TENSION that had simmered for months within the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the immediate political circle of President Bola Tinubu has finally spilled into full public view, setting the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, against a bloc of governors elected on the party’s ticket and raising hard questions about how the President intends to keep his political allies together as the 2027 general elections approach.
In this Sunday Political features, News Point Nigeria dissects and analyses the situation, examining the widening disagreement between Wike and the APC governors, the emergence of the Rainbow Coalition, the growing number of aggrieved APC figures gravitating towards Wike, and the political calculations that now place President Tinubu at the centre of a dispute between two camps that say they are ultimately working towards his re-election.
The immediate trigger was a closed-door meeting of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) in Abuja last Monday, presided over by Imo State Governor and Chairman of the forum, Hope Uzodimma. The governors subsequently made it clear that they would not support political alliances or arrangements that, in their assessment, could weaken the APC, undermine its candidates or create divided loyalties ahead of the 2027 elections.
Accounts of the meeting indicated that the forum resolved that its members would throw their weight behind official APC candidates alone, refusing to endorse candidates emerging from an outside coalition. The argument was straightforward: supporting candidates outside the APC fold could dilute the party’s strength, create confusion among voters at the grassroots and split loyalties within the ranks.
Speaking for the governors, Uzodimma warned against arrangements capable of fracturing internal loyalty or adversely affecting President Tinubu’s re-election bid. The governors’ position, as subsequently reported, was that their campaign commitment would remain focused on Tinubu and candidates sponsored by the APC.
But beneath the language of party loyalty is another political calculation: self-preservation.
The governors’ fears may not necessarily be about the President alone. Their concern is also about what could happen to their own political structures if Wike’s Rainbow Coalition, allowed to operate without restriction, begins to produce candidates outside the APC who nonetheless remain aligned with Tinubu.
There is a precedent that continues to resonate in Nigerian politics. During the days of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), when its governors agreed to work for the re-election of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, only Tinubu, as governor of Lagos State, survived the political aftermath. His other colleagues lost their states, while Obasanjo emerged as one of the greatest beneficiaries of the political realignment.
For the current APC governors, the lesson from that period is difficult to ignore. They may be willing to work for Tinubu, but they are equally conscious that a political arrangement designed to strengthen the President at the national level could produce unintended consequences for them at the state level.
And that is where Wike’s Rainbow Coalition becomes particularly sensitive.
Wike has met the governors’ position with open defiance rather than an attempt at reconciliation.
Appearing on Arise Television, the FCT Minister flatly denied ever seeking the governors’ endorsement for his Rainbow Coalition, a political grouping that, according to him, brings together politicians from rival parties who are mobilising support for Tinubu’s re-election rather than working for the APC as an organisation. His position is consistent with his subsequent public clarification that the coalition is focused on Tinubu’s presidential bid, while political parties remain free to field candidates in other elections.
“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.”
His pushback did not stop there.
Wike described the governors as “politically lazy” and questioned their capacity to understand the political strategy behind the coalition. He also compared their approach to that of fraudsters who talk big but lack a practical strategy for delivering votes to the President.
The minister has equally worked to place himself beyond the governors’ reach by repeatedly invoking his direct relationship with the Presidency.
“There is nothing that I do that I don’t tell Mr President. I am not answerable to APC governors,” he said. That statement goes to the heart of the dispute.
For the governors, the issue is party structure. For Wike, the issue is the President and the broader political objective of securing his re-election.
The two positions may appear compatible on the surface, but they become difficult to reconcile when the coalition supports politicians contesting on platforms other than the APC.
The confrontation did not appear overnight.
Political analyst Uche Igwe has traced its origins to the period when Wike was appointed FCT Minister, arguing that the appointment unsettled existing power arrangements among Tinubu’s southern allies, where Wike and Uzodimma both wield considerable influence but do not necessarily pull in the same direction.
Wike himself has alluded to this, arguing that the disagreement between him and some of the governors predates the current Rainbow Coalition controversy. In his recent response to the PGF, he said some of the governors were unhappy with President Tinubu’s decision to appoint him as FCT Minister.
Former South-East spokesman for Tinubu, Denge Josef Onoh, has also placed the present confrontation within the wider sweep of Wike’s political history.
He pointed back to the G5, the group of PDP governors who withheld their support from the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2023 election after Wike’s own presidential ambition within the PDP ended with Atiku securing the ticket.
Onoh argued that the episode ultimately benefited Tinubu by widening the cracks within the PDP, a precedent that he believes deserves attention as the latest disagreement unfolds.
That history is important because Wike is not entering the current contest as an untested political actor. His role in the 2023 election demonstrated that he could operate across party lines and deploy political influence outside the formal structure of the party to which he belonged.
What lit the fuse this time is the Rainbow Coalition project itself, which Wike has spent weeks publicly championing as his contribution to securing Tinubu a second term.
The concept is built around drawing politicians and political actors from different parties towards Tinubu without necessarily requiring them to formally defect to the APC.
