Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has reprimanded the leadership of opposition PDP for failing to leverage the failings of the ruling APC.

Mr. Wike, who featured in a live telecast in Port Harcourt on Friday, criticised the National Working Committee of the PDP for fueling a crisis within its ranks — for selfish interests — at the expense of party cohesion.

Although the fiery governor, notable for his vociferous opinions, did not elaborate on the PDP’s internal wranglings, he argued that the present structure of the party could not dislodge the APC in the 2023 presidential election.

“PDP ought to have harvested from the inefficiency of the APC; from the maladministration of the APC,” Mr. Wike said in a statement issued yesterday by his media aide Kelvin Ebiri. “The present National Working Committee is not interested or doing anything to take over the realms of government in 2023.”

“If you ask me, are Nigerians waiting for a change? Yes. If you ask me as a member of PDP, am I ready to support PDP to take over, yes. But, if you ask me currently as it is, is the leadership of the party willing for us to harvest this opportunity for a change, I will say no,” the governor stated.

He added: “An opposition party that ought to be united, to work, to take over the affairs of government, because people are waiting for this opportunity, but the current leadership of NWC is not prepared for that, rather, what they have done is to constitute some people to sow a seed of discord among governors for their own selfish interest. And that will boomerang; that will consume them.”

Mr. Wike’s views mirror the position of many Nigerians about the opposition party, which is now largely seen as an extension of the ruling party after failing repeatedly to stand in solidarity with Nigerians in the face of repeated leadership failures by the Buhari administration.

Mr. Wike, however, deflated his prospects of defecting to the ruling party, noting that he ‘lacked the capacity’ to jump ship unlike his counterparts in the opposition party.

The Rivers governor vowed to resist any attempt aimed at bringing the PDP to ruins.

The PDP has been projected to experience multiple defections from the party, following the exit of Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi last month.

Mr. Umahi, a former state chairman of the PDP in Ebonyi, who had previously served as deputy governor before his emergence as governor for two terms, decamped to the APC in protest of the “injustice being done to Southeast by the PDP.”

Governor Umahi, who has since been received and commended for his bravery by President Muhammadu Buhari, had criticised the PDP for continually failing to consider the Southeast for the country’s top job.

A spokesman for the party in Abuja did not return a request seeking comments about Mr. Wike’s criticism.