President Bola Tinubu is set to appoint the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, as coordinator of the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign structure in Rivers State and the FCT ahead of the 2027 general election.
According to ThisDay, the former Rivers State governor will keep his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) despite the arrangement.
Sources told the newspaper that the plan is meant to tap into Wike’s political network without formally placing him within the APC hierarchy, a party he has repeatedly said he does not belong to.
The move comes amid growing disagreement between the minister and several APC governors over how support for Tinubu’s re-election should be organised.
Wike has maintained that he does not need APC membership or a position in the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) to work for the president’s second term.
The proposed role would give him a defined campaign responsibility in two territories where he has repeatedly claimed considerable influence.
The sources said the campaign would not run on a single chain of command. Former Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, is expected to serve as Director General of the PCC, but Senate President Godswill Akpabio and his deputy, Jibrin Barau, are not expected to report to him.
Instead of a conventional structure in which senior officials answer to the director general, the framework would give some of the party’s most influential figures separate spheres of responsibility.
A source said the same reasoning underlies Wike’s proposed role, as Tinubu wants to prevent clashes among the top drivers of his campaign.
Wike recently accused some APC governors of working against him, singling out Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
That followed the rejection of Wike’s “rainbow coalition” by APC governors. Reading out the resolutions of the Progressive Governors Forum days ago, its chairman, Uzodimma, said the governors unanimously agreed to have nothing to do with the coalition.
According to the source, Tinubu is moving quickly to define Wike’s role in order to head off the growing friction.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, is being tipped for a prominent spokesperson role in the campaign.
Keyamo is said to bring extensive campaign communication experience. He was spokesperson and Director of Public Affairs in Tinubu’s 2023 presidential campaign, and held a senior communications role in Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid.
He has also served in government as Minister of State for Labour and Employment under Buhari, before his current appointment as Aviation Minister under Tinubu.
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