Rainbow Coalition Luncheon Sparks Wike, Yesufu Political Firestorm
A fierce political confrontation has broken out between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and prominent civic activist Aisha Yesufu, following the collapse of her senatorial ambition under the Nigeria Democratic Congress platform in the FCT.
Yesufu, a longstanding voice in Nigeria’s civil activism space and a co convener of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, formally declared her intention to contest the FCT senatorial seat on May 6, 2026. Her declaration came shortly after her defection from the African Democratic Congress to the Nigeria Democratic Congress, a relatively new entrant within Nigeria’s increasingly crowded multi party political landscape.
However, on Friday, the activist announced that the NDC would not conduct primaries for the FCT Senate seat, a development that effectively terminated her bid for the party’s ticket. The announcement triggered a sharp exchange between her and the FCT Minister within forty eight hours.
Speaking at a luncheon organised for candidates of the Rainbow Coalition in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Saturday, Wike took a swipe at the activist, characterising her commentary style as performative.
“There’s one woman who said Wike is an appointee of government and that she has no business with appointees. You speak grammar, speak grammar,” Wike said. “Ordinary primary of NDC, not APC or PDP, just ordinary NDC, what happened? She didn’t make it.”
The minister, who served as Governor of Rivers State between 2015 and 2023 before his appointment to head the FCT in August 2023, further accused critics of fabricating positions when invited onto media platforms.
“It’s easy for people to talk. When they enter into those media houses, they begin to churn out data from nowhere. Now, the time for data has come. What happened? ‘Fa fa fa foul.’ It didn’t work. If e didn’t dey? E didn’t dey,” Wike added.
Yesufu fired back in a statement on her verified X handle on Sunday, drawing parallels with Wike’s own political setbacks. The activist referenced the minister’s failed bid to clinch the People’s Democratic Party presidential ticket in 2022, when Atiku Abubakar emerged the party’s flagbearer.
“If dem born Wike well, make e call my name with his full chest! What Tambuwal did him in 2022 will be child’s play,” she wrote, alluding to former Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s decisive convention floor moment that helped Atiku secure the PDP ticket.
Yesufu further alleged that Wike “could not win primaries in 2022,” accusing him of having “lobbied for running mate and still was not chosen, then ran to do boi boi for a fellow man like him and ended up destroying a party that was once the largest in Africa and was recently disgraced by a young military officer.”
“Let me wait make the man get liver mention name! Then the man doing boi boi because he has to be in power to have authority will know those of us from Kukuruku empire of Edo State in South South no dey grovel,” she added.
The exchange unfolds against the broader backdrop of intensifying realignments ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections, with the Rainbow Coalition, of which Wike is a leading figure, positioning itself as a strategic bloc within the All Progressives Congress led federal coalition. The NDC, on the other hand, remains one of several smaller platforms attempting to absorb politically displaced figures and civic actors seeking electoral relevance.