Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike promised ₦10 million to councillors who deliver wards for President Bola Tinubu, Premium Times reported, tying cash to grassroots mobilization for the 2027 election.
Premium Times said Wike made the pledge Monday, Nov. 9, during a gathering of Rainbow Coalition stakeholders in Kwali Area Council. Traditional rulers, political stakeholders and residents attended, the newspaper reported. TheCable said Wike’s media aide, Lere Olayinka, confirmed the pledge.
“Any councillor that delivers his ward will get N10 million reward,” Wike said, according to Premium Times. He called for outreach across local political and civic groups.
Reports differ about which councillors qualify. Premium Times, TheCable and BusinessDay described the beneficiaries as FCT councillors. Channels Television reported that the offer applied to councillors nationwide, while New Telegraph said it extended to states where the Rainbow Coalition had been accepted. The accounts leave the pledge’s geographic scope uncertain.
Premium Times and Punch also described the mobilization goal as backing Tinubu and other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates. Wike’s quoted pledge, however, specified delivering wards to the president.
Wike has cast the Rainbow Coalition as a cross-party initiative and previously urged other states to adopt the FCT model. At an Oct. 23 meeting in Kuje Area Council, he described cooperation among APC and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) figures around shared development goals, according to EconoTimes’ earlier report on his appeal to other states. Separately, the Wike-led Rivers coalition endorsed Tinubu and named a slate of 2027 candidates, as EconoTimes reported in its coverage of the coalition’s slate.
The reports identify councillors as the intended beneficiaries but do not name who would finance the payments. They give neither a payment date nor a definition of what counts as delivering a ward. The accounts also leave open whether the same terms would apply beyond the FCT.
