Wike vs APC Governors: How Rainbow Coalition Row Puts Tinubu in Tight Spot Before 2027 Election

• FCT Minister Nyesom Wike publicly clashed with APC governors after the Progressive Governors Forum rejected his Rainbow Coalition project
• Wike called the governors 'politically lazy' and insisted he answers only to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, not to the governors' forum
• The APC's Presidential Campaign Council has warned the standoff could hurt the party's chances in the 2027 elections if not resolved

Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over nine years of experience covering politics, elections, public affairs, and governance in Nigeria and Africa.

FCT, Abuja - A dispute that had been building quietly inside the All Progressives Congress (APC) has now broken into the open, pitting FCT Minister Nyesom Wike against a bloc of APC governors and leaving President Bola Tinubu caught between two factions he cannot afford to lose ahead of the 2027 elections.

The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), chaired by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, convened a closed-door session in Abuja last Monday, September 14, and resolved that the party would back only official APC candidates, refusing to support anyone fielded through an outside coalition. The governors argued that endorsing candidates from other parties would weaken the APC's grassroots base and divide voter loyalty at a critical time.

Wike fires back at governors

Wike has shown no interest in backing down. Speaking on Arise Television, he flatly denied ever approaching the governors for support, saying:

"There is no day I went to the Governors' Forum to align with any rainbow coalition; there is no such day. I have never, one day, gone to the APC Forum for an alliance."

He went further, branding the governors "politically lazy" and likening their approach to that of people who talk big without a real plan for delivering votes. He also made clear he does not consider himself accountable to them.

"There is nothing that I do that I don't tell Mr President. I am not answerable to APC governors," he said.

Wike's Rainbow Coalition is designed to bring politicians from rival parties into Tinubu's camp without requiring them to formally defect to the APC. He has cited Osun State Governor-elect Ademola Adeleke's visit to the president as evidence that a broader political realignment is already under way.

What is at stake for Tinubu?

The APC's Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has sounded the alarm. Spokesman Ima Niboro warned that the public fallout could hurt the party in 2027 if left unresolved, even as he framed it as a disagreement between allies working towards the same goal.

Per Vanguard in a report on Sunday, September 20, political analyst Uche Igwe traced the tension back to Wike's appointment as FCT minister, which disrupted established power arrangements among Tinubu's southern allies. Former lawmaker Abdulmumin Jibrin has since rallied to Wike's side, arguing that the minister should not be publicly humiliated given his contributions to delivering the presidency in 2023.

The governors, for their part, control the party machinery, local government networks and the ground-level structures that mobilise voters and resources Wike does not command across most states. Former South-East Tinubu spokesman Denge Josef Onoh has drawn a parallel to Wike's role in the G5 bloc, which withheld support from the PDP's Atiku Abubakar in 2023, suggesting the current episode carries similar risks for whichever side misjudges its next move.

President Tinubu has not spoken publicly on the matter. That silence, observers note, has only allowed the rift to harden into a story of disunity the opposition can exploit, with the onus now firmly on the president to intervene before campaign season makes the damage far harder to undo.

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Wike vows to raise opposition's blood pressure

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Wike said his mission ahead of the 2027 elections is to ensure that opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku and Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate Peter Obi, remain politically unsettled and under pressure.

The FCT minister insisted there is currently no credible, organised opposition in Nigeria, saying internal divisions within the PDP had left the political landscape without a clear frontrunner to challenge President Tinubu.