2027: Any PDP Presidential Candidate Is Paperweight – Fayose

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, has declared that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) does not have the capacity to win the 2027 presidential election.

He added that any candidate who contests the 2027 election on the platform of the PDP is a paperweight politician.

“If anyone comes out for the presidential election under the PDP, he will be a paperweight. That’s the truth,” he said during Tuesday’s Politics Today interview on Channels Television.

His submission comes at a time when the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, criticised the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, over controversy regarding his Rainbow Coalition, saying his support is only for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027 and that he never promised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not field candidates in governorship, National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections.

Naija News reports that Wike’s remarks come after Governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) resolved not to support political alliances or parallel structures that could undermine Tinubu’s re-election bid or weaken the ruling party ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The position was announced on Monday night by the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Uzodimma, after a high-level meeting of APC governors at the Imo State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja.

Reading the communique issued after the meeting, Uzodimma said APC governors had agreed to focus exclusively on candidates sponsored by the ruling party

However, in a statement on Tuesday, through his Senior Special Assistant to the Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, Wike reiterated that his support for the reelection of Tinubu remains sacrosanct.

Wike clarified that the rainbow coalition has nothing to do with the All Progressives Congress (APC), describing it as a platform for other political parties pleased with the President’s good works and supporting his reelection.

The former Governor of Rivers State recalled that he and other members of the G5 did not meet with the APC before supporting Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election, and the same principle will guide his position in 2027.

Taking a swipe at Uzodinma, Wike said politics is no longer about coming from fourth position to become governor, but about mobilising support and winning elections at the polling units.