Former governor of Rivers State and a Minister designate, Nyesom Wike, visited the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Umar Gnaduje, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Wike, who worked against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2023 election, has repeatedly denied plotting to join the ruling party.
“I am not a member of APC and will not be. But, they have made me recognize that they are the heroes of this country. APC governors came out to say for the unity of this country, the presidency should go to the south,” he once said while dismissing the rumor.
But during a thanksgiving service organised in his honour shortly after he handed over power in Rivers, Governor Simi Fubara asked Wike not to abandon him if he ends up in the ruling party.
“While we are seeing sign that it’s like you want to go over to the other side with everybody wishing that, please don’t be too far from me because I know that the sharks, the tigers are really around looking for what to hurt. So, being around would continue to guide and put my head straight for the purpose of this state,” Fubara had said.
Following his appointment to President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet, rumors that he would leave the opposition party gathered traction.
This has angered PDP leaders, who have considered taking action against the former governor of Rivers.
Wike explained to BBC Pidgin why he had been socializing with APC leaders just before the senate confirmed him as a minister.
The former governor provided clarity after earlier using the comparison between cancer and malaria to deny rumors that he was headed for the ruling party.
When asked earlier if he had considered leaving the PDP during the heated debate with Atiku, Wike responded, “I get malaria, na cancer I dey find?”
The former governor, however, defended his recent actions, including those made to Tinubu’s cabinet, by saying that while someone can die from malaria, a person with cancer can be healed if given the chance to consult a better doctor.
“If someone gets cancer, and he meets a better doctor, won’t he get a better treatment? And, if a patient has an ordinary malaria without a proper care, won’t he die with the malaria? Are you not aware that malaria kills people?
“And what is my concern if someone that has cancer is taken to a good hospital and meets a good doctor and gets healed? That’s just the truth [about the two parties].”