‘Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State, and his other aggrieved colleagues have been advised to sheath their swords over the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The director of strategic communication of the Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign council, Dele Momodu, has said.
Speaking in an interview with Nigerian Tribune, the celebrated journalist explained that “We have the issue of Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State; we also have the issue of Samuel Ortom of Benue State and the young Nigerian voters who believe that Atiku and Tinubu are old. How do you intend to tackle all these issues as the campaigns are heightening?
“As for Governor Wike, Governor Ortom, Governor Seyi Makinde and the others, they have a right to be angry. I have said that repeatedly and the PDP will continue to reach out to them. Our candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has met with them at home and abroad.
“He has appealed to them but he doesn’t seem to have made too much of progress with them. They are insisting that they cannot shift. In reconciliation, people must be ready to shift. If you are not ready to forgive, you cannot be a statesman.
“Nelson Mandela was put behind bars for 27 years. When he came out of prison, he could have killed all his enemies if he wanted. He didn’t. He embraced them and that is what made him Nelson Mandela. So our political leaders must imbibe that spirit of give and take, of forgiveness, of genuine love and embrace peace. That is what we are preaching in PDP.
“So, I hope Governors Wike and Ortom and Makinde and all the aggrieved members of the party will see the reason why they should not destroy the bridge after crossing the river because you never know if you will need the bridge again.
“PDP has been very good to them as they too have been very good to PDP, especially Governor Wike whom I refer to as our “best governor”. I like to call him the “poster boy of the PDP” because of his great work and vision for his people in Rivers State. However, nobody knows it all and nobody can have it all.
“On the young who say they want a younger person, I want to tell them that PDP is amongst the parties in Nigeria with a lot of young people. If you know Atiku well, even when he was the Vice President, you will see that he usually surrounds himself with a lot of young people. At our party secretariat in Abuja, there are lots of young people who have been working there for years from different parts of Nigeria.
“He is the most organised I’ve seen. I’m relatively close to some of the other candidates; but I can tell you that Atiku Abubakar is way ahead of any other candidate. He is very in tune with youth affairs especially as it concerns how to empower them, how to create opportunities for them. That is what he is known for. So, the young people should know that experience also counts; that is why they say ‘experience is the best teacher’. Nigeria right now is in a very delicate and precarious state. So we have to be very careful so that we do not bring in another government that will spend the next four years trying to perform experiment; trying to learn the ropes; trying to understand the system. There is no one who understands the system at the national level better than Atiku Abubakar,” he added.
