The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and former Governor of Rivers State Nyesom Wike, has dismissed the resolution of the APC Governors Forum against his rainbow coalition, describing the governors behind it as politically lazy and insisting that he has never at any time sought an alliance with the ruling party or its governors.
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Speaking by telephone from Spain, where he is on holiday, the minister said his commitment has always been to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu personally rather than to the All Progressives Congress, and that the only person entitled to question his conduct is the President himself.
The APC Governors Forum, led by the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, had after a meeting in Abuja declared that its members would neither support nor endorse any alliance capable of weakening the party or undermining its candidates.
“The forum unanimously resolved that its members will not participate in, support or endorse any alliance or political arrangement capable of undermining the re-election of Mr President, weakening the APC, or adversely affecting any candidate of the party at all levels,” the forum stated.
“In other words, the forum has no intention to support any candidate at any level that is not an APC candidate, because the elections and our candidates are standing election as being sponsored by our party. The governors’ campaign commitment is exclusively to all APC candidates. No arrangement that creates confusion, divided loyalty, or competing interests within the party will be entertained.”
The forum added that all levels of the party’s campaign architecture would be aligned with the expectations of the President and the strategic objectives of the party while maintaining national coherence.
Asked for his reaction, the minister said he had initially been advised against responding at all, but chose to put his own version before Nigerians.
“When I see the people who had that press conference, they are smart like the former men. But they are politically lazy. They are unfortunate,” he said. “All he said, neither here nor there.”
He rejected outright the premise that he had ever sought an accommodation with the ruling party or its governors.
“There’s no day I went to the Governors Forum to align with coalition. There’s no day,” he said. “They are talking about alliance with party. I have never one day gone to APC to have an alliance.”
Recalling the origins of his support for the President, the minister said the G5 governors dealt directly with Mr. Tinubu and not with the party structures.
“When the G5 came out to support the President, is there any time we held a meeting with the Progressive Governors Forum or with their party? We met with Mr President. I told Mr President, we’re going to support you. And I have never regretted that.”
He explained the basis of that decision: “As I said to the President, as far as I’m concerned, we’re going to support you. One, because of my belief that it is the turn of the South to produce the presidency, the North having done that for eight years. And so it would not be fair if the election goes back to the North. So we did that.”
The minister turned directly on the chairman of the forum, saying the records of those issuing such resolutions deserve examination.
“We check out the background of persons or leadership. During the APC primaries, Hope supported Ahmad Lawan. And then he prayed that he won. You did 360,” he said.
He then contrasted his own contribution with the outcome in Imo State in 2023.
“But let me take you to his own state. Imo State. He was the governor of Imo State, and of APC stock. Mr President didn’t get 10 per cent in his state. But he took two senators. And Labour Party took one senator, in Imo State.”
“Labour Party scored 360,000. APC scored 66,000. Now, is he saying that the people of Imo State were not confused, or they were confused? As a sitting governor, you have a president already under your party. You couldn’t give him 10 per cent of the total votes.”
He pressed the contradiction he sees in the governors’ position: “The President lost woefully, but they got the senators. An election that was held the same day. What happened, that the electorate knew how to vote for a president of another party, and they voted for APC on the National Assembly candidates? Hope is telling all that there is something to it. I think they should really come and check what really happened. You don’t just come out and say things you cannot.”
The minister said the hostility directed at him predates the present controversy and began with his appointment to the cabinet.
“Let me tell you, all these things that you are saying, it didn’t start today. It started at the ministerial position. They are not happy that I should be given Minister of FCT,” he said.
He said the same pattern had been visible during his tenure as governor of Rivers State, when efforts were made to work against him.
Rejecting the assumption that a governor’s endorsement determines outcomes, the minister cited his own route to office.
“You see, because most of us think because we are governors, we are the alpha and the omega. Anything we decide must happen. It’s not true. Certainly it is not true.”
“I was a Minister of State when I ran for the governorship in Rivers in 2015. I defeated the candidate of the incumbent governor. I did that. There’s no need to bless the biggest governor to do that.”
The minister argued that the governors’ complaint collapses when tested against the conduct of others who are backing the President while remaining in their own parties.
“What is the crisis? Our sponsored candidates. Soludo is supporting Mr President. Does it mean that Soludo will not present his own party’s candidates in the National Assembly election? Adeleke is supporting Mr President. Does it mean Adeleke will not support candidates of his party in the National Assembly election?”
He extended the point to the Governor of Abia State: “And Otti is supporting the President, by what he said. Does it mean that his party, Labour Party, will not present candidates at the National Assembly election? So you can see the whole thing they are talking about has no basis.”
Asked whether the difference is that those governors are not serving in the federal cabinet as he is, and whether his position amounts to political independence or divided loyalty, the minister returned to the electoral record.
