Presidency only for polished, empathic people – PDP group slams Wike

A pressure group within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Take Back Presidency 2023 (TBP2023), has said while the party is poised to take over power in 2023, only individuals who are polished, empathic and civil will be considered.

The group’s reaction is reportedly aimed at the Rivers State Governor, Mr Nyesom Wike, who declared for president in Benue on Saturday while lambasting other presidential aspirants of the party.

Governor Wike, while not specifically mentioning any name, had said, “In 2015, those who ran away made us lose the election. Today, they are crying but some of us stood and said PDP will not die.

“By the time you ran away, you sold your share as founding fathers, so you can no longer retain your position of founding fathers. I stood for this party. I worked for this party since 1998. I have nowhere to run to and that’s why anything that happens to this party, I take it personally. I have never relented.”

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, all presidential aspirants on the platform of the PDP had at one time or the other decamped to other parties before returning.

In a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, the national spokesperson of the PDP group, Modey Agim, described Wike’s attack on other aspirants as unbecoming, and a cause for concern.

“The Presidency is not for somebody suffering from hormonal overdrive bordering on adult pubescence. It requires an individual who is temperate, polished, empathic and democratic in his ways.

“What we have seen of the Rivers State Governor is on overbearing Lord of the Manor. One who attacks anybody who does not dance to his tune. How can presidential power be entrusted to a man who abuses his colleagues, who caricature traditional rulers and make an open show of them? How can our party ever contemplate such an individual whose action borders on anti-democratic principles?

”The Rivers State governor needs to wean himself off his I Too Know (ITK) disposition and realise that democracy is about accommodating others no matter how untenable their positions may be,” Agim said.

Agim insisted that politicians leaving their party to another and returning is not novel, pointing out that the ruling party, APC, today has former members of the PDP as its leaders.