Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has declared himself coordinator of President Bola Tinubu’s re-election campaign in the FCT and Rivers State, announcing plans to mobilise political stakeholders from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2027 general election.
Wike made the declaration on Monday at a stakeholders’ meeting of the Rainbow Coalition in Abuja, where he said members of both parties had agreed to work together to secure Tinubu’s re-election despite their political differences.
“For the presidency, all of us have agreed that it is Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I am going to coordinate the FCT and Rivers State. So you can imagine how important it is.
“I am in charge of the FCT election. I am the commander of field operations as far as the FCT election is concerned,” he said.
The meeting attracted APC and PDP chairmen, serving and former senators, National Assembly candidates and political leaders from the FCT’s six area councils. PDP candidates for the National Assembly also publicly pledged support for their APC counterparts.
Wike urged the stakeholders to prioritise the coalition’s presidential objective over their individual party affiliations, insisting that the alliance was intended to create a united front for the 2027 election.
“Nobody should say, ‘I am PDP’ or ‘I am APC.’ For the purpose of this election, we are together,” he said.
The former Rivers State governor cited the 2024 Edo State governorship election as an example of the potential impact of political alliances, claiming that cooperation between elements of the APC and PDP had helped prevent the incumbent governor from installing a successor.
He, however, clarified that the arrangement centred on the presidential election, leaving participating parties to decide their strategies for other elective positions.
To justify his support for Tinubu, Wike challenged political leaders to identify any of the FCT’s six area councils that had not benefited from the administration’s infrastructure projects and institutional reforms.
He listed the establishment of the FCT Civil Service Commission, the appointment of a Head of the Civil Service from within the territory’s workforce and the creation of the Women Affairs and Youth Development Secretariats among the administration’s interventions.
The minister also highlighted road construction and rehabilitation, school renovations, police stations and other public facilities as evidence of the administration’s activities across the territory.
He argued that the projects and reforms would form part of the campaign’s case for Tinubu’s re-election.
On the economy, Wike acknowledged that the president’s reforms had imposed hardship on Nigerians but maintained that difficult decisions were necessary to address longstanding economic challenges.
“Changing the economy of a country is not like a prayer,” he said, arguing that the benefits of the reforms might take time to materialise.
Wike also expressed support for the proposed establishment of state police, describing it as an important measure for addressing Nigeria’s security challenges.