Tinubu: Wike inaugurates Rivers campaign council, directs it to recruit 5 new voters daily

By Omeiza Ajayi ABUJA: The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Nyesom Wike, has inaugurated the Presidential Campaign Council for Rivers State and directed its members to recruit at least five new voters daily to deliver votes for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election. Wike, who performed the inauguration on Thursday, set a target of three million votes for the president in the state.

He called for hard work, focus and issue-based campaigning, and dismissed recent confusion over appointments into the committees. “I am sure by Monday the list of the chairmen and members of the various sub-committees will have been prepared so that the chairmen can kick-start by inviting their various committee members. It is very important,” he said.

The minister said victory in Rivers was not in doubt. “Everybody knows that we are going to win election in Rivers State. So we are not talking about winning now,” he said. Wike recalled how the three million figure came up in a discussion with Senate President Godswill Akpabio. “He said, ‘How much is the registered votes here?’ I said, ‘over three million.’ He said, ‘Okay, you will bring three million.’ I said, ‘Well, we will try’.

I know that three million, if we work hard, it ia easy.” Wike urged members of the council to treat their appointments as an opportunity to work for the Rainbow Coalition, and called on them to stay united and disciplined in the face of provocation from the opposition. He cited the Olubadan and former governor of Oyo State, Oba Rasheed Ladoja who he said spoke a day earlier when the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) paid him a courtesy visit in Oyo State.

“He said if he was still in politics, if he was not a traditional ruler today, he would have joined Rainbow Coalition, that is the best way to bring every shade of opinion, members of other political parties to join hands to make sure that Mr. President is re-elected come 2027,” Wike said. Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State described the new council as bigger, wider and better coordinated than the structure that delivered victory for the president in 2023.

He said former political adversaries had now closed ranks to work together for the state and the president. “Nothing is impossible. The only thing that is not possible is to revive the dead. If we take this as a serious task that must be achieved, we will come out decisively with a stronger vote than what we did in 2023,” Fubara said. The governor assured members who were left out that they would be accommodated in the subcommittees.

He also warned against double-dealing and urged members to work with sincerity rather than profess loyalty in public while sabotaging the effort behind closed doors. “I am here, and I say it boldly anywhere, any day, in private and in secret: I have taken this position,” Fubara said.