2027: APC Moves To Contain Widening Rift Between Wike and Governors

PHOTO CREDIT: Photo used in original publication courtesy of The Sun Nigeria / File Photo of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.
2027: APC Moves To Contain Widening Rift Between Wike and Governors
The national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is making moves to douse the escalating political clash between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and governors elected on the platform of the party over the so-called “rainbow coalition.”

The party is worried that the public confrontation could fester and affect President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election drive.

The crisis centers on the nature of support for President Tinubu. While both Wike and the APC governors are backing Tinubu’s second term bid, the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) insists that any mobilization for the President must also translate to support for all APC candidates – from governorship to National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly.

Wike disagrees, maintaining that his commitment starts and ends with President Tinubu.

The dispute became open after PGF Chairman and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, declared that APC governors would not support or endorse any alliance or arrangement that could weaken the APC or undermine its candidates at any level.

According to Uzodimma, the governors’ campaign structure will work exclusively for APC candidates.

In response, Wike said there was no understanding that opposition politicians supporting Tinubu must also campaign for APC candidates.

He stressed that the rainbow coalition is not an alliance with the APC, but an independent cross-party movement to mobilize votes for the President based on performance, similar to how he and the G5 governors supported Tinubu in 2023 without joining the APC.

The minister also took a direct swipe at Uzodimma, questioning APC’s electoral performance in Imo and the South-East in 2023, where the party won National Assembly seats despite securing less than 15% of the presidential vote in those states.

He argued that voters are sophisticated enough to vote differently in presidential and legislative elections, and that APC politicians should solve their local political challenges instead of expecting him to help them win.

Wike stated: “Politics is local… I won’t be the one to help people to win elections in their states. After the President must have been re-elected, we can all go and face elections in our states.”

Amid the media war, a member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) told Daily Sun that the party will intervene through multi-level engagement to streamline the arrangement.

The NWC member noted that the governors’ fear is that the rainbow coalition could mobilize voters for Tinubu at the top of the ticket, only to direct them to vote against APC candidates down the ballot.

He said: “Whatever rainbow coalition means, APC is a party, not a coalition… The fact that the coalition supports APC to elect President Tinubu does not mean therefore that APC members are supposed to vote for the candidates of other parties.”

He added that the situation requires strategic networking, not a public war of words, to ensure clarity for the electorate.
SOURCE: The Sun Nigeria.