2027: Wike Rules Out Supporting Uzodinma for Senate Presidency

FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has declared that he will not support Imo State Governor and Progressive Governors Forum chairman Hope Uzodinma for the position of Senate President in 2027.

Wike made the statement while appearing on TVC News’ Journalists’ Hangout on Monday, as tensions continue between him and APC governors over the Rainbow Coalition and its role ahead of the 2027 elections.

According to Wike, some politicians who were excluded from the APC’s nomination process have found other platforms through which to contest the 2027 elections.

He argued that if those candidates secure victory, they could choose not to support Uzodinma’s reported Senate presidency ambition, particularly because some of them are operating with the backing of Wike’s political structure.

Wike was emphatic about his own position.

“Of course, life or death, I will never support Hope Uzodinma to become the Senate President of Nigeria. Everybody knows that. Nobody should ask me questions about it, it is not personal,” he said.

The minister also accused Uzodinma of creating political problems within his own camp and subsequently resorting to what Wike described as blackmail.

“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.

He also referred to Uzodinma’s emergence as Imo governor, saying:

“Hope Uzodinma, who I’ve always said and I tell people. Maybe, to God be the glory, he became a governor by taking 4th position. To the glory of God, he became a governor and that is how this country will open her eyes and say what is going on.”

Wike alleged that Uzodinma, whose second term as governor is approaching its end, is seeking a return to the National Assembly in 2027 as part of a plan to eventually become Senate President.

“He wants to run for Senate president, and what he does is to say to his colleagues, let us be the ones (governors) who will produce the senators and members of the House of reps and some of the senators.

“Of course, some of the governors are not experienced. So 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.

Wike further alleged that politicians who were denied APC tickets had sought alternative platforms, including the PDP, with backing from his political network.

He said their possible victories could make it difficult for Uzodinma to secure their support for the Senate presidency.

The dispute is linked to Wike’s Rainbow Coalition, which he has described as a cross-party political arrangement focused on supporting President Bola Tinubu’s re-election while allowing individual parties to field candidates in other elections.

APC governors, however, have taken a different position. The Progressive Governors Forum, led by Uzodinma, has said its members will not support or endorse political arrangements that could weaken the APC or adversely affect its candidates in the 2027 elections.

The disagreement has therefore brought Wike’s cross-party mobilisation efforts into direct tension with the APC governors’ position on party cohesion and support for the party’s candidates.

Africans Angle News