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• Says Wike’s multi-party arrangement no threat to ruling party’s candidates
From Fred Itua, Abuja
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has begun to pile pressure on its governors to deliver votes in their states. The party is urging them to work for its success at every level of the 2027 elections.
The National Secretary of the party, Ajibola Basiru, who spoke in an exclusive interview with Saturday Sun, said governors must deliver for the presidential, governorship, National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly candidates of the APC.
“The governors have the responsibility to deliver for all the candidates of the APC in their states,” Basiru said. “They said it publicly, and they should work hard to deliver.”
He said the duty of each person is clear. “Everybody’s responsibility is clear-cut,” he added. “There should be no problem about delivering, as a governor, for all the candidates of our party in your state.”
The push comes amid a public row between the Progressive Governors’ Forum and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. The row is over Wike’s Rainbow Coalition.
Basiru said the coalition does not bother the party. He said Wike’s support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a welcome development. But he insisted that the party will not fold its arms.
“Anybody who is interested in partnering with the party to deliver the President is a friend of the party,” he said. “But as the President has said, we will campaign for all our candidates, for President, governor, Senate, House of Representatives and State Assembly.”
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He said Wike has not asked the party for help. “Wike has not come to ask us for any support,” Basiru said. “He has not asked for financial resources or logistics, so I am not bothered about what he does.”
He added that he is happy that the minister has agreed to coordinate the President’s campaign in Rivers State and the FCT. Asked if Wike’s moves could hurt APC candidates, Basiru said the party could not stop anyone from backing the President. “I am not a clairvoyant,” he said. “Unless our candidates were not popular before, we will mobilise for them.”
On claims that Wike is backing PDP members against some governors, he said he knew nothing of it. “The governors have not come to complain to us,” he said.
Basiru also defended the President’s first term. He said the economy had stabilised and that allocations to states now stand at about N2 trillion monthly. He added that more than 1.6 million students have received education loans, and over 10 million Nigerians have received cash transfers.
He said the President’s plan to skip some campaign events has nothing to do with his health. “The reason the President may not attend cannot be laid on alleged ill health,” he said. “He is very fit.”
On the opposition, he said the APC has won more than 80 per cent of recent by-elections. “In Osun, the ADC polled barely 17,000 votes, while our party, even though we lost, polled over 444,000,” he said. “Even the rejected votes in Osun were more than 20,000.”
On state police, Basiru said he had sponsored a bill on it as a senator. He said states now have the resources to protect lives and property, and that the Constitution provides safeguards against abuses.
