By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said in Bauchi on Wednesday that the doors of reconciliation in the ongoing leadership crisis with the ranks and files of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is not foreclosed.
Wike said, “I have said it severally that we are ready for reconciliation, we have never closed the door for reconciliation. All we are saying is for equity, fairness and justice, and that is the hallmark on which PDP stands for”.
He said while fielding journalists’ questions in Bauchi shortly after a closed meeting between the G5 Governors and Governor Bala Mohammed that, “All we are saying, let the right things be done”.
“When the right thing is done, the country would see that the crisis in the party is over. This G5 Governors, we are saying is the bedrock of the party, so we would not close the doors for reconciliation. We are for reconciliation any day, anytime”, Wike said.
Also fielding questing after meeting Governor Bala Mohammed has said it is no longer a secret that he wrote a letter to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on his position in Bauchi on what he had found out working against him as a leader and 1st term governor looking for a second term in office.
Mohammed explained that he wrote the letter with all honesty, sincerity and deep sense of fidelity which, according to him, made the party invited him to go and discuss with the party’s Presidential flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar.
According to the governor, himself and the presidential of the party have extensively discussed where he has gotten more explanations on some grey areas in the ongoing crisis in the party.
Senator Bala Mohammed further explained that he did not personally wrote the said letter to the party, but rather it was written by the state government and PDP family in Bauchi.
“As for the G 5 Governors, I always joke with them that I’m a G1, but I’m inexorably connected with them. We have always been together and you know it, Governors Wike, Ortom, Okezie, and Ifeanyi they have been here several times and I have been going to them”.
Governor Bala added, “And I think these are some of the takeaway that I have as a Governor, having friends for life. So I’m everywhere, but of course it doesn’t mean that I’m nowhere”.
The Bauchi Governor had earlier while receiving members of the G5 Governors said, “Today I’m very happy to receive my brothers, the Governors of G5, they call themselves the Integrity Group”.
According to him, “I’m supposed to be with them, but they ex-communicated me for some reasons best known to them. But I’m highly connected with them, each and every one of them, there is hardly a day I don’t call or speak to one of them”.
He added, “Because in politics, you go with the people you share things in common. This presidency that we run that my brother (Wike) was defeated but he defeated me, has brought us close, and of course at the Governors Forum”.
Governor Bala stated that one thing he appreciated with the G5 Governors was that they look at their challenges, “All of them were not going back for second term, but they were always worried, their own ideas and principles are slightly different from mine, but certainly I bear and feels their pains, as much as they do with my own pains, we share things in common”.
“They know I have challenges in Bauchi, the challenges of anti-party, the challenges of under-cuttings some of the treachery and mischiefs, but of course politics is all about these. And when you know that you have people behind you of that stature, of that caliber, you feel fulfilled”.
According to Mohammed, there is hardly anything they can do better than what they have done before, especially for them that they have gone for the second term in offices where they left legacies and landmarks, stressing “Even for me that I have just gone one term, I feel that I have done enough, I’m not the only one created on the surface of the earth in Bauchi”.
“So I’m here they are here; I have the opportunity of confiding on people that I believe I can confide in. Some of my worries, my fears, my apprehensions and that of my state. So I’m happy you came because some of those things may not be said on the telephones, but to say that as PDP members from the same family, I always see you as my fellow comrades in this journey of life”.
Mohammed therefore, on behalf of himself and the Government and people of Bauchi State, and the PDP family, thanked the G5 Governors for taking time to be in Bauchi and for the show of solidarity to him.
