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Only Death Can Stop Me from Contesting 2023 Presidency – Wike
The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has insisted that he will not step down from the 2023 presidential race.
Wike, who is a presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party, said this during an interview with BBC Pigin.
The PUNCH had reported that some chieftains of the PDP had demanded that the presidential candidate of the party should be picked through consensus.
But Wike said only death would make him step down for another PDP candidate in the 2023 presidential election.
When asked if he would step down for another candidate, Wike said, “Why will I step down for anybody? If you want to do consensus, there must be equity and fairness. Are the hands of those demanding consensus clean? People talking about consensus are the ones running the election. Is it the party’s decision?
“It is not the party that is talking. In politics, there is something called shine shine bobo. The more you look, the less you see. Some people think they can deceive me with consensus. It’s a scam. I don’t like being deceived in my life.
What can make me step down for another PDP candidate, he replied, “The only thing that can make me step down is death. if I am alive, we will run this thing, we will hold the primary on May 28/29.”
Wike had on Tuesday warned PDP leaders against appointing delegates who have taken sides with some aspirants on the Primary Election Committee.
During his visit to Benin, Wike said he would never settle for the vice-president position as the contest for the plum job hots up, ahead of the presidential election next year.
“I’m not coming out to negotiate to be vice to anyone, I’m coming out to contest for the number one position in the country,” he had said.
Wike noted that the first criteria for any president to be successful in Nigeria was the ability of such a president to secure the nation and protect the lives and properties of citizens.
He said that if given the mandate by the PDP in the party’s presidential primaries next month, he would end up winning the presidential election.
“We must have a candidate who listens to the grassroots. I have the capacity to face the All Progressives Congress in 2023.
“Give me the ticket and have your confidence that we will take over power in May 2023. Don’t allow anybody to disabuse your mind from voting for Wike.
“We cannot continue to give excuses why we are losing elections.”
Israel has confirmed that Iran fired 180 missiles into the country on Tuesday, adding that one person was confirmed dead from the attacks.
An AFP report stated as follows –
Everybody’s phone buzzed at once with an alert at around 19:30 local time.
It read: “You must enter a protected area immediately and remain there until further notice.”
The message was sent by the Israel Defence Forces’s Home Front Command and ended with the phrase “life-saving instructions”.
People began to head for shelter in safe rooms as missiles were launched towards Israel from Iran.
The sirens sounding across the country were heard by millions.
As the wail of the alarm rang outside, we moved to the shelter in the BBC’s Jerusalem Bureau – a secure part of the building with no windows.
We could hear frequent booms as missiles flew overhead and were intercepted by Israel’s defence system.
Videos captured here and elsewhere shared on social media showed streams of light as the missiles flew over Israel – and clouds of smoke as they were intercepted or detonated on impact.
“There’re loads of them,” a contact exclaimed in a video filmed in southern Israel that shows circles of light in the night sky.
At about 20:00, the IDF said its aerial defence array was identifying and intercepting the launches and called on people to “remain in a protected space until further notice”.
It continued: “The explosions you are hearing are from interceptions and fallen projectiles.”
Concern had been mounting across Israel as reports emerged early in the evening that Iran was preparing a strike.
It came hours after Israeli troops invaded Lebanon, in what its military calls a “limited, localised and targeted” ground operation against Hezbollah.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it launched the missiles in retaliation for recent attacks that killed the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as a senior Iranian commander.
As missiles flew overhead, messages streamed in from people in different parts of the country, waiting in their safe rooms.
“There’s a lot of alarms all the time, so we’re in the safe room… But we’re OK for now,” a mother of two in the south of Israel told me by voice note.
“Very, very scary. I still cannot believe this is our life… it was VERY close,” a message from a journalist in Tel Aviv said.
“Usually we stay on our floor and don’t go down to the shelter but this time…we realised we had to go down.”
“It was very loud,” lawyer Efrat Eldan Schechter says by WhatsApp message from Ra’anana in central Israel, adding that she believes “it is not the end for tonight”.
“We need to see how it will evolve. It is very scary indeed… but we are strong and confident that our IDF will protect us. Iran just made a huge mistake.”
About an hour after the first message, phones again vibrated with a new alert from the Home Front Command, telling people they could leave shelters and protected areas.
Following the strikes, the IDF spokesperson said there were some hits in central and southern Israel.
Videos later shared on social media showed damage from the missiles in multiple locations, including a large crater in the ground near Tel Aviv.