“I’m surprised that you are saying this. What happened in Imo State in 2023? What happened in Ebonyi in 2023? What happened in Adamawa and the rest of them? So that knocks out that kind of tension.”
“You said Soludo is not in PDP. He’s not working with the government. But he’s supporting Mr President. If he’s supporting Mr President, those are facts.”
The minister singled out one of the governors present at the press conference for particular ridicule.
“What does this time, for example, the governor of Kwara? I saw him there. So unfortunate. Anytime he sees a snake, it’s wicked. Anytime he sees any reptile, it’s wicked. Anything he doesn’t eat is wicked. Why?”
“I’ve never seen people who would give time to gossip other than doing the work that they have been given,” he said.
Addressing the allocation of tickets in Rivers State, the minister said the complaint of those displaced ought to have been handled politically rather than through a public quarrel.
“Now, you have seven senators. He changed all of them. You have House of Reps. He changed all of them. Now, if you’re a good politician, you will see that to say, look, I know you’re not happy about this. What is it you can do? Okay, I’ll tell the President they’ll give you a ministerial slot when we win. At least something like that must be discussed.”
He said the PDP tickets went to people already supporting the President, and that the alternative was worse for the ruling party.
“Now you have ADC. ADC is not supporting Mr President. Now that PDP gave our own people that are supporting the President the ticket, instead of them going to ADC or NDC. If they had gone to NDC or ADC, would they campaign for Mr President?”
His conclusion was blunt: “When they have their local problems, don’t use Mr President to come and cover up.”
The minister said nothing he has done has been concealed from the President.
“There’s never been a day, and Mr President knows. There’s nothing I have done that I have never told Mr President I intend to do. If they know what I know, they won’t come out to say that.”
He said the sudden enthusiasm of the governors is itself revealing: “All of them are now coming out shouting APC, APC, APC. Before this period, they couldn’t have started so. They know.”
He restated the limits of his commitment: “I said I was going to support the President. And I’ve supported him. And I said I was going to support him to finish the second term, because I have seen that he’s committed and dedicated to changing Nigeria. What has that got to do with my party fielding candidates?”
He said the governors’ anxiety is in itself an admission: “These are the governors I would like to hear them ashamed. A governor of his state complaining of what? Are you telling me those candidates of other parties are strong? Is this what you’re telling me?”
Asked whether the forum’s resolution effectively kills the rainbow coalition as a strategy, and whether the governors represent the thinking across the ruling party, the minister said the real issue was an attempt to dictate candidates to him.
“The crime is, who told you that they become the presidential candidates? They wanted to give us candidates of their own choice to present in that election. And I said, what do you mean by this? How can you give me a candidate for me to say this is the PDP candidate? The PDP is not contesting the presidential election.”
“Two, for Christ’s sake, this has nothing to do with whether you have influence or not. Yes, they are governors, I agree. They have influence, but the influence should go more in your own state as far as this election is concerned. Because at the end of the day, if Mr President does not win in your state, what will you be talking about?”
He dismissed the suggestion that he is fielding candidates to accumulate legislative power: “I have heard them say that, oh, I’m presenting candidates so that I will be the most powerful person that has greater legislators. How? Do you know how? They come up with all kinds of things they say, but I’m not this kind of person.”
“It’s only Mr President that put me in this position. If Mr President said, look, we are done, no problem. To God be the glory. But not because I have influence. What is influence? A governor has influence, but if the President cannot win an election in his state, he does not deserve to be influential.”
Asked directly whether the President still needs him politically, or whether the governors have detected a decisive shift in the balance of power, the minister rejected the framing.
“Their speaking against me has nothing to do with their influence. Their speaking against me has nothing to do with my relationship with Mr President. Mr President knows what I do. Not just for elections, but also in terms of making sure that the infrastructure is delivered.”
He pointed to his record in the Federal Capital Territory and attributed the criticism to envy.
“Let me tell you something you don’t even know. When people fail to learn from others, when people just only envy, you don’t grow. I’m an FCT Minister. I’m not a governor. I attend the governors’ forum meeting. But whatever resources I get, the world sees it. The world sees it. That I took 31 days to commission projects and flag off some was the talk of the day. How did this happen? So you think that people would like you for that? Some people would think that, oh, this man is doing something, as if we are not doing anything. But that’s not my business.”
On his management of Rivers State politics, the minister said the absence of crisis there is the product of leadership rather than accident.
“By now, you have seen crisis in PDP or APC. And it takes leadership to summon everybody. This is where we are. Every election, you have rivers of blood and this and that. We have to stop this. We have to make sure we work as a team for the benefit of our people. Not what others are saying, or those who want to reap from the state. And then we looked at the strength of parties. This position should go to this, this position should go to that.”
