Former Senate president, Adolphus Wabara, has said he would not take issue with the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike over his recent comment about him.
The chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), stated this, yesterday, while reacting to the comment by the minister.
The erstwhile governor of River State on the platform of the PDP had in a live interview on national television last weekend, said if Wabara were to be his father, he (Wike) would have disowned him.
Wike, who was answering a question on the leadership crisis rocking the PDP, said: “It’s unfortunate they have a man they said is a former Senate president. If that man was my father, I would have disowned him.
“He doesn’t qualify to be. No wonder president Obasanjo made a presidential broadcast during his tenure about corruption. That’s the man leading PDP BoT.”
The senator for Abia South from 1999 to 2007 said as an elder statesman, who had been privileged to be the nation’s number Three citizen, it would be undignifying for him to begin to trade words with the minister.
He said he had expected Wike to refrain from unguarded utterances, at least as a mark of respect for the position “he occupies as a minister of the Federal Republic, and as a former governor.”
The senator argued that it was disgraceful for a supposed man of honour to speak without decorum, adding that spewing gibberish like a broken water pipe without a tap is not a mark of maturity.
Distancing himself from corruption, he noted:” I will expect a man of his calibre and status to mind his language and words. He should be sure of his facts. But I don’t want to join issues with Wike and dignify him.
“Frankly for a son to disown his father, his father must have wronged him terribly. Can Wike please tell the world what it is I did wrong to him?
According to him, talking about corruption, Nigerians know those who are corrupt, and I can proudly say and beat my chest that I’m not one of them.
“I, Adolphus Wabara, I’m not corrupt! I won’t be joining issues with people who have no respect for elders,” the elder statesman further maintained.