Atiku and Wike camps finally agree to hold peace meeting in Abuja this Friday

PEOPLE Democratic Party (PDP) officials have set up a peace meeting to address the rift between former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State with its first meeting earmarked to hold in Abuja this Friday.

In late June, the PDP elected former vice president Alhaji Abubakar as its flagbearer for next year's presidential election at its annual convention. Governor Wike was a candidate in that election but he was beaten into second place and to make matters worse for him, he was not then picked as the party's running mate.

With Alhaji Abubakar opting to pick Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State as his running mate, Governor Wike has been on the war path and there are now fears that he will dump the PDP. Among other things, he has been fraternizing with members of the ruling All Progressives Congress lately, amid talk of him possibly decamping.

Sensing that the party could be divided going into next year's elections, a peace committee has been established to heal the rift between the two camps. After entreaties from the committee, the two camps have agreed in principle to meet this Friday but they disagreed bitterly over the venue of such a meeting.

While the Wike camp initially wanted the meeting to hold in Port Harcourt, a close associate of Atiku insisted that it should take place in Abuja. Initially scheduled to hold on Monday, the meeting could not go ahead because the Atiku camp members were unavailable, although the venue was said to be a sticking point too.

One Wike source said: “We were ready for the meeting but it was members from the Atiku camp that didn’t show up at the meeting venue. The members said they didn’t show up because they were busy receiving defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Yola.

“We were told that Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, who should have led members of the reconciliation committee in Atiku’s camp to the meeting, was the chief host during the defection of APC members in Yola. However, they have indicated interest to show up for the meeting on Friday.”

He, however, noted that members of the reconciliation committee from Atiku’s camp would not be meeting the Rivers State governor in Friday. After incessant wrangling, it appears that both parties have resolved that Abuja is where the parley should hold, as apart from anything else, the meeting earlier scheduled for Monday could not take place following disagreements over the venue.

Earlier this week, PDP leader  Dr Sam Ohuabunwa, said that he would not be sleeping well if he were in the shoes of Atiku Abubakar. He added that the different meetings being held in Port Harcourt between Governor Wike and other opposition candidates and camps, would have given him some sleepless nights.

Among other things, Dr Ohuabunwa accused the PDP leadership of taking competitors such as Peter Obi for granted, warning that such an act was dangerous. He said that if he was on Atiku’s side, he would take all those overtures and meetings in Port Harcourt seriously, insisting that in Nigeria there’s no political meeting that is for nothing.

Dr Ohuabunwa said: “One of the greatest failures of people is to underrate competitors. As the chief executive for a multi-national company for many years, I do not underrate competition no matter how small they are.

“Every move the competitor makes in the marketplace causes an alarm for me and I deploy forces to counter those quickly because you don’t have a second chance. The problem of the party may not be as bad as it is looking but the media say perception is everything and we need to pour water on this and put it out.

“Certainly, all those political meetings everybody is coming to, if I’m the chairman of the political party or the presidential candidate I don’t think I’ll sleep well. The next morning I’ll ensure that I fly down to Port Harcourt or wherever I need to fly to and pour water on it and close this chapter so that we can move forward."