‘Real reason APC govs are against Wike’

Former South-East spokesman for President Bola Tinubu’s 2023 presidential campaign, Denge Josef Onoh, has attributed the ongoing friction between FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and some APC governors to what he described as the minister’s deeply ingrained pattern of political confrontation — a trait he says has defined Wike’s career from his earliest days in local government politics.

In a statement made available to journalists in Lagos, Onoh, according to Vanguard, said Wike’s political trajectory — from chairman of Obio-Akpor Local Government Area in Rivers State between 1999 and 2007, through his role as Chief of Staff to former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, to his appointment as Minister of State for Education under former President Goodluck Jonathan — had consistently been characterised by fierce political contests and the aggressive deployment of political structures against opponents.

Onoh argued that this pattern had simply continued into Wike’s current role as a minister within the APC-led Federal Government, making the ongoing clash with APC governors an extension of a well-established political character rather than an isolated incident.

He also noted that despite Wike’s formidable influence within the Peoples Democratic Party, the 2022 PDP presidential primary — which Wike lost to Atiku Abubakar — demonstrated the limits of his political reach beyond Rivers State.