BREAKING: Tinubu Appoints Wike As 2027 APC Campaign Council, Assigns Rivers, FCT to Him to Avoid Clash With Governors
In a bid to give him a clearly defined role ahead of the 2027 election, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is set to appoint the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, as the coordinator of the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign structure in Rivers State and the FCT.
The Genius Media Nigeria reports that despite the appointment, the former Rivers State Governor will retain his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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Speaking to ThisDay, sources disclosed that the emerging arrangement is designed to harness Wike’s political network without formally placing him inside the hierarchy of the APC, a party he has repeatedly said he does not belong to.
Recall that there is a growing disagreement between the minister and several APC governors over how support for Tinubu should be organised ahead of the 2027 elections.
Wike has repeatedly insisted that he does not require membership of the APC or a position in the party’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) to work for Tinubu’s re-election.
According to ThisDay, the arrangement would, in effect, give the minister a defined presidential campaign responsibility in two strategic territories where he has repeatedly claimed substantial influence.
But even as the campaign structure is being assembled, the sources said there would not be a single chain of command running through the entire council.
Former Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, will serve as Director General of the Presidential Campaign Council, but Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, are not expected to report to him, according to sources familiar with the proposed structure.
Rather than a conventional military-style structure in which every senior campaign official reports to the director general, the emerging framework is expected to give some of the party’s most influential figures distinct spheres of responsibility.
A source said that same logic underpins the proposed role for Wike, who will be in charge of the FCT and River as Tinubu plans to ensure that clashes do not happen among the key drivers or top echelon of his campaign.
Recently, Wike had accused some APC governors of working against him, specifically slamming Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
This came after APC governors rejected Wike’s rainbow coalition. Reading a resolutions of the Progressives Governors Forum a few days ago, the Imo State Governor and Chairman of the Forum, Uzodimma, declared that the governors unanimously resolved not to have anything to do with the Rainbow Coalition.
According to the source, it is this brewing chaos that Tinubu is seeking to nip in the bud by quickly streamlining the role that Wike should play in the upcoming presidential polls.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, is being tipped for a prominent spokesperson role in the campaign.
It was gathered that Keyamo will bring considerable campaign communication experience to the emerging structure.
He served as a spokesperson and Director of Public Affairs in Tinubu’s 2023 presidential campaign and previously played a senior communications role in Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 re-election campaign.
His experience has also extended beyond electioneering into government, having served as Minister of State for Labour and Employment under Buhari before becoming the current Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development under Tinubu.
