Bauchi State Governor and Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Governors Forum, Bala Mohammed, has labelled the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, a serial betrayal and a threat to the survival of the PDP, calling on him to resign from the party and align fully with the ruling All Progressives Congress.
In a press release issued on Saturday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mukhtar Gidado, the Bauchi governor criticised Wike for his alleged divisive actions and perceived betrayal of the PDP.
But in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday, Wike, through his Special Assistant on Media, Lere Olayinka, hit back at Mohammed, saying his “failure of leadership” was responsible for the PDP crisis.
“He has always failed wherever he found himself. He has also been a betrayer.
“We have told him the truth and it is now left for him to listen to the truth. He should stop pursuing an impossible 2027 Presidency,” Olayinka said.
Sunday verbal war is the second between Wike and Mohammed in less than two weeks
Mohammed’s aide, Gidado, said the latest statement was in response to an earlier remarks by Wike, through Olayinka.
Repeating his earlier description of Wike as a transactional politician, Mohammed said it was shameful that Wike has now aligned with and become a “willing tool and favoured foot soldier” of the APC, a party he once said was afflicted with “Stage 4 cancer”.
Gidado stated, “Chief Wike’s recent statement marks a new low for a man prone to unbridled excesses. It highlights the moral decay in today’s APC-led Nigeria. This response isn’t for Wike but for Nigerians who deserve clarity and the truth.”
Describing Wike as a serial betrayer, Gidalo said victims of Wike’s betrayal included Senator John Mbata, Dr. Peter Odili, and former Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
“Headlined by Senator John Azuta Mbata, who turned his obscure life around by foisting him on Obio Akpor LGA as its elected council Chairman. Today, Senator Mbata, the newly elected President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, is being daily harassed with sponsored protests and vitriol in the media and openly bad-mouthed by Wike as an unworthy son of Ikwerre land.
“Next is Dr Peter Odili and his wife, retired Justice Mary Odili, who Wike openly acknowledged to have salvaged his faltering and endangered political career early in the day by openly crying out to them but who today he collectively describes as ‘this man’ and ‘this woman,’ as well as labeling Dr Odili as a rent-seeker and an ingrate he brought to life politically. And this is apart from other unprintable language that only a diseased mind can conjure.
“Next up is Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, who made Wike his Chief of Staff when he was Rivers State Governor and under whose watch Wike was made a junior minister in former President Jonathan’s cabinet, but who Wike has repeatedly castigated and insulted with loutish words and expressions.”
He also chronicled how Wike allegedly betrayed past National Chairmen of the PDP, saying he had “perfected the illogic and morally reprehensible life as a use-and-dump artist.”
Gidado said, “He virtually alone foisted Senator Ali Modu Sherrif as the National Chairman of the PDP and again marshaled all available resources in bringing him down into disrepute when fancy possessed him.
“He also was instrumental in bringing Chief Uche Secondus on board as a National Chairman of the party only to turn against him for selfish and pertinently self-serving considerations.
“The same could be said with regard to Dr Iyorchia Ayu, and maybe before long the current acting National Chairman of the party.
“The biggest threat to the viability of the PDP, which proud and committed party workers are striving to contain, is Wike’s treacherous and quisling-like rebelliousness against its core principles and autonomous standing, his history and record as a serial betrayer, and his insufferable egomania and incipient narcissism.”
Mohammed, who described Wike as the greatest threat to the PDP, said the FCT minister was living in a “delusional self-created universe” and attempting to portray divisions within the PDP.
Gidado declared that despite Wike’s alleged attempt to destabilise the PDP, the party remained “resolute and united, apart from a few turncoats and quislings led by Wike, who are desperately committed to weakening it for the benefit of the APC whose willing tool and favoured foot soldier he has become.”
Gidado asserted that in terms of leadership pedigree and integrity, Mohammed was miles ahead of Wike.
