Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has dismissed reports suggesting that former President Goodluck Jonathan plans to contest the 2027 presidential election.
Speaking during a media parley with journalists in Abuja on Friday, Wike said Jonathan has never discussed such an ambition with him.
“You’re the one telling me here. Jonathan has never told me; he has never called me one day to say, ‘Look, I’m being pressured to run — what’s your thinking?’ If he calls me and asks, I’ll tell him my mind,” Wike stated.
He described the circulating reports as mere speculation, adding that he would not rely on media rumours to draw conclusions.
“I will not assume it’s correct just because something appeared in the newspapers — just like when they said I had been flown out of the country,” he said.
Wike also denied knowledge of the alleged emergence of former Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN), as the consensus candidate for the position of National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“I don’t know about Tanimu Turaki becoming chairman. Maybe he becomes chairman of another faction — it’s not the PDP I know,” he stated.
Northern PDP stakeholders had recently endorsed Turaki as their preferred candidate ahead of the party’s national convention scheduled for November 15–16 in Ibadan, Oyo State.
However, Wike dismissed the planned convention as illegitimate, saying he would not attend an “unlawful gathering.”
“How do you want me to attend a convention that I know by law does not exist?” he queried.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that former President Jonathan is under pressure to shelve any political comeback and instead support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election efforts in 2027
