Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has warned that the Peoples Democratic Party could fail badly in the 2027 general elections if its national leadership does not urgently resolve the party’s internal crises and reposition it.
Wike spoke on Monday, December 29, during a media session at his Port Harcourt office, where he took aim at what he called an unfocused and unresponsive PDP leadership.
“We have a leadership that is not focused, we have a leadership that does not know what to do or take any suggestions. If the leadership is committed and comes back to say we have made a mistake, why is it that things are happening this way, and what do we do to make corrections?” he said.
He argued that electoral success requires more than simply wanting to reclaim power.
“It is not just to take over the government; you have to position yourself. If the leadership is like that, you say look by 2027, it is likely that we may not make it, but are we going to allow the party to die?
“Can’t we start to build up and let us make the right decision against 2027. It is all dependent on the leadership that is what I will say,” Wike stated.
The PDP has been riven by factional disputes since the 2023 elections, with several key figures, including sitting governors, defecting to the All Progressives Congress.
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Wike, a former Rivers governor and one of the influential G‑5 governors who opposed the PDP’s 2023 presidential ticket, also took a swipe at the party’s recent National Convention in Ibadan, held on November 15.
He derided the exercise and accused Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, of trying to dominate the party structure and allegedly obtaining an ex parte court order in Ibadan to clear the way for the event.
Relations between Wike and Makinde, once close allies, have deteriorated sharply in recent months.
On December 23, Makinde publicly accused Wike of working to weaken the PDP on behalf of President Bola Tinubu ahead of 2027.
Speaking at a media briefing at Government House, Ibadan, Makinde claimed President Tinubu had previously asked him to help organise the APC in Oyo State, an offer he said he refused.
“The President said, ‘No Seyi, it is you that I want to help me organise APC in Oyo’ and I said, ‘No sir, I am of the PDP; I can never help you organise the APC in Oyo State’.
“If we had a government of national unity, a government of national competence, we would have been in a very different environment right now,” Makinde said.
He further alleged that at a meeting attended by President Tinubu, Wike, the President’s Chief of Staff and other senior officials, the FCT minister “openly offered to manage the PDP for the president ahead of the 2027 elections,” a statement Makinde said left him alarmed and deepened his concern about efforts to weaken opposition parties and tilt Nigeria towards a de facto one‑party system.