The Presidency has stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s alliance with former Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, was a matter of harvesting from the internal crisis of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Addressing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday, the Special Adviser to Tinubu on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake said Tinubu’s meetings with opposition figures had nothing to do with the formation of his cabinet.
He noted that it was in line with the president’s decision to run an open government.
Alake also stated that Wednesday’s visit to the President by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Senator Anyim Pius Ayim, and former PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, was to commend Tinubu for the steps he had taken so far.
He said: “Wike’s case is self-explanatory. It was the tempestuous nature of PDP’s internal political wrangling that caused Wike’s issue and you are all aware of that. So that one has no issues with Wike’s thing, it’s an internal affair of the PDP.
“However if as a political party, your energy is fighting itself, you reap whatever gain from it without lifting a finger, that’s what happened.
“Now about the PDP people that came, you know the President said his administration is running an open door policy and he is a unifier, he is a symbol of unity of the country. So if anybody from any angle wishes to see the President and has some salient point to raise or issues or observations or even suggestions, the President opens his doors.
“So those people, Anyim Pius Anyim and Olisa Metuh came purposely to commend the President for his positive policy initiatives that have put Nigeria back to the global stage and it is not just their own saying, it is not what they say they observe, we have received the same accolades and encomium from all parts of the globe.
“So it’s not restricted to the PDP people. I think we should commend them for being quite honest and sincere with their views because there are some of the opposition people who also acknowledge this very laudable initiative of the President but are too prejudiced or myopic or parochial to acknowledge it publicly, so we need to commend those people for having the guts.“
