By Oscar Okhifo
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has declared that he will not support Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, for the position of Senate President.
Wike made the declaration on Monday during his appearance on TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout, amid a growing disagreement between him and some governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over his political activities ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The FCT minister said Uzodimma’s tenure as governor would expire in January 2028 and alleged that the Imo governor was seeking to move to the Senate in 2027 with the ambition of becoming Senate President.
“This man’s office will expire in January 2028. Now, he wants to leave his office to run for Senate. I will never support a character of Hope Uzodimma to be Senate President of Nigeria,” Wike said.
Wike further alleged that Uzodimma had been encouraging fellow governors to influence the emergence of senators and members of the House of Representatives while advancing his own interest in becoming Senate President.
“He wants to run for Senate President, and what he does is to say to his colleagues that let us be the ones (governors) who will produce the senators and members of the House of Reps. Some of the governors are not experienced; they buy it, thinking that he is trying to make them powerful, not knowing that he has his own interest and agenda to become Senate President,” he said.
The minister also accused Uzodimma of creating internal political problems and resorting to blackmail when he was unable to resolve them.
“You cause internal problem for yourself and you do not have the capacity to solve the problem, and all you do is to resort to blackmail,” Wike said.
Taking another swipe at Uzodimma, Wike recalled the governor’s controversial emergence in Imo State following the 2019 governorship election.
“Hope Uzodimma, who I’ve always said, and I tell people, maybe, to God be the glory, he became a governor by taking fourth position. To the glory of God, he became a governor, and that is how this country will open his eyes and say, what is going on,” he said.
Wike also turned his attention to Kwara State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who has criticised the FCT minister’s political activities.
Taking a swipe at AbdulRazaq during the programme, Wike said: “I have never seen such a timid man. A governor so timid.”
One of the programme’s anchors, Babajide Otitoju, cautioned Wike at that point that he was becoming too personal in his criticism.
Wike, however, continued, outlining his grievances against AbdulRazaq and the opposition he said he had faced from the governor and Uzodimma over the Rainbow Coalition.
The exchange came against the backdrop of growing disagreements between Wike and some APC governors over the coalition, which the FCT minister has said is aimed at mobilising support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
The APC Governors’ Forum, chaired by Uzodimma, has rejected political alliances or arrangements that could weaken the APC or adversely affect its candidates in the 2027 elections.
The governors have maintained that their political activities will remain focused on APC candidates at all levels, a position that has brought them into disagreement with Wike, who remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party while serving in the APC-led federal government.
Wike, however, has maintained that the Rainbow Coalition is not intended to destabilise the APC, insisting that his immediate political objective is to secure Tinubu’s re-election.
Earlier on Monday, before appearing on TVC, Wike said Nigerians would hear what he described as the “full details” of the disagreement surrounding the coalition.
He said the opposition from Uzodimma and AbdulRazaq was not simply based on concerns that the coalition could weaken the APC, promising to explain what he described as the “undertones” behind the controversy.
Wike also dismissed suggestions that the Rainbow Coalition was designed to position him for the 2031 presidential election, saying it was too early to begin planning for the contest.
According to him, his immediate concern was Tinubu’s re-election, while the question of who would succeed the President in 2031 would be determined in due course.
The widening disagreement has placed Wike, Uzodimma and AbdulRazaq on increasingly divergent sides of the political debate over the structure of the 2027 elections and the alliances that could shape the next National Assembly.
Wike’s declaration that he would not support Uzodimma for Senate President, alongside his fresh criticism of AbdulRazaq, has further exposed the political tensions surrounding the coalition and the battle for influence ahead of the 2027 elections.