A former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, has absolved the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, of any blame for the lingering crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Suswam said, contrary to claims in various quarters of the PDP and the Nigerian political space, Wike has done nothing to cause the crisis within the party.
However, he blamed the crisis on the Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Umar Damagun, and the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Bala Mohammed.
“I am not worried about what Wike said, I’ve avoided in the past to reduce the conflict in PDP to be a Wike thing.
“The reason being that, If the National Working Committee of the party had done the right thing from the onset, we wouldn’t be where we are at the moment.
“So it’s not a Wike thing, all of them have engaged the old kind of arrangement. Good enough, Wike is not somebody who hides anything when the chips are down,” Suswam said.
In Wike’s defence, Suswam said the minister has always been open about whoever he meets or goes into an agreement with, politically.
He condemned the actions of politicians who go into agreements with each other – whether written or not – with the intention of not fulfilling those promises.
“He (Wike) has not hidden at any point who and who he has engaged with. And why would they engage in those aggrement knowing that they would not honour them?
“Any other person would be angry. And so, I put this blame on the acting National chairman of the party, Damagun and the chairman of the PDP’s Governors’ Forum,” the former governor added.
He also said by virtue of his position as the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Mohammed should have been able to nip the crisis within the party in the bud.
Suswam said that with proper leadership, the PDP crisis should have been a thing of the past.