Governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have rejected political arrangements they believe could create parallel structures and weaken the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The position has brought the governors into an open political disagreement with Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, over his Rainbow Coalition, which he says is aimed at mobilising support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.
Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, announced the governors’ position after a closed-door meeting at the Imo State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja late Monday.
Uzodimma said the governors would not participate in, support or endorse any alliance capable of undermining Tinubu’s re-election, weakening the APC or affecting the party’s candidates at any level.
He said the governors’ campaign activities would remain focused exclusively on candidates contesting under the APC platform.
According to Uzodimma, the governors also want to avoid arrangements that could result in divided loyalty or competing political structures within the party.
The development comes amid growing political activity surrounding Wike’s Rainbow Coalition, which has been operating across party lines in support of Tinubu’s 2027 presidential bid.
The disagreement has also generated political tension in states including Rivers, Kwara, Gombe and Cross River, as politicians position themselves ahead of the 2027 elections.
Wike responds
Wike has rejected the suggestion that his coalition is an APC structure or that his support for Tinubu means he will support APC candidates in other elections.
In a statement issued through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, the FCT minister said his commitment for 2027 was to mobilise support for Tinubu’s re-election.
He stressed that he had never promised to prevent the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from fielding candidates for governorship, National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections.
Wike maintained that the Rainbow Coalition was a platform bringing together politicians from different parties who support Tinubu, rather than an arrangement controlled by the APC.
He also said political disputes within individual states should be handled locally rather than being linked to the President’s re-election campaign.
The former Rivers State governor recalled that he and other members of the G5 supported Tinubu in 2023 without first reaching an agreement with the APC.
Wike further challenged the argument that the Rainbow Coalition could confuse voters, pointing to the 2023 elections in states including Imo, Ebonyi, Abia and Enugu, where voters supported different parties in presidential and National Assembly elections.
He argued that his priority was to secure support for Tinubu at the presidential level, while political parties remained free to contest other positions.
PDP backs Wike
The Peoples Democratic Party has also defended Wike’s position, saying his support for Tinubu does not prevent him from retaining his political identity within the PDP.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, said Wike had a constitutional and democratic right to decide which candidate he wanted to support.
The party argued that supporting Tinubu did not amount to joining the APC or abandoning the PDP.
Jungudo said the APC governors should allow opposition parties to field candidates rather than attempting to determine whom Wike could support or which candidates could contest against them.
He described Wike as a significant political figure and said the PDP remained committed to participating in the 2027 elections and fielding candidates.
The dispute therefore centres on how Wike’s cross-party support for Tinubu will operate alongside the APC’s campaign structure and the PDP’s plans to contest governorship and legislative elections in 2027.
Source: Vanguard
