National Honour: It Is Unfortunate, He Doesn’t Want Peace

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has submitted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar is not showing signs he wants the crisis rocking the party to be resolved.

Speaking on Friday, Wike said the behaviour and attitude coming from Atiku and his loyalists can be described as unfortunate.

Naija News reports following the National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), conferred on his running mate, Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, Atiku had said the development vindicated his preference for the Governor over other choices he had to emerge as running mate for the 2023 election.

Atiku in a terse statement via his social media page, congratulated the PDP governor on his national honour which according to him was another piece of evidence that he was right to pick him as his running mate amongst other choices.

Atiku’s message to Okowa read: “Today’s conferment of the National Honour on Governor Ifeanyi A. Okowa by President Muhammadu Buhari is a testimonial that I made the right decision in tapping an achiever as my Vice Presidential candidate for the 2023 election. On behalf of my family, our team and our supporters, I say congratulations.”

The submission of the former Vice President is seen as a veiled attack on Governor Wike who was also in reckoning to emerge as the PDP Vice Presidential candidate for 2023 until things went against him.

However, reacting to the statement credited to Atiku during his media chat on Friday, Wike said it shows the PDP presidential candidate is not ready for peace.

The Rivers State Governor added that the infrastructure award set to be awarded to him by President Muhammadu Buhari is more important than the national honours.

Wike noted further that the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) just conferred on Okowa in 2022 is something he had received since 2014.