By Hauwa Umar
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has dismissed claims that Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, automatically became the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state after his reported defection to the ruling party.
Wike spoke on Monday, December 29, 2025, during a media parley in Port Harcourt, insisting that party leadership is rooted in the party’s grassroots structures—especially the ward and local government layers—rather than being conferred simply because someone occupies the office of governor. He argued that the idea of a state “001” leader or a centralised party register is alien to internal party organisation, stressing that members register in their wards and authority flows upward from there.
The former Rivers governor acknowledged that sitting governors are often regarded, politically, as party leaders in their states, but maintained that leadership must still be “earned” by influence and control of party structures, not assumed by title.
The comments come weeks after Fubara publicly announced his switch from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC. The governor declared the move at a stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, amid escalating political tensions in the state.
Reports of the defection have further reshaped Rivers’ already volatile political landscape, which has been dominated for months by a protracted struggle between Fubara and his predecessor, Wike, alongside wider disputes involving competing power blocs and party structures. The Guardian also reported that the governor’s second-term ambition has remained a major flashpoint in the crisis, with claims—attributed to sources—about understandings allegedly reached during reconciliation efforts brokered in 2025.
Meanwhile, Wike’s latest intervention has triggered renewed debate over who truly controls APC structures in Rivers, especially as influential voices within the ruling party have begun openly urging support for President Bola Tinubu and Governor Fubara ahead of the 2027 general elections.