2023: Wike joins presidential race to challenge Atiku, others

Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has declared for the 2023 presidency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Wike said he can clinch the number one position on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He made the statement during a consultative meeting with stakeholders of the Benue chapter of the PDP at the Government House in Makurdi on Sunday.

He further called for support from Benue PDP members to vote for him in the coming national delegates convention of the party.

“To remove APC from power, I’m the person who can tell them enough is enough. We must take this power and I’m ready to take it for PDP. God is with us that’s why APC keeps failing every day.

“I’m declaring it (presidential ambition) for the first time in Benue. I’m going to run for election,” Wike said.

He warned stakeholders not to sell their votes, but give them to him, adding that some of the PDP presidential aspirants were only after power for personal gains.
Wike also took a swipe at the likes of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Senate President Bukola Saraki, who left the PDP ahead of the 2015 presidential election to join the APC.
Both Atiku and Saraki have since returned to the PDP and have declared their intentions to run for President on the platform of the party in 2023.
Wike accused them of being the reason why the party lost the election in 2015, noting that those founding fathers who ran away from the party and now want to be recognised have lost their shares.

He said, “By the time you ran away, you sold your share as a founding father so you can no longer retain your position of founding fathers.

“I stood for this party. I have worked for this party since 1998. I have nowhere to run to and that’s why anything that happens to this party I take it personally. I have never relented.

“In 2015, those who ran away made us lose the election. Today, they are crying but some of us stood and said PDP will not die.

“Some people want to use Nigeria to buy back their personal business. They talk about the private sector – let them mention the private business that had survived.

“Is it banks that your father had? Everybody is an employer of labour; even in my house, I have 50 people who feed from me. They should stop deceiving us.

“I have performed as a governor and can carry my shoulders high anywhere. I have the capacity to face this evil government, give me the mandate.

“I will speak the truth to power and nothing but the truth. I have the capacity to move this country forward.”