an aspirant, how will you act when you become a president? How do you expect the people you are telling that you don’t like their state to vote for you during the election?”
The governor said that it was worrisome that the same people who have been traversing the length and breadth of the country calling for the restructuring of Nigeria were the aspirants kicking against the choice of Port Harcourt as the venue for the convention.
“Why are they not acting in tandem with their campaign for the restructuring of Nigeria? From their opposition to Port Harcourt, it means the restructuring campaign is a mere lip service.”
All the aspirants, he said will enjoy a level playing field, insisting that the choice of Port Harcourt is not meant to give any aspirant an edge over others.
“Every aspirant will be given a level playing field. That it is holding in Port Harcourt does not mean anybody will have an undue advantage. What it will do for the State is that it will boost its local economy because groundnut, sachet water sellers and food vendors will have more sales. Hoteliers will also record increased business. That is the only thing Rivers State stands to gain from the holding of the convention in Port Harcourt. And anybody who is against PortHarcourt hosting the event does not like the state. He is against the economic interest of the state.”
According to Wike, the person who will emerge as the candidate of the party will do so on the basis of his political clout and not on any other consideration.
He stressed that what every PDP member needs at the moment is not to bicker over the choice of convention venue but to work in unity to achieve the goal of the party which he said is to wrest power from the governing All Progressives Congress, APC.
“We need to work together, we don’t need any division at this moment. Our goal must be to win in 2019,” the governor said.
