Wike: PDP Is Not A Private Enterprise Says Bode George

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Thursday, April 18th, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Bode George says the party is working on reconciling its members including a former governor of Rivers State Nyesom Wike.

Wike, now the minister of the FCT under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), fell out with the PDP hierarchy in the lead-up to the presidential election of last year.

He and a group called G-5 including then-governors, worked against the PDP in the presidential election, insisting the southern part of Nigeria ought to produce the party’s flagbearer.

While many have questioned Wike’s membership of the party with others calling for sanctions against him, Bode George says the PDP is working to settle its matters.

“We don’t want to start firing because there are one or two people that are still thinking about the past. The party must move on.”

“It is an issue in the party. It should not be resolved in the marketplace,” the PDP chieftain said, insisting “We are going to settle our own matters like a family.”

Bode’s party was the runner-up in the 2023 presidential election, losing to the ruling APC. Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, was its flagbearer in that exercise and also in 2019.

Despite opposition to his candidacy especially from Wike’s camp after he clinched the ticket for last year’s election, there are speculations that Atiku may be the party’s flagbearer in 2027 when Nigerians go to the poll.

But Bode said “time would tell” if the former vice president will run again.

“It [PDP] is not a private enterprise,” he said on the show.