Media aide to the governor, Kelvin Ebiri, said this in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Tuesday night.

Addressing stakeholders at the PDP secretariat in Gombe, the State capital, the governor urged them not to waste their votes as delegates at the party’s presidential convention on candidates who can not win the 2023 general election.

“If you want PDP to win the election in 2023 I have made myself available. Give me the ticket, let me go and take the power for you. We are talking about who can take this power from the All Progressives Congress. That person is me.”

Wike pointed out that people are free to visit Rivers State to see what his administration has done out of love and passion for the upliftment of the socioeconomic status of the people.

The governor stated the need to rescue Nigeria from dying and it required men of courage who love this country to do the work.

“We need to salvage this country. Let us not pretend about it. Insecurity does not know religion. Insecurity does not know ethnicity. Poverty does not know ethnicity. Poverty does not know religion.

“The people who come to kill us, do they look at who is a Christian? Do they look at who is a Moslem? Do they know who is Hausa-Fulani? Do they know who is Igbo? We are dying.

“So, it is not for the sentiment. It is not for people to come and tell you, look, it must come from here, no, no. It is for those who have the capacity. If given the opportunity, I will replicate what I’ve done in Rivers State as President of Nigeria.”

Speaking further, Wike berated the APC-led Federal Government for the many lies it kept telling Nigeria concerning improving the agricultural fortune of the country.

Wike said the incoming PDP government will not tell Nigerians lies, and make excuses for failure but will work to genuinely improve the life of Nigerians across the country.

“They said they have given over N300b for agriculture. I have no problem with that. Even if they have spent N1trillion, where is the food? I don’t want people going to buy rice and doing pyramid. I want to see to it that agriculture is working.”

The governor said the insistence of some public office holders to hire mercenaries to fight bandits and terrorists overrunning the country is worrisome.

“And you have a president staying there, the security chiefs are there, and somebody is saying you must bring in mercenaries. You have seen that the government has collapsed.

“I’m not the one who said so. Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai said the government has collapsed. Not me, not you, but APC has admitted that their government has collapsed. The Minister of Transportation said the government did not give him money that was why the bombing of the train happened.”

In his remark, the former Gombe State governor, Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, commended Wike for visiting the state to formally acquaint PDP stakeholders with his presidential ambition.

Dankwambo, who acknowledged Wike’s excellent performance in office, assured him of Gombe state support if he clinches the presidential ticket.

“Power comes from God. God gives power to whom he wants. He takes power from whom he wants. We will contribute to PDP to take overpower. But at the appropriate time, whoever emerges the candidate will sit down with the Gombe people and discuss. We will negotiate. We will not be taken for granted this time around. We will work for you, we will work for whoever emerges as the candidate of the party under our mutually agreed pact.

On his part, Gombe State Chairman of PDP, General Abnor Kwaskwabe (rtd.), said described Wike as “a man of integrity, an impeccable leader, a bridge-builder, a unifier of men, and whose interest in politics is for the public good.”

“This is a man that has touched the lives of Nigerians across the six geo-political zones. This is the man when one of the Northern States had a fire in their market, nobody came to their rescue except, His Excellency, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.”