A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Tony Okocha, has given reasons why the immediate past governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, should be offered the state’s ministerial slot by President Bola Tinubu.
Daily Trust reports that a faction of the APC in Rivers had alleged that Wike was seeking a ministerial position as a launching pad for his 2027 presidential aspiration.
But Okocha, a former Chief of Staff to Rotimi Amaechi, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, said that Wike was instrumental to Tinubu’s victory in the February 25, presidential election.
Describing Wike as a man with electoral value who can deliver victory at all times, Okocha insisted that he deserved to be given the state’s ministerial slot in Tinubu’s cabinet.
He noted that while his former principal abandoned the APC in Rivers State after he lost the party’s presidential primary to Tinubu, Wike ensured Tinubu’s victory during the February 25, presidential poll.
He said, “There’s no politician living in Rivers today that can challenge Wike. We have said that whatever is due to us in Rivers should be handed over to him because he knows those people who worked for Tinubu.
“If you name Tinubu’s soldiers, even those that hate me the most will say I was at the epicentre of Tinubu’s victory. However, if there is any benefit that comes out of what I did, that is secondary, but for people to turn the truth on the head because of an appointment, I will not accept that.
“All of us know that the G-5 Governors insisted that until things were made right; until power shifted to the South and that until Ayu resigned, they would not work for Atiku. Now, the spin doctor who made sure everything worked out for Tinubu is Wike.
“The activities of the G-5 were instrumental to the success of Tinubu in Nigerian politics today. Look at the ratio: APC won 12 states, and PDP won 10 states. Assuming PDP people worked together, they would have taken more states. I am telling you that in our own case, I would have been the one person to say no, don’t give it to him because I had the house. He didn’t come to see an empty house. I would have decided to appropriate everything to myself and behave like a crab.
“But if you have somebody that is more than you, why don’t you invite the person? If he helped us to win in 2023, are we now going to tell him to come to us in 2027 to help us win? Why don’t we bring him in because he has value to add? No politician in Rivers State today can surmount Wike. No one in Rivers State can challenge Wike.”
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