Wike Accuses AbdulRazaq of Blackmail Over Kwara Rainbow Coalition
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has accused Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of blackmailing him over the emergence of the Kwara Rainbow Coalition and the political realignment ahead of the 2027 elections.
Wike said the crisis in the Kwara chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was partly caused by the governor’s decision to displace three senators and some members of the House of Representatives.
According to him, AbdulRazaq should have anticipated the political consequences of such decisions instead of accusing him of sponsoring opposition candidates in the state.
“Take for example Kwara, he has been the one championing this campaign against me everywhere, Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and I have confronted him about it,” Wike said.
He added, “You removed three senators; you removed members of the House of Representatives, you must be a super governor to survive it.”
The dispute comes amid the emergence of the Kwara Rainbow Coalition, a multiparty political arrangement involving aggrieved politicians and groups in the state who are backing President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.
The coalition includes The Otoge Progressives (TOP), a group comprising prominent politicians who became estranged from the Kwara APC following disagreements over the party’s candidate selection process.
One of the major developments arising from the crisis was the defection of Kwara Central Senator Saliu Mustapha from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he later emerged as the party’s senatorial candidate.
Wike argued that AbdulRazaq should appreciate that the aggrieved politicians moved to a PDP faction supporting Tinubu rather than joining parties opposed to the president.
“These senators you removed, you have no place for them. Therefore, did you prefer them to go to ADC or to go to NDC, which is opposing Mr President fervently?” Wike asked.
“They now came to PDP and they said since you are supporting Mr President and I still want to support Mr President, let me have the ticket from the PDP.”
The FCT minister accused the governor of subsequently portraying the political development as a plot to install candidates across Kwara State.
“Instead of you to appreciate us that we didn’t allow them to go to ADC or NDC, that they came to Wike faction which is supporting Mr President, you are now saying I am the one sponsoring candidates in your state,” he said.
Wike also dismissed claims linking his political activities in Kwara to former Senate President Bukola Saraki.
“The Governor of Kwara State now takes this propaganda to their own level, saying that Wike is now sponsoring a candidate in Kwara because I am supporting Saraki. I don’t understand the basis,” he said.
The former Rivers State governor maintained that his support for Tinubu did not mean the PDP had agreed to abandon its electoral ambitions in states controlled by the APC.
“Did I have any agreement that now that we are supporting Mr President, PDP will not have any candidate anywhere?” Wike asked.
He advised AbdulRazaq to adopt a more strategic approach to managing competing political interests within his camp instead of blaming others for the resulting crisis.
“You have to be strategically minded as a governor to say, what strategy am I going to apply in order not to have crisis?” Wike said.
