Calls have continued to mount on Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to drop his confrontational stance against PDP strongman and former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, in connection with his grouses with the party arising from the presidential primary.
A Jigawa politician and aide to Sule Lamido, Umar Danjani Hadejiya, has advised Wike in a statement to regard Lamido as too revered a Nigerian politician, PDP elder and statesman for him to blast.
“He (Wike) feels he has come of age to the extent that he can rudely utter anything against PDP elders like Sule Lamido,” Danjani observed with dismay, advising Wike to respect Lamido as one of the only three surviving founding fathers of the Fourth Republic politics who deem it a duty to say the truth no matter whose ox is gored.
“The issue is simple as Lamido pointed out, there was a convention in which even Wike who lost accepted to be credible,” Danjani recalled, querying, “What then is the noise for? Is Wike the first person to lose a Presidential primary?”
He rebuked Wike for asserting that Sule Lamido is promoting his family for political positions, recalling, “For the over 45 years in which he (Lamido) has been in politics, he had supported and promoted the career of hundreds of people whom he never shared any family relationship with.”
Danjani said: “For the avoidance of doubt, Sule Lamido did not sponsor or promote the candidacy of Mustapha who happens be his son,” arguing, “Mustapha contested like any other candidate, subjected himself to the rigours of the process and won the primary elections which was witnessed by everyone and certified by INEC and PDP National officials.”
He noted: “Between 2007 to 2015, he could’ve easily opted to nominate his son or any of his family members into any position, but he instead decided to pick others,” maintaining, “If he (Lamido) had done otherwise, nothing would’ve happened.”
He recalled that over the years, Lamido had promoted and helped many people who later turned out to fight him and the political party he had laboured to build.
“In the last 24 years, Sule Lamido together with others laboured to build and nurture the PDP”, Danjani recalled further, maintaining that the PDP Lamido has laboured for has provided Wike the platform to attain his present political and public service status in the country.
