Wike's membership of the PDP remains a bitter pill to swallow for many chieftains of the party.
Segun Sowunmi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) believes the party’s crisis involving one of its bigwigs, Nyesome Wike, was not properly addressed.
Sowunmi, who aspires to lead the opposition party as its national chairman, described current PDP leaders as unserious because they allowed one individual to ‘appear too strong for the party.’
The backstory
Recall that during the build-up to the 2023 election, Wike, who at the time was the Governor of Rivers State, scuttled his party’s chances in the state.
Wike’s political battle with the Presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, started after Atiku emerged as the party’s flagbearer for the election.
Atiku’s emergence riled Wike, who had hoped that the party’s presidential ticket would be zoned to the southern region.
The crisis that ensued cost the PDP the election as Wike during one of his ceremonial project inaugurations ahead of the election, vowed to work against his party if Ayu did not quit as the national chairman of the PDP.
Wike’s action divided the PDP as some party chieftains called for his suspension while his loyalists and four other PDP governors that constituted the G5 team maintained they didn't violate the party's constitution.
However, following his party’s defeat to Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Wike accepted a ministerial appointment from the former Governor of Lagos
Subsequently, the leadership of the PDP failed to address Wike’s alleged anti-party action ahead of the election as he remained a member of the opposition party ‘working’ for the ruling party.
Sowunmi won't allow Wike to be bigger than PDP
While the PDP appears to be managing its internal crises, Wike’s membership of the party remains a bitter pill to swallow for many members of the party.
Speaking in an interview with Pulse Nigeria, Sowunmi believes PDP’s failure to list what it considers anti-party is in itself a problem for the party.
“I’ve been saying this for some time. You must list what you consider to constitute anti-party,” he said.
He continues, “You have to look at what constitutes a breach of your laws if anybody has breached the law, is it breach a mild breach that you can give a warning or is it a breach that is so fundamental that it deserves to be punished?”
He submitted that the party’s constitution should be able to guide the conduct of its members whenever they attend events organised by members of rival parties.
“If I attend my friend’s birthday party from another political party, you must tell me if I should sit at a table and greet my friends from that party. You need to let your party (members) know these are the issues, and you must view them in such a way that you do not try to assume that the political party is a free zone;
“For instance, if you’re a Roman Catholic, you may not receive communion in an Anglican Church, and if you’re a celestial, you may not wear your garment to a Roman Catholic Church,” Sowunmi said.
On how he would handle the Wike problem if he eventually became the chairman of the party, the former governorship candidate in Ogun State said, “I believe that everything has an expiry date; if your problems are too much, there will always be disciplinary actions, and you will find me very resolute and very hard.”
The PDP chieftain stressed that a political party must be designed in such a way that no human being is too big for the party.
