The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has warned that the the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is on the brink of collapse due to a strategy by its governors to sideline key figures like himself.
Wike, while speaking at a media parley in Abuja yesterday, questioned the logic of his exclusion from major party decisions, challenging the authority of the current governors.
“I am the FCT minister. Are you telling me that because I am not a governor, you will hold a PDP stakeholders’ meeting and exclude me, and then expect the party to survive?” he queried.
He directly blamed the party’s leadership for its self-inflicted crises, dismissing the notion that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is responsible.
“All these talks about APC are rubbish. Is it APC that makes you take wrong decisions? You mean two or three people, because they are governors and receive large allocations, will go and decide, and you tell me to follow? Follow who?” he asked.
On the upcoming national convention, Wike declared it illegal, citing a failure to complete essential groundwork.
“If they do the right thing, will anybody stall the convention? They have not done the congresses and other things that should be in place. How do you want me to attend a convention that I know by law that there is no convention?”
He also distanced himself from the emergence of Kabiru Turaki as a consensus candidate for National Chairman saying; “I don’t know about Tanimu Turaki becoming chairman; maybe he becomes chairman for another faction, it’s not the PDP I know.”
The minister pointed to the recent resignation of Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, who was chairing the PDP’s zoning committee, as proof of the party’s disintegration.
“It is very embarrassing. Even though I knew from the beginning that they were all playing games. Have I not said that so many governors will leave? Nothing I said has not come to pass. From day one, I said if things are not done properly, PDP will continue to lose and we will regret it,” he said.
The minister, while addressing speculation about former President Goodluck Jonathan’s political future, denied any insider knowledge.
“Jonathan has never told me; he has never called me one day that, look, I’m being pressured to run. I will not because you people put something on the pages of the newspapers, then I now assume it is correct,” he said.
Wike also pushed back against concerns about Abuja’s security, asserting that the crime rate has “drastically reduced” and challenging media statistics, while vowing not to yield to blackmail over the demolition of parts of the Rivers Park Estate, framing it as a necessary action to protect the city’s master plan.
The minister further clarified that he is not the official spokesman for President Bola Tinubu’s administration, describing reports that he was banned from media appearances as junk news
