Reasons APC progressive governors are against Nyesom Wike – Onoh

Former Southeast Spokesman to President Tinubu Narrates the Controversial Trajectory of Nyesom Wike’s Legacy of Political Instrumentalisation as the Reason Behind Current APC Governors’ Confrontation

In a statement made available to journalists in Lagos, Denge Josef Onoh, former Southeast Spokesman to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, reacted to the media chat of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, in which the Minister attacked APC Governors.

Onoh stated that the political journey of Nyesom Wike, from his roots as a local government chairman to his contemporary standing, reveals a consistent, troubling pattern. Rather than a trajectory of independent statesmanship, it is a legacy defined by bitter political controversies and a recurring role as a political wrecking ball used by higher authorities to decimate political opponents.

Onoh narrated that Wike’s entry into prominent politics began during his tenure as the Executive Chairman of Obio-Akpor Local Government Area (1999–2007). Even at that grassroots level, his administration was marked by fierce local rivalries and dominance tactics. Recognising his aggressive political style, higher political actors quickly co-opted him. He was positioned as the Chief of Staff to the then-Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi. In this role, Wike was heavily utilised as an enforcement mechanism to consolidate power within the state, manage local political machinery, and neutralise internal dissenters within the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) structure in Rivers State.

Onoh described Wike as the wrecking ball of the Jonathan Presidency. Wike’s political utility reached a national scale when he was appointed Minister of State for Education, and later Acting Minister, under President Goodluck Jonathan. During this era, the presidency openly deployed Wike as a political weapon to wage a fierce proxy war against his former benefactor, Rotimi Amaechi, who had fallen out with the Jonathan administration. Wike effectively weaponised the federal apparatus, divided the Rivers State House of Assembly, and engineered a massive political assault that destabilised the state’s governance. He was the spearhead used by the presidency to punish political non-alignment and shatter Amaechi’s structure ahead of the 2015 elections.

On the structural limitations of Wike’s machinery, Onoh noted that the Minister frequently presents his political approach as an invincible national formula. Yet the 2022 PDP primaries demonstrated the clear limits of his national reach. At that time, Wike wielded immense structural control over the national PDP apparatus and its leadership. When the final votes were counted at Eagle Square, his machinery fell short against the superior alliances built by his opponents. That outcome proved that a highly centralised, state-dependent political structure does not automatically translate into national consensus. Wike’s political influence remains highly regionalised and should not be mistaken for a guaranteed nationwide electoral asset come 2027.

Reacting to the 2023 G-5 rebellion, Onoh said the buildup to the 2023 presidential election demonstrated Wike’s willingness to destabilise his own political house when his personal aspirations were checked. Before positioning himself as the champion of Southern rotation, Wike actively and aggressively contested the 2023 PDP presidential primary. Following his loss to Atiku Abubakar—a Northern candidate—Wike openly positioned himself and was widely reported to be under consideration as Atiku’s vice-presidential running mate.

If the absolute rotation of power to the South was an unbending, foundational principle, any consideration of a joint ticket with a Northern candidate would have been rejected from the outset. Instead, after being passed over for the vice-presidential slot, Wike formed the G5 Governors (Integrity Group) to openly oppose his party’s nominee, actively undermining Atiku’s campaign in Rivers State.

“While our then Tinubu presidential campaign astutely utilised Wike’s internal grievances to fracture the PDP’s traditional voting stronghold in the South-South and suppress the opposition’s numbers,” Onoh stated. “In fact, I was one of the few PDP former members in the Tinubu presidential campaign that suggested bringing Wike into our campaign, including my former Governor—a discussion I privately had with close associates of the President and a serving minister that I won’t mention their names. The timeline proves and vindicates my position that the G5 functioned primarily as a tactical tool born out of internal party friction rather than a rigid ideological commitment to regional equity. Once again, Wike acted as an instrument of destruction, breaking his own party’s backbone to the strategic advantage of higher external political beneficiaries. We the APC have rewarded him immensely and he shouldn’t take that gesture as a sign of weakness.”

