Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has said the continuous marginalisation of the majority Nigerians, especially, from the South-South region will increase the challenge of insecurity being experienced in the country.
He said peace and security would remain elusive across Nigeria if the majority tribes, and those who thought they had dominance over others continued to marginalise them.
Wike asserted that, for there to be an enduring future for Nigeria, all Nigerians must see themselves as equal stakeholders in the project called Nigeria.
Speaking at Government House, Port Harcourt, when the management of New Telegraph Newspaper, led by the Managing Director and Editor- in-Chief, Mr. Ayodele Aminu,presented its letter nominating him as the Political Icon of the Year, 2022, he said, “The problem in this country today is not only as a result of the banditry or kidnapping, no. Part of the issue that has to do with security is the issue of marginalisation.
“And I continue to tell our people or those who believe that they are dominant, you need peace for you to preside over those, who you think do not have the number. You need peace. If there is no peace, it will be difficult.”
The Rivers governor, who cited the ongoing crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as an evidence of marginalisation of a section of the country, observed that because the zoning principle had been jettisoned in the PDP, coupled with the lack of seriousness to allow for inclusivity, convincing Nigerians to believe that the party could rescue the country was becoming a more difficult
task.
He insisted that blackmail could not diminish the demand for the national chairmanship position to be relinquished to the South, because according to him, the national chairman of PDP, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, had promised to resign his position should the presidential candidate of the party emerge from the north.
“He made that commitment because he knows that it will not be equitable, there will be no fairness and justice if the presidential candidate comes from the same zone with him. And people are trivialising the issue. Why do you trivialise the issue?” he said.
Wike reaffirmed that his allies were resolved to continue the demand for the return of the national chairmanship position to the South and maintained that Ayu was corrupt, because he had not been able to account for the N11billion realised from the party’s primary, and N100 million he got from a certain governor.
“If you like, abuse us the way you want to abuse us, but we will stand by what we have said. If you say you will not relinquish that position to the South, no problems. Go ahead, but you can’t force us to do what we think is not right, we will not do it. So, this kind of man cannot, in all honesty, take this party to any victory. He cannot,” he said.
Credit: This Day