Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Tuesday defended Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, describing him as a political force that cannot be sidelined ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The statement, issued by PDP National Publicity Secretary Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, came in response to the APC Governors’ Forum’s rejection of Wike’s political support for President Bola Tinubu. The governors, led by Imo State’s Hope Uzodinma, had warned earlier in the week against any parallel political arrangements that could divide loyalty within the ruling party.
The PDP said the governors had wrongly assumed Wike’s backing for Tinubu amounted to an endorsement of the APC itself, and that they were only now recognizing his continued loyalty to the PDP does not equate to ceding political ground to the ruling party.
“The APC Governors’ Forum should understand that Wike is not their problem; their problem is their poor governance and failure to meet the expectations of their people,” Mohammed said in the statement.
The party also rejected a reported demand that Wike refrain from supporting or fielding candidates capable of challenging APC governors in 2027, calling it a “complete political miscalculation” that reflects anxiety within the ruling party over facing a resurgent opposition.
Mohammed described Wike as a proven political mobilizer, warning that “those who underestimate his capacity do so at their own political peril,” and urged the governors to focus instead on accountability and management of federal revenue allocations.
The dispute centers on the so-called Rainbow Coalition, a cross-party alliance backing Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid with which Wike has been associated while retaining his PDP membership. The PDP said the party remains committed to fielding candidates across the states next election cycle.
