Sunday Southerner – Main Lead
President seeks truce among groups
What started as an improvised political arrangement, Rainbow Coalition, designed by Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and former governor of Rivers State, to harness the various political groups in the country to work for the reelection of President Bola Tinubu, has instead snowballed into deep divisions within the ruling party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
From from being a customised platform for the Wife’s Rivers State, the transmutation of the Rainbow Coalition into a national patent under Wike’s direct control has elicited stiff push back from APC governors who fear their local party structures may be upended by Minister’s blitzkrieg.
Led by Hope Uzodimma, governor of Imo State and chairman of APC Governors, also known as the Progressive Governors Forum, majority of its 31 members have bonded to fight the FCT Minister who has not disguised his intention to make his Rainbow Coalition a national template for reelecting President Tinubu.
Wike, a prominent PDP member serving in the APC-led administration, has promoted a cross-party political arrangement designed to back the President’s 2027 re-election while allowing participants to keep separate party affiliations for other positions.
But the PGF declared that APC governors will not endorse or participate in any parallel political structure outside official party lines. The governors argue that Wike’s coalition threatens to undermine APC candidates in state and legislative races.
The governors have not taken kindly to Wike’s bold and daring allegation calling them lazy either. But a tacit endorsement of Wike’s classification of them as lazy by the Presidency has whipped up indignation among them, leading to some of them demanding that President Tinubu choose between them and Wike.
Sunday Southerner however learned that within the confines of Aso Rock, the position of the governors is not being downplayed either. There is apprehension that the APC party machinery may be headed for a civil war which can potentially atrophy the presidential campaign.
Wike has hit back at the leadership of the PGF and Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) chairman AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, dismissing the objecting governors as politically lazy, while claiming that their resistance stems from personal ambition regarding future National Assembly leadership roles.
Inside sources reveal that there are also indications that the dispute has divided state executives, with some governors reportedly sympathetic to Wike’s approach to securing presidential votes, while others—including Uzodimma and Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani—remain fiercely protective of the party’s grassroots structure.
Governors of Imo and Kwara States have openly rejected any arrangement that could weaken the party or its candidates. The governors have maintained that their political structures will support APC candidates at all levels, without any alliance to the Rainbow Coalition.
The disagreement has become increasingly personal, with Wike accusing both governors of working against his own political interests. The governors and their allies, in turn, have criticised Wike’s intervention in state-level politics.
On returning from his extended “working vacation” in France, Tinubu will have to navigate the thinly veiled animosity between the FCT Minister and the Progressive Governors. Both protagonists are crucial to the strategy for ensuring the President’s victory in January. Mm
Despite still professing not to be a member of APC and wielding enormous influence in the opposition PDP, Wike enjoys the implicit confidence and support of Aso Rock. He has hinted about grabbing a major shot in Tinubu’s campaign.
Meanwhile, Jigawa State Governor, Umar Bamadi and his Nasarawa State counterpart, Abdullahi Sule have openly joined the ranks of APC Governors opposed to Wike. Their recent outbursts suggest a deeper crack in the house.
Already, there are hints that some of the aggrieved governors may have reached out to both the African Democratic Congress (ADC) led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Nigeria Democratic Congress, (NDC) led by former Anambra State Governor, Peter.
Details of the outcome of the meetings with the ADC and the NDC have not been made public, although there are disputes as to whether such a dialogue held in the first place.
An APC chief who confided in the Sunday Southerner told Sunday Southerner that the governors don’t want to w of rk with the Minister, who they claim is working at cross purposes with their ambitions.
“The APC governors believe that Wike is not interested in their ambitions, either for a second term or a likely return by some of them to the Senate. All he is thinking about is Tinubu. He doesn’t care if the governors lose”, said the party chieftain
The President’s return from vacation may however help to stem the tide and steady the course. Tinubu, a master strategist, may need more than a thinking cap to put the APC back to its once solid structure base.
