The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, has opened up on why the immediate-past governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, visited him, stressing that the Minister-designate is fully ready to cooperate with the ruling party.
According to Ganduje, Wike will boost APC chances in the 2027 general elections.
Ganduje made the revelation during a solidarity visit by a former governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, to the APC national secretariat in Abuja.
He said, “You know Wike is an honourable minister-designate, so he came, we discussed it because I was looking for him, to congratulate him for that. He also came to congratulate me.
“We discussed that when he becomes a minister fully, he will work very hard in order to move the ministry he is given forward and he is ready to cooperate. But we didn’t discuss the issue of his coming to APC or not coming to APC. That issue will arise later.”
However, he said, “Having Wike will certainly improve the chances of this our party, especially in 2027 and not only that, we are coming out with a new blueprint to increase the followership of the party and this will include all strata of officials; those who are in the APC and those who are in other political parties.
“I assure you, very soon, some of the political parties will even merge with the APC. We are doing that underground. But the spirit of national unity does not mean the spirit of one party in Nigeria. Spirit of national unity means spirit of national competence and spirit of national capacity.”
Meanwhile, Ganduje also has pleaded with Nigerians to be patient with President Bola Tinubu, saying his decision to remove the fuel subsidy was not an attempt to play the masses.
He spoke when the Chairman of the Nigerian Legion, Major General Abdulmalik Jibrin (retd.), led a delegation of directors and secretaries of the dissolved APC presidential campaign council on a solidarity visit to the national secretariat in Abuja.
He said, “President Bola Tinubu was honest to Nigerians. He did not play a game with the removal of subsidy. He was very honest, even in his efforts to provide a solution to the effect of the subsidy removal.”