“If they cannot convince their people, is it my business? I can convince my people. Even though I’m not a governor, I can convince my people to vote. That’s what is called leadership. If you are really a leader that’s on ground, that knows what your people want, there’s nothing you cannot do with them. Nothing.”
He contrasted that with absentee politicians: “It’s just that people just stay in Abuja two months, they go to the state two days, come back to Abuja. That is not service to the nation at all. That is not service to your state.”
The minister recalled earlier efforts to isolate him within his own party.
“When I was having crisis with my colleagues, these were the same people who were telling the governors to stop, telling the governors they should make sure they deal with Wike, that it’s enough of him. Thinking that their governors would have succeeded. They failed.”
“The same PDP that you were praying would die, didn’t die. Now PDP can present candidates. And I never had any meeting with any of them.”
He then set out the limit of his accountability: “The only person that can question me today is the President. No other person.”
He added a denial on finances: “In all this I do, I have never gone to Mr President three times. I can’t be a governor in my state, for example, and the President will send the money to my state. How can I do that?”
Asked what political leverage he expects to retain once the President enters a final constitutional term, and whether his future depends on building an independent power base, the minister said relevance is not a function of office.
“If by 2027 it is over, first of all, you have to thank him for giving the opportunity to serve. And for you to be relevant, must you occupy a position of authority? No, certainly not. And that’s what is deceiving people. If you don’t occupy a position of authority, you cannot be relevant. I don’t agree to that.”
“It depends on how you carry yourself. It depends on how you relate with your people. And it depends on how people view you. It’s not about media talk. How do people see you in your state? Go to the state and look at how our state is today. All they wanted was that our state would have been burning. Not one litigation, not one litigation.”
Asked what he brings to the President beyond Rivers State, the minister pointed first to the Federal Capital Territory.
“It has never happened in the history that the ruling party will win many of the seats in FCT. That’s the reason I was sabotaged by the same governors. They told you this man cannot deliver. But then they said they were the ones who delivered the candidates.”
“So, as I see today, I can tell you the President will win FCT. As I see today, with the support of other people we have across the states, they will vote for the President. So if APC have 20 and we have 10, I add it together, the President has got more votes. Their concern is about them. It’s about them, not about the President.”
He questioned the timing of the whole controversy: “How did it come now all of a sudden that it is causing a problem? When did this issue of coalition come about? Why didn’t they say it at any time? Why didn’t they say it then? People just sit in one place and do all kinds of things, and then you come up to think that you have your way all the time. You cannot have your way all the time. You can’t. It’s not possible.”
The minister made clear he has no intention of joining the ruling party, and delivered his sharpest line of the interview.
“I’m not having anything to do with you in your party. I’ve never made a comment about the party, but I’ve made a comment that I will support Mr President from day one. I never told the President I would join APC. Who is asking? If I want to join the APC, it is not people like you that will tell me to join the APC.”
“In fact, he is lucky that I’m not in the APC, because I would not take that kind of rubbish that you do in the APC. He should be lucky that I’m not there. So he should be celebrating. Because people like us will not take that rubbish. He knows.”
Asked at what point political pragmatism becomes an identity crisis, and why he remains in a party whose presidential candidate would necessarily be competing against the man he supports, the minister said he had discussed the matter with the candidate himself.
“That’s why I say they do not know anything. The presidential candidate is my friend, and he came to me, and I told him that, look, there’s nothing wrong in you running, but you know that it will be difficult for PDP to win the presidency. It will be difficult. Yes, let’s field a candidate.”
“To become a president is not a tea matter. You don’t wake up in the morning in two months and you have become a president. And that’s what’s wrong with some of these people.”
He added that he has consistently stated his position in the open: “What I tell people is that, look, make your position known anytime, anywhere you are. And I made my position known. I made my position known.”
Asked where beyond Rivers State and the Federal Capital Territory he can influence the election in the President’s favour, particularly in the South South, the minister named Bayelsa.
“That can happen in Bayelsa State. Because the entire PDP structure there is working for President Tinubu.”
Put to him that the founder of the NDC comes from Bayelsa, he was dismissive: “It doesn’t matter. You see, these are the things we talk about. What do you mean by founder? What is called founder? Did he found Bayelsa? Is he the one who created Bayelsa?”
He set out the arithmetic as he sees it: “The NDC will compete with APC. Is it not correct? Now, if PDP takes their votes to APC, who wins? Who wins?”
He closed on the question of why the forum’s endorsement should matter to him at all: “First of all, why do I need the support of the Governors Forum? Do I need to ask them for money? Why do I need the support of the Governors Forum? Do I need to ask them for money?”
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