2023 Presidency: G-5 In UK to Ratify Peter Obi’s Endorsement

By our Correspondent

Available information have it that Governor Nyesom Wike and his allies, described as the G-5, on Monday jetted out of the country to the United Kingdom in order to ratify their endorsement of the presidential candidate of the La­bour Party (LP), Peter Obi, for the 2023 general elections, sources close to the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) aggrieved gover­nors told Daily Independent on Tuesday.

In fact, according to the sources, while in the United Kingdom, the five governors will strategise on what to do and how to ensure that their chosen presidential candidate wins the 2023 presidential election. ­

The G-5 Governors: Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Okezie Ik­peazu (Abia State), Sam­uel Ortom (Benue), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) have re­fused to support their par­ty’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, citing in­justice in the party.

And they have been in the forefront for the removal of the PDP National Chair­man, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, as a condition to support the presidential candidate of the PDP, angling for a Southerner to take over from Ayu for regional bal­ance.

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Hence, governor Wike, by ex­tension the G-5, while in­augurating the Rumuok­wurusi- Elimgbu Flyover (10th flyover) in Rumuok­wurusi town, Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, promised to unveil to Nigerians their preferred candidate for the presidency of the country in January.

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, one of the sources privy to the meetings of the G-5, said that the UK meeting is to ratify their decision on the support of Peter Obi.

It was revealed by the source that, “The five governors trav­eled to the United Kingdom on Monday to strategise and take their final deci­sion on who to support ahead of the 2023 presi­dential election. The per­son they are supporting is Peter Obi.”

Interestingly, it would be recalled that while Wike had been telling his people in Rivers State that he would announce the presidential candidate they will support for the 2023 election, the direction of the G-5 was clearer on Christmas day when the Labour Party (LP) presi­dential candidate, Peter Obi, visited the internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in Benue State.

On his part, the governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, who received Obi, told Nigeri­ans that the best person to rescue the nation is the LP presidential candidate, adding that he is the best person who can solve Nige­ria’s socioeconomic prob­lems.

Deservedly, Ortom praised Peter Obi for visiting the camps of IDPs to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ with them, adding, “Several presiden­tial candidates have come here, and none of them have chosen to visit those IDP camps and look at their plight to see how they are doing and give them hope that when they win, they will bring them succour, help, and hope.

He said, “For you to have chosen to visit the IDPs on a Christ­mas day that you should be celebrating with your fam­ily, for me as a Christian, I say God will bless you and your aspiration. My prayer is that God will bless your aspiration to be the presi­dent of this country.

Ortom added: “Because I have seen capacity, faith, and hope, and I have seen someone who can bring the re­quired equity, justice, and fairness that I have been pursuing since I became governor in 2015. If I were not in PDP, I would have been following you all over the place to canvass and vote for you.

Continuing he stated that, “But because I’m in PDP, I’m telling Nigerians that this man can help deliver this country from its chal­lenges.”

Also, recall that Wike had fall­en out with the PDP leader­ship and the party’s pres­idential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, shortly after the party’s presidential prima­ry, where Atiku emerged as the candidate of the PDP.

That very development gener­ated bad blood in the party as Wike had thought he was the candidate to beat. The stepping down of Aminu Tambuwal, the Sokoto State governor, for Atiku, changed the narrative in the presidential primary that was held in Abuja.

Again, while those that were in the camp of Wike and oth­ers who lost at the prima­ry election were trying to come to terms with what happened, the action of the party’s national chair­man, Ayu, fueled the crisis in the party at that time, when, instead of reaching out to those who lost at the primary, he decided to pitch his tent with the win­ner, and even described Tambuwal as the hero of democracy.

That action which ingnited the anger in Wike’s camp was, however, inten­sified when Atiku decided to take Ifeanyi Okowa, the governor of Delta State as his running mate, against the alleged decision of the committee set up to look for a running mate among those interested in the of­fice, who voted in favour of Wike.

So far, efforts to pacify Wike, who at this time was en­joying the support of some governors and stakehold­ers in the party, proved abortive, as his demands were not met by the party and the presidential candidate.

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Additionally, even though Atiku had said he had met with Wike about five times to resolve issues in the party, Wike’s utterances in the past few months especially from live telecasts, where he was commissioning projects in Rivers State, showed he had already made up his mind on what to do.

Therefore, the decision to shut the presidential campaign office of Atiku in Rivers State through executive order was interpreted by some concerned PDP mem­bers to mean that Wike had made up his mind not to support PDP in the forth­coming 2023 presidential election.