Emmanuel Onoja
Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has clarified the group of five Governors fighting for inclusiveness in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not accept any reconciliation against the principles of equity, justice and fairness.
Wike maintained that their position that elective offices must be shared equally between the north and the south in the PDP ahead of the 2023 general elections remained sacrosanct.
The Governor spoke on Wednesday when he led former All Progressives Congress(APC) National Chairman Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to inaugurate the eighth flyover located in his country home of Rumueprikon, Obio-Akpor Local Government Area, Port Harcourt capital city.
Wike said: “People will praise you but the day you say no, they will oppose you. I am sure those of them in my party before they cannot say anything without mentioning Wike. But now because I said let the right thing be done, I have now become an enemy. These are people who are praising me for everything.
“And some people believe they won’t obey an agreement but we say it must be done. We stand for equity, fairness and justice. That is what the G5 will continue to preach. We have said we are not against reconciliation but it must be based on equity, fairness and justice”.
Wike noted that the country was in dire need of unity, justice and equity and that the next election would not be based on party, ethnicity and religion.
He said it was unacceptable for anybody to say people should not be voted for because they were not from a particular ethnic group or religion.
He said: “What we require in this country today is united Nigeria. It is how all of us can see ourselves as one and how we can see ourselves as our brothers’ keepers.
“We need a Nigeria that all of us can be proud of, that I will know that truly I am not a second class citizen, that the same right you have is the same right I have, the same opportunity you have is the same opportunity that I have. No need of saying if you are not from this place people will not vote for you. We don’t want that.
“We want a Nigeria that everybody can say indeed this is the Nigeria we are looking for. For us, all we are looking for is how Nigeria will progress, and how people will have food on their tables. It is not about ethnicity, it is not about religion and it is not about party. It is about how Nigeria will progress. That is where we stand.
