Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has said he has no regret for stopping the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, from becoming the party’s National Chairman, describing him as a failed politician who has not won any election for the PDP in Lagos State since 1999.
In a statement issued yesterday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and social media, Lere Olayinka, the minister said George’s political frustration was compounded by the emergence of Deji Doherty, a personality he did not want to see in charge of the party in Lagos State.
“His anger is because we didn’t allow him to be PDP National Chairman and we have no regret doing so,” Wike said.
He added that George “wanted to be PDP National Chairman and was carrying on like the position was his birthright. We stopped him because it was the South-South’s turn. Since then, he has not stopped being angry.”
The minister recounted an incident in which he visited George’s residence in Maitama, Abuja, as a sitting governor, to appease him after the national convention.
The minister stated that he was nearly turned away by George’s wife until former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko, intervened.
Wike described George as a politician who, despite all the privileges and power at his disposal, has failed to deliver electoral victories for the PDP in Lagos State.
“We have managed him even though we know that he has no value. But as it is, since he wants to keep dancing naked in the marketplace of politics, we can’t but allow him,” he said.
The minister argued that leadership of a political party is not determined by name, title or status as a founding father, but by the ability to win elections.
He said on that score, Bode George is “a complete disaster.”
Citing specific electoral figures, Wike said George has never won even his own polling unit, Unit 001 in Ward E2, Evans Street, Lagos Island, for the PDP.
He noted that in the 2019 presidential election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 84 votes at the unit against the PDP’s 40, while in 2023, after George transferred his voter’s card to Eti-Osa, the PDP recorded only four votes at his former polling unit.
Wike said that since George appeared not to be busy, he would keep his associates busy by giving them reasons to move from one television station to another.