Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for his victory at the election petition tribunal.
Mr Wike said it was better to openly compliment Mr Buhari than to visit the president secretly at night.
The Tribunal rebuffed on Wednesday the petition of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against Mr Buhari’s re-election.
At the February 2019 presidential election, Mr Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC) defeated Mr Abubakar and about 70 other candidates.
Mr. Wike was the president’s known critic, apart from being one of the most famous PDP governors.
“I am sure all of you are surprised that I congratulated Buhari. Is it not good for me to congratulate him than to go to his house in the night?” Mr Wike said on Thursday in Emohua, Rivers State, at a funeral ceremony.
“So many PDP governors go to see him (Buhari) in his house in the night,” the governor said. “I have never gone and I will not go.”
Continuing, Mr Wike said: “President Buhari, congratulations! Carry Nigerians along.”
He called on the president to unify Nigeria that he said was “too divided.”
Mr Wike said politics is an interesting game, and Rivers State is “his only interest.”
“We produce oil. They should not punish Rivers State because of me. I am just one individual. We have not benefited anything from the federal government. The only thing we have benefited is the abuse they heap on me,” he said.
The governor said that despite their closeness to Mr. Buhari, the APC chieftains from Rivers were unable to attract development to the state, such as completing the East-West Road.
Mr Wike’s closest rival in Rivers is APC’s ex-governor Rotimi Amaechi, who is the minister of transport.
Mr Wike’s congratulatory message to Mr Buhari contrasts with the PDP’s view that the decision of the tribunal was “provocative, barefaced subversion of justice and direct assault on the integrity of our nation’s justice system.”
