By Yinka Giwa
The internal turmoil rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has deepened, with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, warning that any move to bring former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, back into the PDP would spell doom for the party.
Speaking during his monthly media chat yesterday, Wike said Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, was courting disaster by suggesting that Obi could be considered for the party’s 2027 presidential ticket.
“Bringing Obi to where? You want to kill the party?” Wike asked pointedly. “Obi was abusing PDP, saying it is rotten — so the party is now good enough for him? Ambition can make people even go to Satan’s house.”
The minister warned that readmitting Obi and handing him the presidential ticket would destroy the PDP, which, he stressed, was already struggling to contain internal conflicts. “One thing people don’t understand is that if you already have a problem, don’t add new ones. Restrict yourself to the small one you have. Bringing Obi back will finish the PDP,” he declared.
Wike, who has been at the centre of the party’s prolonged crisis, also cautioned that the PDP’s scheduled national convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, in November 2025, may not hold if lingering disputes are not resolved. He insisted that the issue was not the venue, but whether the groundwork had been done to ensure a credible convention.
“We have held conventions in different venues before — Port Harcourt, Abuja. The venue is not the matter. The matter is whether the problems leading to the convention have been addressed. If not, there is every likelihood the convention will not hold,” he said.
The FCT minister said the PDP had begun taking steps to resolve grievances, but warned that if they were not addressed satisfactorily, aggrieved members would be forced to act. “If resolved, no problem. If not, of course people will take action,” he added.
Wike maintained that the party would have collapsed long ago if not for his commitment. “If we don’t love PDP, by now you won’t even be hearing that name. I don’t need to be a governor to do what I want to do. No opposition party can survive with a serious crisis. It’s our love that has kept PDP alive,” he said.
He stressed that the survival of the party depends on resolving internal disputes, not arrogance and impunity. “The duty of an opposition party is to solve its problems. It is not by adding more through reckless decisions like bringing Obi back,” Wike said.