The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has dismissed the 2027 presidential bid of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking on Thursday in Abuja after an inspection of several projects, he stated that the party’s plan to field a presidential candidate was not only premature but also unrealistic.
Responding to criticisms from former Anambra PDP Chairman Dan Ulasi and other party chieftains who have questioned his closeness to the presidency, the minister described his position as grounded in political realism rather than sentiments, and turned the fire back on his detractors.
He accused critics of failing to deliver electoral results in their own states, pointing specifically to the PDP’s poor performance in Anambra as evidence that those attacking him lacked the moral authority to do so.
He also suggested their criticisms were laying the groundwork for their own future defections, including to the Labour Party (LP).
Wike argued that the PDP was in no condition to mount a credible presidential campaign, saying the party could not “contest for contesting’s sake” without first resolving the structural collapse that has defined recent years.
He revealed that even some unnamed presidential aspirants privately admitted to him that winning the last election would have been “difficult” given the party’s fractured internal state.
“The PDP’s path back to relevance lies not in presidential ambitions but in a total structural overhaul,” he said, insisting the party must rebuild from the ward, local government and state levels upward before eyeing the presidency.
“Every election is local,” he added, warning that success in one state like Rivers could not be assumed to replicate elsewhere.
