Atiku's Coalition Is Driven by Selfish Interests, Says Wike
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain Nyesom Wike has criticised former PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar over coalition talks ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Wike claimed that those seeking a coalition are driven by selfish interests, particularly the ambition to become president.
"Everybody wants to become president of the country. Nobody wants to say, ‘Look, let me build our party so that at the end of the day our party will be in a formidable position as an opposition party to take over power,’" Wike made the statement on Friday during a media parley aired on a TVC programme, as monitored by SaharaReporters.
He also slammed PDP governors for attempting to direct the affairs of the opposition party, describing them as insincere. Wike noted that the Governors’ Forum is only a pressure group, not an organ of the party, and therefore lacks the power to make public decisions.
"The governors forum is a pressure group that can put influence on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. You cannot take the functions of the NWC and say because you are governor, you now superintend," he stated.
Wike criticised the PDP Governors Forum's decision to appoint an acting National Secretary, describing it as impunity.
He said, "Let me start from those who said that they don't want a coalition; that is the governor's forum. They are not sincere to themselves, and they are not sincere to the party. On Tuesday precisely, I watched politics today on Channels Television when the anchor was interacting with the governor of Oyo State and after watching that interview, I called Seyi Makinde, who is my friend, and said, 'Look, I heard what you said, but you didn’t tell the truth regarding some issues.
"You were there in 2023. One of the reasons PDP lost was impunity. You are right. People who believe that they have all it takes refuse to respect the party's constitution regarding power sharing between the North and South. You are right, and again, now you are also making the same mistake due to the impunity of the governors’ forum.
“You are repeating the same thing. What happened in 2023 may likely happen in 2027. If you don't stop this impunity, it will affect the party. How will it affect the party? Very clear. The governors’ forum is not an organ of the party.
"The governors’ forum is a pressure group that can put influence on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. You cannot take the functions of the NWC and say, because you are governor, you now superintend. He said, ‘What about when I was a governor?’ I agreed, I said because it happened yesterday does not mean it will happen today.
“Or even if it happened yesterday, was it right? And in any case, there was never a time when I was governor where governors came out and said, ‘Look we have done this, we have done this, we have directed this person to be acting secretary of the party’. Never has it happened; rather, we were influencing what would happen in the National Working Committee, and that was why we were a pressure group.
“Now you don’t have the power to say that somebody should be acting National Secretary when a National Secretary has not resigned. You cannot do that.
“You don't have the power to say we have formed a committee on zoning, it is not within your prerogative to form a zoning committee, and these are things people can challenge any day, any time, and when that happens, people now say, oh! Why are they always making a problem?
"Now the issue is who is setting, laying the foundation for the crisis in the party? I have told people that the best way to go about this is you go under, put your influence, get the results and then you move on. But to come out openly to say, look, we, the governors forum, have met with the organs of the party, we have met with the National Working Committee, who? Who are you to say that a National Secretary of the party who was elected was not appointed? Yes, he was assigned to a particular area, and he was elected by the delegates at the National Convention.
"And so if there's anybody that will remove the National Secretary of the party, it is through the National Convention. Assuming, though not conceding, that it is zoned to South East, South East can still not bring somebody; they can only say ok, when we go for the National Convention, this is the person we are going to back. It is not by appointment; it is by election.
