By OUR REPORTER, Port Harcourt
Critics alleging that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, rather than settling down for governance, started playing politics of 2027 right in 2023, may have been vindicated by the meeting of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) “rebel” Governors popularly called G5, where a declaration was made to the effect of his re-electiom.
Former Governor of Benue State and member of the G5, Mr. Samuel Ortom, who made the declaration public in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital on Sunday, said that the group had resolved to support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
Those who criticised Tinubu had cited the alleged use of judiciary to unseat democratically elected Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, and his presidency’s roles in the political crisis in Rivers State, where his chosen ally, Nyesom Wike, wanted to control from behind curtain the constitutionally recognised Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and Ondo State crisis, all interventions towards favouring his four years time re-election plan.
They accused him of busying himself with still distant politics of 2027 even as his government’s first tenure was yet to get its footing in 2023.
Tinubu, whose administration plunged Nigerians and the country into serious economic quagmire since his very moment of ascending to office on May 29, 2023, is believed to have dragged all stratas of the polity including judiciary, legislature and media into losing the confidence of the people and international community, as those institutions of state continue to turn their eyes away from cries against the President’s highlighted wrong steps.
Despite these, the PDP G5, it was gathered, joined the institutions that have been seeing but do like they do not see the sufferings of the people and the political crises and rose from the Port Harcourt meeting hosted by Wike to say that it will be Tinubu in 2027 or there will be no other person.
Former Governor Ortom, speaking for the G5, made the new resolve of the PDP “rebel group” known on Sunday at a luncheon in Port Harcourt, hosted by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, who is believed to have continued to stay back in the PDP while helping to destroy the party from within through his anti-party activities.
Ortom, it will be recalled, failed to deliver his state for President Tinubu despite that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led President was the candidate his PDP G5 governors chose to support against their own party’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar in the February 25, 2023 election.
The G5 include Ortom (Benue), Wike (Rivers), Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Seyi Makinde (Oyo). All the members of the group finished their second term of eight years as governor last May except Makinde who is now in his second term.
Addressing the gathering crowded with Wike’s allies on Sunday, Ortom said the G5 has no regret for supporting Tinubu’s victory in the last poll, declaring that the group will again back the ex-Lagos governor for a second term in office as Nigeria’s President.
Ortom said, “If we work to ensure Bola Ahmed succeeds, there will be tomorrow for anybody to even contest the election at all.
“Our leader, Nyesom Wike, has already made a declaration that in 2027, we are supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We have nowhere to go because that is what Nigerians believe. Even the past administration that took Nigeria from top to bottom, we allowed them to work for eight years. So, why can’t a seasoned administrator in the person President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rule us for eight years?” he asked, assuring Nigerians that Tinubu will fix security, economy and other critical areas of challenge to the citizens.
