The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has opened up on how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) relentlessly tried—but ultimately failed—to wrest political control of Lagos State from Bola Tinubu during its 16-year rule at the federal level.
Speaking in Abuja during a media parley with select journalists on Monday, Wike, who remains a PDP member despite serving under the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government, stated that the PDP had invested significant effort into taking over Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, but the efforts consistently hit a brick wall.
Wike disclosed that ahead of the 2003 general elections, the PDP had laid out an aggressive strategy to dominate the Southwest. While five out of the six states—Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, and Oyo—fell under PDP control, Lagos stood its ground under Tinubu’s opposition leadership.
“In your own state, the party has never won anything. Every day, crying, complaining, from 1999, ‘Tinubu did this, Tinubu did not do that,’ they rig elections—every day, even when we were in power. We knew what we did to make sure PDP takes over Lagos, it didn’t work. Even when Jonathan came, we knew what we did, it didn’t work,” Wike revealed.
The former Rivers State governor made the comments in direct response to Chief Bode George, a Lagos-based PDP chieftain who had recently criticized Wike for “betraying” the party and sealing the PDP National Secretariat in Abuja—a move George described as “sacrilegious.”
But Wike fired back, asserting that PDP’s persistent losses in Lagos under George’s watch prove the party holds no real political weight in the state. He argued that parties do not make individuals relevant; rather, individuals are responsible for building party strength and popularity.
“The PDP has never amounted to anything in Lagos. People should stop blaming Tinubu for everything. The truth is, even with federal backing at the time, we couldn’t break his political stronghold,” Wike emphasized.
His comments reignite ongoing tensions within the PDP as the party grapples with internal divisions ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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