Onoh further stated that Wike’s public criticism of South-East governors for failing to deliver an outright victory to President Tinubu in the 2023 polls lacks sound political logic. The South-East region was responding to a historic, indigenous electoral movement led by Peter Obi. The political reality was clear: if Peter Obi had been an indigene of Rivers State running with that same regional momentum, no single political structure in the South-South could have halted a total electoral sweep. Delivering a state against a distant external candidate is structurally distinct from attempting to halt an unprecedented home-grown movement. Wike faulting South-East governors on this metric is an empty comparison that misreads complex regional dynamics.

Compounding his regional friction, Onoh noted that Wike has courted controversy in Abuja by issuing aggressive demolition threats against properties belonging to prominent elites. The Minister must recognise that the administrative and political climate of the Federal Capital Territory is fundamentally different from that of Rivers State. Abuja is the diplomatic nerve centre of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, hosting international embassies, global media corps, and foreign missions. High-handed political methods deployed in state politics cannot be sustained in the nation’s capital. Any political friction, heavy-handed administrative actions, or disruption of civic rights in the FCT during election cycles will occur under the immediate scrutiny of the international community. Such occurrences risk undermining the perceived integrity of our national democratic process and causing severe, long-term damage to Nigeria’s foreign relations.

On the current face-off with APC Governors, Onoh said the reason is simple. Wike’s PDP fielded 405 National Assembly candidates to contest across the 109 Senate and 360 House of Representatives seats, and 23 governorship candidates across the states holding gubernatorial elections. Wike’s historical pattern of being an aggressive political instrument perfectly explains his current, volatile face-off with several APC Governors and the wider APC structure.

Wike’s political survival has always depended on maintaining a theatre of war. Having been absorbed into an APC-led administration while stubbornly trying to hold onto the remnants of the PDP structure in Rivers State, he now finds himself in a friction zone. Higher political forces within the national framework continue to tolerate and utilise Wike to destabilise opposition strongholds and manage geopolitical balances.

Progressive APC Governors, Onoh said, recognise Wike’s historical trajectory. They understand that a political actor whose entire career is built on being used to destroy political structures will eventually turn that destructive energy inward against the APC’s own internal cohesion. His self-styled Rainbow Coalition is simply his personal launch pad to negotiate a vice-presidential position for himself come 2031.

Onoh recalled Wike’s war with his successor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, and his threats to “put fire” in the states of APC and PDP governors who oppose him, as a continuation of his lifelong political methodology. He is attempting to use federal leverage to crush domestic rivals, even if it compromises the peace of the nation.

The impression amongst Nigerians regarding Wike, Onoh noted, is that the APC presidency utilises him as a tactical institutional wedge to keep the opposition permanently divided ahead of the next election cycle, while using him to enforce controversial federal land reforms in Abuja to absorb public backlash.

However, Onoh warned that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must carefully assess the long-term impact of Wike’s “Rainbow Coalition.” A parallel political arrangement that demands loyalty to the President while running opposing candidates against the ruling party at the state level is a direct threat to the APC’s internal cohesion. It introduces structural fragmentation and confuses the grassroots electorate.

“The presidency is fast approaching a definitive crossroads,” Onoh stated. “No administration can successfully govern or secure a national mandate by alienating the formal party executives and governors who command the legal machinery of our ruling party. If these boundary issues are not firmly resolved, the presidency will inevitably face a choice between maintaining the institutional loyalty of over 30 APC Governors or accommodating the highly volatile, independent actions of one single PDP Minister.”

In conclusion, Onoh said Wike’s political history shows that he is an unstable ally who eventually turns on his political benefactors. He must not be allowed to sacrifice the institutional foundation of the APC on the altar of his personal survival.

“Nyesom Wike’s political history shows that he is a master of tactical disruption, but always within a framework where his aggressive energy serves the macro-designs of higher political office holders. As he confronts our progressive governors across party lines today, we must look past the immediate noise and recognise a deeper truth: Wike remains a political instrument whose ultimate utility is conflict, and whose historical legacy is the systematic demolition of the very political houses that shelter him.”

*Signed*
Denge. Josef Onoh
Former Southeast Spokesman to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu