The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has stated that former President Goodluck Jonathan has not informed him of any intention to contest the 2027 presidential election.
Wike made this comment during a media session with journalists in Abuja on Friday while responding to questions regarding speculations that Jonathan was being urged to return to the presidential race.
“You’re the one telling me here. Jonathan has never told me; he has never called me one day that, look, I’m being pressured to run; what’s your thinking? If he calls me and asks me, I will be able to tell him my mind and what I feel,” Wike said.
He further added, “I will not because you people put something on the pages of the newspapers — just like you said they flew me out of the country — then I now assume it’s correct.”
Speaking on the selection of the former Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN), as the consensus candidate for the position of National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wike distanced himself from the development, insisting that he was unaware of it.
“I don’t know about Tanimu Turaki becoming chairman; maybe he becomes chairman for another faction — it’s not the PDP I know,” he stated.
It was recently reported that the PDP Northern stakeholders endorsed Turaki as their consensus candidate ahead of the party’s national convention scheduled to take place on November 15–16 in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Continuing, Wike dismissed the planned convention as illegal, suggesting that he would not participate in it.
“How do you want me to attend a convention that I know by law that there is no convention?” he queried.
Meanwhile, former President Jonathan is reportedly facing significant pressure to abandon any consideration of contesting the 2027 presidential election and instead support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Reports indicate that the pressure is being led by prominent figures from the Niger Delta, including former militant leader Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.
Some of Jonathan’s associates and kinsmen from the Niger Delta are also said to have advised him to drop any intention of returning to power and instead back Tinubu’s second-term ambition.
