•Gov not lobbying for Secondus –PDP

From Tony John, Port Harcourt

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has asked the Federal Government to allow states derive their own minimum wages for workers.

The governor said the current revenue-sharing formula between the federal government and states has already created an unfair balance.

The governor made this known when the state leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) paid him a visit at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Wednesday, to endorse him for a second term in office.

Meanwhile, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed allegations that Wike is lobbying for Prince Uche Secondus as the new national chairman of the party.

State Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Samuel Nwanosike, debunked the allegation, yesterday.

He told newsmen in Port Harcourt, ahead of the party’s December 9, national convention that

Secondus, who is one of the aspirants, did not need anybody to lobby for him, because of his experience.

“How could you bring governor Wike in the matter? Will he be the one to decide who the delegates from all parts of the country will vote for? No, that is not correct. The allegation is not correct.

“The truth of the matter is that the people you are seeing are playing dirty, throwing names. They are trying to play the old pattern. They have a pattern. They are people from the old brigade,  who believe there must be a consensus candidate, where they would say ‘all is well.’

“PDP is a political party that is trying to organise itself again. We will not go back to the days of impunity. 

“You heard the former Vice President,  Atiku Abubakar, say he left the All Progressives Congress (APC) because the party is entrenched in impunity.

“We, having lost the 2015 presidential election,  and knowing the pressure it has brought on us as a political party, cannot go back to that old order.

“On December 9, everybody should go and canvass for votes. It does not matter what anybody says. And, all the aspirants have said after the election, they will support whoever emerges as chairman and build a formidable party. In fact, what the delegates are looking out for now is a person who has a clean record. You must put a man with integrity; you must put a man that has the ability to carry everybody along. You must put a man that has the patience to listen to everybody. You must put a man that has the ability to build a PDP that belongs to everybody. We don’t want a man who believes that he is a godfather and he is the one that built PDP in 1999. We have passed that era.

“So, Secondus, who is from Rivers, as far as we are concerned, governs PDP in the state very well. He managed our party so well that that gave him the permission of party to be at the South South level. He was a former organising secretary of the party. 

“Those who monitored his activities would testify to his capacity as the organising secretary of the party. He has been deputy national chairman of the party; he was even the acting national chairman of the party. 

“He tried to make sure our party did not go into oblivion after we lost the 2015 presidential election. That is the man we will stand for.

“Secondus is busy going from one state to the other. You must sell yourself. Listen, the PDP we have today, is a brand new PDP. The PDP in the past, where people sat down and gave consensus has gone. That era is gone. 

“With the misrule of APC, Nigerians are yearning for a political party that guarantees them a positive change than what we are experiencing today. Nigerians want a capacity chairman.

“So, Secondus is selling himself and does not need anybody to lobby for him,” Nwanosike said.

He, however, added that the recent endorsement of Wike, for a second term by the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, an APC chieftain, was testimony of the governor’s track records.