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By Emmanuel Oloniruha<\/p>\n
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has challenged candidates contesting in the 2027 general elections on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be prepared to struggle for power.<\/p>\n
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Wike, a national leader of the PDP, stated this during the party\u2019s 109th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Wednesday in Abuja.<\/p>\n
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\u201cNobody gives power. Nobody has done it. Power is taken; if you did not do so, it\u2019s your business.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou must fight for it to take it. Nobody gives power, and nobody is ready to dash you power. You have to struggle for it. You have to fight for it. You don\u2019t have to be afraid.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEvery time you complain, oh, the governor is this, what do you want him to do? To allow you to come and take power like that?<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf you\u2019re not serious, say you are not serious to struggle for power. When you take it, you appreciate it, not when they dash you and you don\u2019t know the meaning of it,\u201d Wike said.<\/p>\n
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He recalled his political journey through various struggles, including how he became governor when the incumbent belonged to a different political party.<\/p>\n
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Wike advised candidates, especially those running for governorship, to brace up for keen contests.<\/p>\n
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He said that in the present setting, most people were used to \u2018food is ready\u2019 politics.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou are used to people preparing something for you to come and eat, and you think it will always be like that. It cannot always be like that.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA time will come when there will be challenges in life and when you will be tempted in life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Wike said that he happened to come from a background where he never got anything on a platter of gold, recalling that when he contested for a local government chairmanship position, the matter went all the way to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen I don\u2019t see challenges, I know that something is wrong, but when I see challenges, I know success has come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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He noted that when the PDP was in power, many of its members were like spoiled children depending on their father for daily provisions, reminding them that the party was no longer at the centre.<\/p>\n
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He urged them to see themselves as children whose father is sick, and remain determined not to disappoint him.<\/p>\n
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The minister also advised party members to stop introducing religion into politics and electoral matters, challenging them instead to return to their bases and work for the party\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhy do you bring your faith to this race? Everybody go home, go and bring something, and put it on the table in 2027. Go and bring something.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI will bring something to the table here. Every NEC member has to bring something. If you bring a House of Representatives seat, you have done something.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf you bring a House of Assembly member, you have done something. But don\u2019t come here empty-handed; this is not a place for empty hands.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is a place where when you come, we look at the results of what you brought. That is what politics is all about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Wike advised party members not to be distracted by claims from the Tanimu Turaki-led PDP faction that it would sponsor candidates for all elective positions in 2027.<\/p>\n
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He explained that the access code to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) candidate nomination portal would ultimately determine legitimacy.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAs far as I am concerned, June 26 is when INEC will give access codes to political parties to upload results. Don\u2019t worry, we are good to go. Nobody is afraid; we will see who INEC will give the code to.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt is not about going to collect money from people and saying we are in court. Nobody is afraid of the court; courts are meant for human beings, not ghosts.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSo, we are here, we are not afraid. Let them continue going to court while we continue to prepare for our own election.<\/p>\n
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\u201cDon\u2019t worry, stop thinking about what will happen; the worst has happened,\u201d he said, adding that anyone who is not serious in the business of politics should leave.<\/p>\n
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The minister also challenged party members and leaders not to be afraid of intimidation, harassment, or arrest.<\/p>\n
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\u201cUse me as an example. There is nothing I have not seen. I\u2019ve seen everything, including intimidation,\u201d he said. (NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has challenged candidates contesting in the 2027 general elections on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be prepared to struggle for power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[39,37,38],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-2027generalelection","tag-nyesomewike","tag-pdpcandidates"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/images-7.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions\/60"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}