2027: Tinubu Grants Wike Open Window Within Which To Join APC

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, extended an invitation to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) whenever he is ready.

Tinubu, who extended the invitation while commissioning of the Arterial Road N16 and other infrastructure projects in Abuja’s Katampe District, praised Wike’s contributions to governance and teased his signature political jingle.

“We have somebody—Nyesom Wike, he is not a member of my party (APC), not yet, but the day he changes his mind and registers with the progressives, we will welcome him, because we will enjoy singing ‘as e dey pain dem, e dey sweet us’,” Tinubu enthused.

The former governor of Rivers State, a chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been at the centre of intense political debate since his declaration of public support for Tinubu ahead of the 2023 presidential election.

Wike is presently serving as a minister in the APC-led administration since August 2023, a development that has further deepened divisions within the PDP.

Shortly after losing the presidential primary of the PDP in 2022, Wike did a complete U-turn against the interest of the PDP by refusing to back the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, but, instead aligned himself with Tinubu, who was the presidential candidate of the APC.

Similarly, Wike last during his monthly media chat announced his preparedness to lead Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaigns.

Wike also said that he is a key asset to the PDP, but will lead President Tinubu’s re-election campaign in Rivers State.

Wike on Monday, June 8, 2025, gathered some of his loyalists in the PDP and demanded that the Presidential ticket of the Party be zoned to the South for the 2027 election, stressing that anything short of that would not be acceptable.