He said, “There is no doubt that the emptiest of drums and tins make the loudest noise. One of such noise emanated from Wike through his ill-advised attacks against Senator Bala Mohammed, yet another in a series of unrelenting ‘take him down’ poisonous arrows he repeatedly fires. But like the people’s governor told him that Bauchi State has more than sufficient water to put out the fire that Wike has promised he will start there, let him know for the umpteenth time that Senator Bala Mohammed is a hard target, a courageous warrior who has faced down petty tyrants and bullies like Wike with towering moral force and ethical authority.
“As for who has performed better as a Minister of the FCT Wike’s loud empty drum of demolitions and evil revocations will not detract from Senator Bala Mohammed’s universally acclaimed record of service.”
Gidado claimed that Mohammed was a finer and more efficient public administrator than Wike, reeling out Mohammed’s track record.
He said, “Senator Bala Mohammed is a highly regarded and efficient manager of people and resources, both as the dynamic Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, the Governor of Bauchi State, and the face of organised political opposition in Nigeria today.
“Under Senator Bala Mohammed’s vibrant and visionary leadership, the PDP Governors Forum and the party’s core organs, including the BoT, are working quietly and assiduously in cleaning the party of Wike’s treachery and perfidy. And for the avoidance of doubt, it is also on record that the party’s NWC is fully consolidated and integrated unless there is any member therein who is following Wike’s wayward and perverse political path. Such a path of perdition is not the portion of genuine PDP members who are working tirelessly to retire the APC in 2027—the very party, with its failed policies, that Wike has vowed to help win re-election in 2027.”
Gidado also recalled Mohammed’s role in moving “the historic Doctrine of Necessity in 2010 to save the nation from a looming constitutional crisis and political disaster—a move that got Wike’s benefactor, former President Jonathan, sworn in as an acting President, the elder statesman Wike is now busy insulting with no shame,” Gidado said.
Contrasted Mohammed’s loyalty with Wike’s alleged political maneuvering, Gidado said, “When President Jonathan called Senator Bala Mohammed to serve the nation as an honourable minister, he took the right moral step by changing his party status and affiliation from ANPP to PDP to show full, total, and unconditional loyalty to the President. This is what real leaders who are guided by moral clarity do. This, of course, is not what transactional, bat-like politicians of Wike’s hue who are dwelling in the indeterminate domain of political disloyalty and ethical abyss do.
“Let Wike adopt Senator Bala Mohammed’s morally edifying position by resigning from the PDP and joining his beloved APC—a party he once classified as being afflicted with Stage 4 cancer not too long ago! And let Wike not justify his aberrant and pernicious conduct by comparing a properly constituted government of national unity in 1999 to his self-serving and deleterious political behavior in 2023.”
Gidado also criticised Wike’s governance style in Rivers State and his alleged attempt to undermine Governor Fubara.
“It is not a surprise that the Odilis, former Governor Omehia, Sen. Mbata, Sen. Omehia, Senator Lea Meeba, Chief Uche Secondus, and other distinguished Rivers sons and daughters have all rallied around Governor Fubara in his just struggle to free the state from the perfidious stranglehold of a megalomaniac individual.”
He labeled Wike as a “serial betrayer” who has “graduated to and perfected the illogic and morally reprehensible life as a use-and-dump artist.”
“The time for noise-making is over; it is time for governance. Let Wike reflect on his conduct and do the honourable thing: resign and align fully with the APC he so eagerly serves. Until then, his words will remain as hollow as his loyalty,” Gidado said.
But speaking with The PUNCH, Wike’s aide, Olayinka, said his principal remained a PDP chieftain.
“Wike is not the only non-APC member to take a ministerial appointment as a member of an opposition party. Bola Ige, Modupe Adesanya also did.
“Mohammed should stop giving excuses for his own failure. Wike is not the reason for his failure of leadership in the PDP. Under him, the PDP governors are polarised. He should take responsibility and stop looking for who to blame,” Olayinka said.
The PUNCH
