Daniel Bwala, presidential campaign spokesperson of Atiku Abubakar, has ruled out the possibility of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Bwala stated this while dismissing reports claiming that Atiku had boasted that he could win the 2023 presidential election without Wike’s support.
Wike, who came second behind Atiku at the PDP presidential primary election held in May, has been at loggerheads with the PDP presidential candidate over his failure to pick him as his running mate.
During a recent interview, the Rivers Governor also accused Atiku of lying about reaching out to him for reconciliation of their differences.
Amidst their feud, some APC governors including the Chairman of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum, Kayode Fayemi, had visited Wike in Port Harcourt supposedly to woo him into the ruling party.
But speaking during an Arise TV interview on Friday, Bwala assured that Wike would not leave the PDP regardless of entreaties to him by the ruling party.
“In the papers, I saw where people said Wike’s faction is saying this and that, that Atiku said the PDP can win without Wike. I know it is spinning, they want to generate a conversion because Atiku cannot say that.
“All you need to do is to look at his political engagements, he has never been that type of person. If Atiku can go to somebody as low as Bwala and say he wants me to come and be part of him, why would he look at a stakeholder like Wike and say PDP can win without Wike?
“You know the effort that they (APC) made to drag Wike to themselves. Wike has 99.9 percent of PDP in him. Wike’s blood is PDP, Wike’s vein is PDP, his nerves, muscles, his marrows are PDP and they (APC) know he can’t go to the APC”, he said.
According to Bwala, the APC had planned to snatch Governor Wike from the PDP in order to “change the dynamics” and upset Atiku’s chances of winning the 2023 presidential election.
He said, “Unfortunately for them, they have six major things that would crush that party while PDP is on course. What is happening in Nigeria today is that Nigerians are giving the PDP the opportunity, they are not saying they are conformable with the PDP in the first place. They changed PDP when they saw that they were not happy and when they saw that APC couldn’t do right, they are now going back to the PDP because that’s the only realistic party to win and are saying give them a second chance.”
Bwala had recently dumped the ruling APC after its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, picked a fellow Muslim as his running mate.
His recent appointment as the presidential campaign spokesperson of Atiku followed his defection to the main opposition PDP.
He was reported to have been criticised for lacking “principle” after joining the party he once passionately criticised.
But responding, Bwala said: “This is the first time in my life that I am switching from one political party to another and I am not switching to contest election where you would then bring in the issue of principle. I switched to support my conviction. I left a party that I felt changed the direction into a divisive country to join the party with realistic chances of defeating that.
“And so, on ideological reasons, you have every reason in this modern world to change your mind on anything that you feel the ideological differences are in different directions. So, I am proud and happy about that.
“The good thing for me, even in the APC that I left, they have continued to consult and wanted me to come back because they knew the value that I brought and added to the party.”