The Palestinian civil defence authority in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho said a man there died during the Iranian missile barrage.
According to the AFP, which spoke to city governor Hussein Hamayel, the victim was killed by falling rocket debris.
Israeli officials have not reported any serious injuries as a result of Tuesday’s air attacks.
“At this stage, we don’t identify more launches from Iran. Stay responsible and listen to instructions,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised address.
Israel says at least 180 missiles were fired, most of them intercepted. It has said there will be “consequences”.
Foremost Yoruba socio-cultural organization,the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) has condemned the position of the Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele on regionalism, saying the lawmaker has lost the trust of the people he’s representing.
Recall that Senator Bamidele had at the National Assembly hearing on constitutional review rejected the bill to return Nigeria to regionalism saying if the lawmakers should allow regional system in Nigeria, it would automatically give the Easterners Biafra
The Publicity Secretary of the OPC, Barrister Yinka Oguntimehin, in a press statement on Tuesday noted that it’s unfortunate that Bamidele who was once a respected activist had also clamoured for a national conference to address the fundamental issues of restructuring in this country suddenly changed and became a centralist- minded person that is now rejecting the bill to return Nigeria to regionalism.
Oguntimehin said the lawmaker has failed to realize all the advantages inherent in regionalism, stating that Regionalism will allow cohesion, healthy competition and regional autonomy.
“It’ll enhance regional and internal security among the regions.
“Even a country with over 10 million people with such a multi-ethnic composition like Nigeria must have a federating unit that allows regional autonomy, regardless of the name you wish to call it, either regions or provinces. That is the normal thing all over the world.
“For instance, 50 states in the U.S are like a region. Also Ghana, a prominent country in Africa with a population of less than sixty million has a region. Even South Africa allows its provinces to develop at their own pace.
“It’s unfortunate that a man of Opeyemi Bamidele’s position, background and antecedents decided to go against the position of many Nigerians and selfishly narrow his thinking to play politics with such a sensitive issue and also believing that regionalism may later in the future give a particular ethnic nationality a country as he was referencing the Eastern region with the Biafra.
“He didn’t even see the wisdom in looking beyond his nose to see the possibilities and importance of regionalism as a potential tool for a successful federating unit.
“I wondered how an activist, a former student union leader, a Senate leader like him with a history of activism suddenly showed how political position and power can easily change his person.
“As far as we’re concerned, OPC condemns his position in totality and it’s unfortunate that he’s one of the representatives in Yoruba land.
“However, we urge him to change his views and position on this because as a foremost Yoruba socio-cultural organization, OPC is monitoring the events in the parliament and history will always judge whoever that goes against the wishes of Nigeria and Nigerians.
“I remember in the beginning of the OPC’s struggle, Senator Bamidele was one of the activists that was at the vanguard of the call for a national conference. He stood by the people then and now like a chameleon he suddenly changed.
“Let it be said that the only way Nigeria can move forward as a nation is to embrace regionalism where the regions develop at their own pace.
“Let it should also be said that for those whose position was that if we have regionalism, the central government will be weakened. That is not true, because the issue of the percentage of the resources to be allocated to the government at the centre will be addressed between the regions.”
Source: Independent
The Israeli military has said Iran has launched missiles at the country.
It added that sirens have sounded all across Israel and urged citizens to move to marked safe spaces.
The attack comes a short while after the US announced that it had received intelligence that Iran was planning an attack against Israel.
IRNA, Iran’s state-run news agency, confirmed that Tehran’s military has started launching ballistic missiles towards Israel.
Footage shared by media houses showed dozens of missiles flying across the sky towards Tel Aviv.
The missiles came as Israeli police said they received a report about a shooting attack in the Jaffa neighborhood of the city.
Police said the initial suspicion of motive is terror.
Multiple casualties were reported due to the attacks.
Iran said it targeted Israel in response to the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader, and other leaders.
“In response to the martyrdom of Martyr Haniyeh, Seyed Hassan Nasrallah and Martyr Nilfroshan, we targeted the heart of the occupied territories,” a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said.
“If the Zionist regime reacts to Iran’s operations, it will face crushing attacks.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) urged Israelis to “remain alert and precisely follow the home front command’s instructions”.
“Upon hearing a siren, you must enter a protected space and remain there until further notice”, it added.
Meanwhile US President Joe Biden convened a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and top national security officials to discuss the Iran ballistic missile attack on Israel.
The US and Israel had warned that any attacks from Iran would have grave repercussions.
