Wike, APC Governors Clash Over Rainbow Coalition as 2027 Political Tensions Deepen

A growing political dispute between FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is exposing fresh tensions among President Bola Tinubu’s political allies ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The disagreement centres on Wike’s Rainbow Coalition, a political platform he says is designed to mobilise support for Tinubu’s re-election while allowing opposition parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to contest governorship and legislative elections against APC candidates.

Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, chairman of the APC Progressive Governors’ Forum, said the governors would not support any alliance capable of weakening the ruling party or undermining its candidates. He said their campaign commitment was exclusively to APC candidates at all levels.

Wike has rejected that position, maintaining that his support for Tinubu does not amount to backing APC candidates in every state. Through his spokesperson, Lere Olayinka, and during an interview on Arise TV, the minister said the Rainbow Coalition was separate from the APC and was focused specifically on supporting the President’s re-election.

The disagreement has also brought Wike into open conflict with some APC governors, including Uzodimma and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. Wike has accused the governors of being involved in political moves against him, while the governors have expressed concern over his efforts to mobilise politicians who could challenge their candidates in 2027.

Wike argued that voters can support different parties in presidential and state elections, pointing to the results of the 2023 elections in states including Imo, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi. He said his position was that stakeholders should prioritise the presidential election while allowing parties to compete independently in other contests.

The dispute has fuelled wider speculation among political actors about positioning for the 2031 political cycle and control of the next National Assembly. APC figures who spoke anonymously attributed the tensions to competing political interests, although those claims about individual ambitions were not independently established.

The PDP has defended Wike’s position, with its National Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Mohammed, arguing that supporting Tinubu does not mean abandoning the PDP’s participation in the 2027 elections. Meanwhile, the faction led by Tanimu Turaki criticised the arrangement, while its spokesperson, Ini Ememobong, said the political alliance between Wike and the APC-led government had created contradictions that were now producing conflict within the ruling party’s wider political network.

Efforts to obtain comments from APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka, his deputy Duro Meseko and the Presidency were unsuccessful before publication, according to the report. The competing positions leave the Rainbow Coalition as a significant point of disagreement among political actors as parties prepare for the 2027 elections.