Wike has spoken of the coalition’s potential to keep expanding, citing the visit of Osun State Governor-elect Ademola Adeleke to President Tinubu as evidence, in his interpretation, of a wider political realignment.
But this is precisely what troubles the APC governors.
From their perspective, every candidate who emerges outside the APC and subsequently wins an elective seat is potentially another position lost by the ruling party, regardless of whether that politician personally supports Tinubu.
The governors therefore see a fundamental contradiction: how can a coalition support Tinubu while simultaneously producing or backing candidates who could defeat APC candidates at other levels?
Wike’s answer has been that his commitment is specifically to Tinubu’s presidential re-election, not necessarily to every APC candidate contesting other offices. That distinction has now become one of the central fault lines in the dispute.
A President preparing for re-election can ill afford an open confrontation between his governors and one of his most prominent ministers becoming a public spectacle.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has already sounded the alarm.
One of its spokesmen, Ima Niboro, warned that the disagreement could damage the party’s fortunes in 2027 if it is allowed to fester, while also describing the dispute as an internal disagreement among allies pursuing the same broad objective.
The dilemma before Tinubu cuts both ways.
The governors control the party structures in their states. They have access to local government networks, grassroots organisations and, in many cases, the political machinery that translates a presidential campaign into actual votes.
Wike, whatever his national profile, does not directly control those structures across most of the states.
But Wike has positioned himself as the politician broadening Tinubu’s appeal beyond the APC’s traditional base. His Rainbow Coalition is designed to attract politicians who might otherwise remain neutral or support an opposition candidate.
His development projects in the FCT are also arguably one of his major political credentials within the ruling administration.
The question, therefore, is not simply whether Tinubu supports Wike or the governors. It is whether he can accommodate both political strategies without allowing one to destroy the other.
The governors want party discipline and control over party candidates. Wike wants freedom to mobilise support for Tinubu across party lines. Both claim to be working for the President.
And that is what makes the disagreement particularly difficult for Tinubu to resolve.
So far, President Tinubu has kept his own counsel publicly. That silence has fuelled calls for him to intervene. Niboro’s appeal to the President, framed around Tinubu’s political experience and capacity to settle the disagreement internally, is itself an indication that no decisive public intervention has yet emerged.
Wike, meanwhile, maintains that Tinubu is already fully aware of his political activities and, by implication, comfortable with the coalition.
“There is nothing that I do that I don’t tell Mr President,” Wike has said. The statement places the President in an awkward position.
If Tinubu is fully aware of Wike’s activities, then the governors are effectively challenging a political strategy being pursued with the knowledge of the President.
If, on the other hand, the Presidency ultimately sides with the governors, Wike could interpret that as a withdrawal of political space from a project into which he has invested considerable effort.
While the disagreement between Wike and the governors continues, another development has added a new dimension to the story.
A growing number of aggrieved APC members and former party leaders have begun aligning with the Rainbow Coalition, according to findings reported by Sunday PUNCH. The development has further sharpened internal tensions within the ruling party ahead of 2027.
A national leader of the APC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the Rainbow Coalition as an alternative platform for aggrieved APC leaders and an extension of President Tinubu’s political platform for the purpose of actualising his re-election.
According to the APC leader, many party figures were gravitating towards Wike because of the way the governors handled the party’s primaries.
“Wike has the support of the President on his Rainbow Coalition. It is an alternative platform for aggrieved APC members who may want to join the ADC (African Democratic Congress). So, instead of joining the ADC, they move to the PDP where they will be given a ticket or recognition with assurance from them that they will work for Tinubu.
“Anybody who left the party (APC) for ADC is considered as an enemy, but if you join PDP, which is led by Wike, you are not a threat. PDP or Wike’s Rainbow Coalition is an extension of the APC.
“Wike is taking care of the national leaders of the APC. He is generous and also delivering projects. The President is happy with him. A lot of APC leaders are supporting him, and don’t be surprised if the number of APC governors reduces in 2027. Wike is playing a very good game,” he said.
Another APC official, also speaking anonymously, said party members who felt aggrieved by the outcome of the primaries had resolved to work for Tinubu even if they did not support APC candidates in their respective states.
He argued that the President’s victory remained the overriding concern.
“The victory of Mr President in the next year’s election is sacrosanct and remains our major concern. Whatever Wike and the APC governors are doing is of lesser concern because, before now, some people who felt cheated by their governors in the party’s primaries have joined Wike.
“Wike is a strong mobiliser for Mr President’s re-election, so how do you think we will work against him on that? The governors should have managed the post-primary crises very well.
“The governors believe they have the power to decide who becomes what; who they will give a ticket and all that. Other members of the party who felt cheated also have the right to form an alliance with anybody that will protect their interest. The ultimate goal is for Tinubu to win a second term,” he said.
Findings cited by Sunday PUNCH indicated that aggrieved APC leaders in several states had left the party or aligned themselves with Wike’s political structure.
