A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Aliyu Farouk, has warned the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, to desist from making comments capable of overheating the political atmosphere.
Farouk was reacting to Wike’s recent description of some APC governors as “lazy” and “419ners” while speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Thursday.
Wike, who is serving in the APC-led Federal Government, has been promoting a Rainbow Coalition in Rivers State in support of President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.
His comments have, however, attracted criticism from members of the ruling party, with Farouk describing the remarks as inappropriate.
“I think the comments of Wike is in bad taste because the language he used to call our governors lazy, that’s really in bad taste. And we all members of APC reject that statement.
“We have a party to run, we have a country to run, and that instead of us, including Wike that tries to help the president, to be humble, to talk to people in a nice way, try to appeal to the sensibilities of Nigerians because there are certain things that as a government people are not happy with us.
“So it is very, very uncalled for someone that is trying to help us now to be insulting members of our party,” he said.
Farouk said Wike could not be compared with the number of governors currently working with the APC-led administration to support Tinubu.
“Wike is one person who is in charge of Rivers, according to him, and also in charge of FCT, the two states, and the other governors are 30 something governors, and other governors like that of Abia, governor of Osun, governor of Anambra, who are willing to come help Mr. President.
“So yes, we’re not happy with his comments, and we hope he will also desist from these kind of comments so that he does not overheat the polity. The polity, I mean, the country, it is not just APC,” Farouk added.
The development followed an earlier warning by the Chairman of the APC’s Progressive Governors’ Forum and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, that the party’s governors would not support any alliance or political arrangement capable of undermining Tinubu’s re-election or weakening the APC ahead of the 2027 elections.