Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Renaissance Movement in Cross River has expressed support for the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, as a 2023 presidential candidate.
The political group, made up of immediate past commissioners, serving PDP House of Assembly members and former appointees of Ayade gave the endorsement yesterday in a communiqué after a meeting at the party’s secretariat in Calabar.
The group called on Wike to declare for the 2023 presidential race to salvage the country from the claws of the ruling party. The Chairman of the pressure group, one-time Commissioner for Water Resources, Gabe Oji, who led the group, read the communiqué at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Calabar, stating that the call came as Nigerians expressed dissatisfaction with six years of what he described as rudderless leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The communiqué stated: “Rising from a meeting at its office in Calabar, the Cross River State Capital, the PDP Renaissance Movement has against the background of the clarion call and passionate expectation of Nigerians for good and enduring Leadership, having been dissatisfied with the rudderless leadership provided by the APC in the last six years, resolved amongst other issues, to call on the leadership of the PDP to present a man with character and content as the standard-bearer for the party’s presidential ticket in 2023 in order to further strengthen the faith of the people in the Nigerian polity.”
It identified the sterling leadership qualities and developmental strides of the governor as the reason for the choice. “Governor Wike is a nationalist who truly believes in the unity and indissolubility of Nigeria and has clearly demonstrated this in his uncompromising stance against separatist agitations and his liberal posture as demonstrated during the Sokoto fire inferno,” it added. The group also commended the leadership of the party, especially the PDP Governor’s Forum, for the conduct of a successful, peaceful and ranchor-free National Convention.
It urged the leadership to consolidate on the gains of the consensus-building process, to narrow down interests in the forthcoming 2023 elections.
