The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike says he is still a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“I am a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),” he said during a Friday media parley with selected journalists in Abuja. “Have you ever seen me change anything?
“The one I supported before, what happened? I have decided to take a break. As you see me now, everybody should carry their cross,” he said.
Wike added, “I was in PDP and I did not hide it: I told them I was not going to support their presidential candidate. Is it that I spoke or acted in a way people did not understand?”
He described himself as an advocate of the rule of law, saying his non-support of the party in the 2023 presidential election was the right step and thus moves for his suspension are uncalled for.
“Discipline me for what? That I did what? I am an advocate of the party’s constitution. Assuming we lost the governorship, will they be talking about Rivers as a PDP state?”
According to him, now is the time for governance.
”Now is the time to do your assignment. The president has given me an assignment and I am busy carrying out my assignment. When the time for politics comes, we would know who is where and who is not where.”
Wike, who is the immediate past governor of Rivers State, fell out with the PDP hierarchy in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election.
He had insisted the party maintain its internal power-sharing formula by zoning the presidential ticket to southern Nigeria.
While he backed out from supporting his party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar but supported and worked for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Following the victory of APC at the 2023 elections, President Bola Tinubu appointed him as a minister of the FCT.