Yesterday, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State acknowledged that this is not the greatest time for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to a statement from the governor’s spokesperson, Nathaniel Ikyu, “I will not pretend that all is well with our party.”
Atiku Abubakar and Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike’s disagreement was addressed fairly late by the PDP leadership, according to Ortom.
He believes that the PDP’s internal conflict resolution procedure should have been used to resolve the controversy over Dr. Iyorchia Ayu’s protracted term as national chairman, and as a result, there are now divides within the opposition party.
He attributed the ongoing problem to what he perceived as the leadership’s indecision.
As a prerequisite for peace with Atiku and the PDP, the Rivers governor rejected Senator Walid Jibrin’s resignation as chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) on Thursday.
Ayu’s resignation appeared to have been precluded by the PDP National Executive Committee’s (NEC) vote of confidence in him on September 7.
Wike, though, proclaimed that Ayu cannot be saved by the vote of confidence and that there can be no reconciliation until the party chairman resigns.
Ortom, who is One of the Rivers governor’s allies, reprimanded the PDP leadership for failing to implement a quick reconciliation plan, claiming the party waited for the crisis to worsen before acting to end it.
The governor noted that the PDP disregarded its established internal dispute resolution system, which, in his opinion, the party leaders should have used to diffuse the crisis before it got out of hand.
“Discussions are going at different levels away from the public eye, to ensure unity and oneness of purpose in the PDP, with eyes on 2023
“I am very interested in ensuring that we discuss. I want us to have a win-win situation so that people will feel they have been carried along.”
Despite its current dilemmas, the PDP, according to Ortom, will reinvent itself in time to defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 election.
He added that there were important problems for the PDP to work out and that the Rivers State governor’s camp was still ready to conversation.
Despite his optimism that the PDP will “cross the Rubicon,” Ortom claimed that things are not going well for the party right now.
He said: “I will not say that all is well with our party. The good thing is that we recognise the issues and we have generated dialogue in various ways.
“Engagement is what I have always encouraged. Everybody cannot be winning all the time.”
The opposition party, which the governor emphasized was still a viable alternative, needed to come together before the 2023 election in order to be prepared to fight the APC.
He called the ruling party’s performance during the previous seven years “dismal and awful.”
He claims that the PDP now holds a commanding advantage in the Benue House of Assembly.
He also clarified how the access restrictions influenced his media criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “We applied for a bailout of N42 Billion from the Federal Government to enable us to offset longstanding arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities.
“Some of these people scrambled to the State House to tell the President not to release the funds even after approval so that we will not take the credit for solving the age-long problem. This is the kind of mean-spirited attitude APC is inflicting on our people.”
The governor claimed that for nearly two years, certain unnamed APC leaders have prevented him from meeting with President Buhari.
He alleged that, while preferring to speak with the President in person, he has been communicating with President Buhari through the media for this reason.
“It is the very same people who have ensured my inaccessibility to the President. I said it before. It is now almost two years since I last saw the President. If I had access to him, I will prefer a one-on-one exchange with him.
“Since that is not possible, I go to the press. I must talk, I must express myself. I am holding this office in trust for several million people of Benue State. I am not here of my own volition.”
