‘We Have Endorsed Only Tinubu For Now’ — Wike Rejects Rivers Governorship Rumours, Reasserts Grip on a Still-Fractured Political Battlefield
Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike has publicly denied endorsing any candidate for the 2027 Rivers State governorship race, saying the only person his political camp has formally backed for now is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Wike made the declaration on Monday night at his official residence in Life Camp, Abuja, while addressing a joint gathering of stakeholders from the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress from Rivers State. He said clearly that he had not promised support to any governorship hopeful or aspirant for any other state-level office.
The core of Wike’s message was that succession decisions in Rivers are not for individuals to announce unilaterally. According to accounts of the meeting, he said decisions on endorsement would be left to party elders, with one report stating specifically that the process rests with the Chief Ferdinand Alabraba-led Elders Council. He also warned against a rush for endorsements and said the mistakes of earlier electoral cycles would not be repeated. His position was that Rivers politics would not be dictated by private promises, backroom claims or premature declarations.
That statement did not emerge in a vacuum. It followed a burst of speculation in Rivers politics over possible 2027 governorship alignments, especially around figures seen as close either to Wike or to Governor Siminalayi Fubara. Just a day earlier, reports said two prominent figures linked to the rival camps had publicly denied governorship ambitions: Edison Ehie, a Fubara ally and former chief of staff, and Boma Iyaye, an ally of Wike and a senior Niger Delta Development Commission official. Iyaye in particular was reported to have rejected claims that Wike had anointed him as a preferred candidate, while Ehie also dismissed circulated materials linking him to a possible run. Those denials showed how intense succession talk had already become, and why Wike felt the need to intervene directly.
Wike’s phrasing was also politically revealing. He did not merely say he was neutral; he said the only endorsement currently recognized by his camp is for Tinubu’s presidency. Channels Television reported him as saying his only commitment for now is support for Tinubu, a position he insisted he had never hidden. That matters because Wike remains formally associated with the PDP while simultaneously serving in the cabinet of an APC president and openly pledging support for Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027. In practical terms, his latest remarks reinforce the idea that his federal alliance is settled, even if Rivers succession remains deliberately unresolved.
The timing is important because Wike had only just spoken at the PDP’s 2026 national convention in Abuja, where he argued that the party would still be on the ballot in 2027 despite its internal fractures. At that convention, he praised loyalists who stayed through the party’s crisis and aligned himself with a Wike-backed PDP leadership outcome in which Abdulrahman Mohammed and Samuel Anyanwu emerged as substantive national chairman and national secretary. That sequence shows Wike trying to preserve influence inside the PDP structure while at the same time keeping his presidential support with Tinubu. The contradiction is not accidental; it is now one of the defining features of his politics.
His comments on Rivers also carried a warning to political actors within the state. Reports of the Abuja meeting say Wike told stakeholders that no governor from any state can impose a candidate on Rivers and that only a disciplined, united structure can hold political ground there. He praised the State House of Assembly led by Martin Amaewhule and suggested its role had been central to the current configuration of power. He also spoke of external attempts to divide his camp, saying opponents were uncomfortable with the coalition that had been built between Rivers stakeholders across party lines. That language suggests he sees the battle ahead not simply as PDP versus APC, but as a contest over who controls the dominant political machine inside Rivers, regardless of party label.
To understand why any Wike statement on Rivers succession carries such weight, it is necessary to place it against the recent constitutional crisis in the state. On March 18, 2025, President Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers State, citing governance paralysis, political breakdown and security risks, and suspended Governor Fubara, his deputy and the House of Assembly for an initial six months. Reuters reported at the time that the move came amid conflict between Fubara and lawmakers, alongside concerns tied to pipeline vandalism in the oil-producing state. The Presidency later said the declaration was necessary because the governor and the Assembly had become unable to work together, producing what Tinubu called a total paralysis of governance.
That emergency rule was eventually lifted on September 17, 2025. Tinubu announced the cessation of the emergency and restored Fubara, his deputy and the Assembly to office from September 18, saying intelligence and political developments showed a basis for constitutional order to resume. Reuters reported that the lifting reinstated democratic governance in the oil-rich state after six months of direct intervention. That restoration did not erase the political rupture; it only moved the struggle back into conventional institutions. The residue of that conflict is one reason succession talk in Rivers now triggers such intense reactions.
What Wike is doing now appears strategic. By denying endorsement, he prevents early consolidation around any single successor and retains negotiating leverage over multiple factions. By saying only Tinubu has been endorsed, he also sends a second message: his national alignment is fixed, and anyone seeking his future support in Rivers must first understand the larger presidential frame through which he now operates. That is why his statement is more than a denial. It is a reminder that he still intends to remain the central broker in Rivers politics, even while occupying a federal office outside the state.
The immediate effect is to cool speculation without ending it. Aspirants will keep testing the field, allies of Fubara and Wike will continue sending signals, and Rivers elders will now face greater pressure over when and how they speak. But Wike’s intervention has reset the public narrative for the moment. There is, in his telling, no anointed governorship candidate yet. There is only a structure, an unresolved succession contest, and one declared endorsement at the top of the ticket: Bola Tinubu for president in 2027. Whether that formula preserves order in Rivers or merely delays the next confrontation will become clearer as the state moves deeper into the pre-election season.
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