Uzodimma Shrugs Off Wike Attacks, Unveils Fresh Media Push For Tinubu

Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, appears to have shrugged off the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike’s remarks, choosing instead to concentrate and deepen his campaign for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election through an expanded media grassroots engagement and mobilisation strategy.

Rather than engaging Wike in an escalating public war of words, Uzodimma, who is also the Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) and Director-General of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors (RHA), has intensified efforts to take the message of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to the local communities across the country.

Speaking on the initiative, the RHA Director of Logistics, Shehu Bala Usman, said on Tuesday that the latest phase of the strategy involves a wider media and public enlightenment campaign, with a weekly media outreach to be featured on Television channels, which is set to commence in the days ahead.

“It’s an effective use of digital and new media platforms to enlighten the general public of the Federal Government’s policies, counter misinformation, and connect the administration’s reforms narrative with the voters at the grassroots,” Usman said.

More recently, a group of lawyers had called on the FCT Minister to stop what they described as personal attacks on the Imo governor, to avoid conflict of interest and ensure proper coordination of the President’s re-election campaign.

Uzodinma nevertheless, has continued to concentrate on building a nationwide communication and mobilisation machinery for the Tinubu administration.

The Renewed Hope Ambassadors had earlier unveiled a digital platform designed to aggregate policy experts for reforms updates and other government information, while integrating social media channels to widen its reach.

The initiative also provides for citizen engagements and feedback, with the organisation’s structures extended from the national level to states, local governments, wards and polling units.

The RHA Director said the development represents an expansion of Uzodimma’s broader strategy of using media communication as a mobilisation tool ahead of the 2027 elections.

At a national mobilisation retreat in Abuja in June 2026, the Imo governor had warned that inadequate communication could create a distorted public perception of government policies and achievements, urging supporters to take the administration’s message directly to the grassroots.

He subsequently disclosed a mobilisation architecture covering the country’s 176,846 polling units, with appointed 25 canvassers at each polling unit — a structure he said would amount to 4,421,150 grassroots mobilisers.

Uzodimma has also used the RHA platform to rally support for Tinubu’s second-term bid, by instructing the National Directors and Coordinators in the 36 States including the FCT, to intensify grassroots mobilisation and public awareness of the administration’s programmes.

This approach suggests a shift of emphasis from the political exchanges surrounding the Wike-Uzodimma feud to the larger electoral objective of consolidating support for Tinubu and projecting the achievements of his administration.

The RHA said the media strategy is consequently being positioned not merely as an information campaign, but as a grassroots communication network capable of taking the Renewed Hope message into communities, markets, campuses, wards and polling units ahead of the 2027 presidential election and beyond.

Uzodimma had earlier said the 2027 election would test public acceptance of Tinubu’s reform agenda, arguing that supporters of the administration must do more to communicate its policies and achievements to Nigerians.

It would be recalled that the governor has been at the forefront of President Tinubu’s re-election, saying the President’s reforms and development initiatives had laid the basis for a second term.