Amid agitations within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) political family and other concerned Nigerians for the major opposition party to wield the big stick on the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Nyesom Wike on his brazen anti-party activities, the Senate Minority Leader Abba Moro hinted that such punishment may not happen.
Senator Moro, who expressed resentment at what he called the “hues and cries about discipline Wike”, whereas others in the party, including Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State who now wants to run for presidency in 2027, did the same thing.
The senator representing Benue South who expressed these views on Tuesday when he appeared on Channels Television Programme, Politics Today, describes the clamour for Wike to be disciplined as an unnecessary distraction that the party can ill afford in its bit to unite the party ahead of the 2027 election.
Newsmata.com.ng reports that a national leader of the party, Chief Bode George had been vociferous in calling for Wike to be sanctioned, while former Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State had also vowed not to attend any meeting of the PDP if Wike was not sanctioned.
A recalcitrant Wike, former Rivers State governor, had on several occasions, dared the party to suspend or expel him.
During one of his monthly media parleys on June 2, 2025, Wike, who is serving in an APC government, fired back at those calling for his suspension, saying, “I am still in the PDP. I worked hard for the party. I have not seen anybody who will have the guts to tell me, ‘Wike, you are not a member of the party’. Who is that? What is his contribution to the party that is more than me?”
But hinting that the party was not about to take any such action against Wike or any erring member, Senator Moro cited what happened in the United States when some members of the Republican Party supported Kamala Haris, the Democratic Party candidate yet nobody was punished for it.
The Senate minority leader said, “Well, let me let me say this without sounding like a broken record. All the hues and cries about discipline Nyesom Wike, they are not necessary at this point in time.
“We are coming out of a disastrous election. 2023 certainly was the worst year for PDP as a political party where election results are concerned and the choices before us are whether we should wield the big stick or go on the path of reconciliation, and it was decided that these two things can go pari passu with themselves. Try to reconcile as much as possible; try also to discipline, if you can.
“And in the runup to 2023, a lot of things happened. People were genuinely aggrieved. Whether they carry the grievances too far is another thing altogether. And on this programme, I had had cause to reference the 2024 election in America where very many prominent Republican party members openly canvassed for votes for the Democratic Party candidate, Kamala Harris, and I asked this question, where were the hues and cries and agitations for punishment for those persons in the Republican Party that worked for the Democratic Party?
“You wouldn’t hear anything like that. In Nigeria, it’s anti-party, anti-party, discipline, discipline, and the rest of them. And our people have a saying, you made a fire, a bonfire, you say one stick of the bonfire is making smoke, you removed it. You removed the other one, you removed the other one. The smoke won’t stop; you keep removing until you remove all the woods in the fire.
“Why is it always about Wike, and Wike and the rest”. Because we all know that obviously, what Wike did, some other persons in the party did. We had the G5, for instance. The person who is going to run for president now in the party, Seyi Makinde, was a member of the G5.
“Governor Ortom, who today, is a Board of Trustee member from Benue State was a member of the G5. Governor Ugwuanyi, who was in the NEC meeting yesterday, was a member of the G5. Why is everybody not talking about all these other personalities and all of us that apparently, somehow one way or the other, didn’t fall into the line of the party? Why is anybody not mentioning any other person?
“So, I want to feel that the Wike saga is an unnecessary distraction that we can avoid if we have to forge a common front towards the 2027 election”.
Responding to how the party would raise funds for the 2027 election with the loss of the rich states like Delta, Akwa Ibom and Rivers to the ruling All Progressives Congress, Senator Moro dismissed it as inconsequential.
“All of these persons that you are talking about now were in PDP and we lost election. Politics and elections are not necessarily all about money. There are other factors, other germane factors that are responsible for elections than the issue of money”, he posited.