Wike To PDP: Stop Lamenting, Mobilise For 2027
Nyesom Wike has told the Peoples Democratic Party to abandon any hope of returning to office through entitlement, declaring at the party’s 109th National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja on Wednesday that political power is seized through struggle rather than handed over.
Addressing party faithful, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and PDP national leader warned that opposition politics demands resilience, organisation and determination, and that the party would not reclaim power through wishful thinking. “Nobody gives power. Power is taken. You must fight for it to take it,” Wike said. “You have to struggle for it. You don’t have to be afraid.”
The charge carries unusual weight because it landed barely 24 hours before a decisive test of the PDP’s fractured leadership. The crisis tearing through the party deepened on Wednesday as two rival camps staged parallel events in Abuja and separately issued certificates of return to their candidates for 2027.
The faction led by Wike and another led by former minister Tanimu Turaki both claimed control and insisted that the Independent National Electoral Commission would recognise their nominees, ahead of INEC’s scheduled release of access codes for uploading candidate names.
That access code is the pivot. “As far as I am concerned, June 26 is when they will give the access code to political parties to upload results,” Wike said. “Nobody is afraid of court; courts are meant for human beings, not ghosts.”
His confidence rests on recognition: INEC recognises the Wike-backed structure, whose secretariat is Wadata Plaza, and which has named former senator Sandy Onor its presidential candidate. The Turaki faction adopted former President Goodluck Jonathan, who has neither accepted nor rejected the endorsement, and which is not recognised by INEC.
The rivalry produced competing scoreboards on the same day. The Wike camp presented Onor with his certificate of return alongside governorship nominees including Bolakale Kawu for Kwara and Isa Pantami for Gombe, while the Turaki camp unveiled 28 governorship candidates, 469 National Assembly nominees and 993 state assembly candidates.
Drawing on his own journey, Wike likened the party’s plight to a household stripped of its provider. “When PDP was in power, many people were like spoiled children who depended on what their father provided every day,” he said.
He demanded measurable results from members. “Everybody, go home, bring something, and put it on the table in 2027,” he said. “But don’t come here, this is not a place of empty hands.”
PDP National Chairman Abdulrahman Mohammed struck a calmer note, commending state leaders for conducting the primaries and expressing confidence in INEC to provide a level field. Board of Trustees Chairman Mao Ohuabunwa appealed for reconciliation, declaring “the contest time is over” and that there must be “no victors and no vanquished.”
The PDP enters this cycle far from the dominant force that governed from 1999 to 2015. Having lost the presidency in 2023 and shed governors and lawmakers to defections since, the party that once called itself Africa’s largest now fights first to settle who speaks for it. INEC’s recognition on June 26 will likely determine which camp uploads candidates, leaving the losing faction to seek redress in the very courts Wike dismissed.