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 the remarks during a media briefing with journalists on Friday, October 24, responding to 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 saying, ‘Look, I’m being pressured to run, what’s your thinking?’ If he calls me, I will share my thoughts with him,” Wike said. He added that he would not “assume it’s correct” simply because it appeared in newspapers.
On the recent emergence of former Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN), as the consensus candidate for National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wike distanced himself from the development.
“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. Northern PDP stakeholders had recently endorsed Turaki ahead of the party’s national convention scheduled for November 15–16.
Wike also dismissed the upcoming convention as illegal, suggesting he would not attend. “How do you want me to attend a convention that I know by law that there is no convention?” he asked.
His comments come amid reports that former President Jonathan is under pressure to abandon any potential 2027 presidential bid and instead back President Bola Tinubu’s re-election campaign.