The names and locations highlighted included Kwara, Gombe, Cross River, Osun, Katsina, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Ogun, Jigawa and Ondo, where prominent APC figures who lost nomination battles or fell out with their state leaderships were reported to have defected to the PDP.
In Kwara, aggrieved APC leaders, including Dr Tajudeen Olesin and members of The Otoge Progressives, declared support for Wike’s Rainbow Coalition.
Olesin said he joined Wike’s camp after what he described as maltreatment in Kwara APC politics.
He described the disagreement between Wike and the governors as “technical”, arguing that the governors were opposed to the minister because they did not want opposition political structures in their states.
“The issue is highly technical. Our President has never for once complained about Wike’s Rainbow Coalition. Some governors approached Wike that they should not field candidates in their states, including Kwara. Is that democracy? Why are you afraid of opposition?
“If you have done well for your people, why would you be afraid of opposition? Any governor who has performed well need not worry about the opposition,” he said.
Olesin described the Rainbow Coalition as an alternative platform for delivering victory to Tinubu.
“I contested under APC and left the party to join Wike’s camp, and he welcomed me. In PDP, we have agreed that we don’t have a presidential candidate; we are supporting Tinubu. If we give him our votes and the APC brings its votes, that will amount to bloc votes, instead of taking our vote to another party. So, what are the governors afraid of?”
Apart from Olesin, Senator Saliu Mustapha, who represents Kwara Central, was also listed among those who left the APC for the PDP while declaring support for Wike’s coalition.
Two members of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Saba Gideon and Olushola Odetundun, were also identified among APC members who moved to the PDP.
In Osun, Senator Olubuyi Fadeyi, representing Osun Central Senatorial District, left the APC after losing his return ticket and picked the PDP ticket with Wike’s support.
In Katsina State, two members of the House of Representatives, Shehu Tafoki and Shehu Dalhatu, were reported to have dumped the APC for the PDP.
In Ondo State, former APC chieftain Idowu Mafimisebi, who lost the party’s ticket for Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency, was reported to have left for the PDP alongside an aspirant for Ondo South Senatorial District, Matthew Oyerinmade.
In Ogun State, former House of Assembly aspirant Mustapha Owolabi was also reported to have defected from the APC to the PDP.
Other notable APC chieftains reported to have joined the PDP included former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, and former Gombe South APC senator, Anthony Yaro.
These movements are significant not simply because of the individual names involved, but because they demonstrate the possibility of an alternative political network emerging around Wike outside the conventional APC structure.
Olesin also offered his interpretation of why some APC governors are resisting Wike.
He attributed the face-off to personal political ambitions, particularly those of Uzodimma and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
He claimed that Uzodimma was positioning himself for the Senate presidency in 2027, while Wike was supporting the return of the current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
“What is happening is that Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, wants to become the Senate President in 2027, whereas his governorship will finish by 2028. He plans to resign and give the governorship seat to his deputy, become a senator and contest for the position of Senate President.
“But Wike said he couldn’t support somebody from the South-East. If Asiwaju is coming back as the President, let the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, come back as well. That is why Uzodinma and the Kwara State Governor are fighting Wike,” he said.
Those claims remain Olesin’s interpretation of the political calculations behind the dispute and have not been established as fact.
The disagreement, however, clearly extends beyond the personalities involved. It touches on the larger question of who controls the political architecture that will support Tinubu in 2027 and whether that architecture must necessarily be identical to the APC’s formal structure.
The Special Adviser on Party Affairs to the Kwara governor, Mashood Alaka, offered a fundamentally different interpretation.
He alleged that Wike’s Rainbow Coalition was designed to build a political structure that could position the FCT Minister for the 2031 presidential race.
Alaka argued that Wike was using his support for Tinubu’s re-election to build alliances with politicians across party lines, particularly governors, ahead of the next presidential cycle.
He said the contradiction in Wike’s position was that the minister was seeking the support of politicians within the APC-led government for Tinubu while remaining a PDP member and supporting candidates of the opposition party at other levels.
“What Wike said to the APC governors, especially Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and Governor Hope Uzodinma, is out of order. He is a former governor and he knows how things work.
“The whole coalition thing is to mislead the APC into believing he is for them. Everybody knows that he has his own ambitions and is trying to get some of the governors to his side in 2027 ahead of 2031, so that he can be well-positioned to contest for the presidency,” he said.
Alaka argued that Wike should either remain in the PDP and operate as a member of the opposition party or formally join the APC if he intended to work within its political structure.
He also questioned the rationale of supporting Tinubu for the presidency while backing opposition candidates for the National Assembly.
“If you want to stay in the PDP, stay in the PDP. If you want to work with the APC, work with the APC.
“If truly he is supporting Mr President, he shouldn’t be fielding candidates for the National Assembly. If Mr President wins and his party is in the minority at the National Assembly, it is going to be an issue at the end of the day,” Alaka added.
He said the APC was capable of securing Tinubu’s re-election without Wike’s coalition.
The Kwara governor’s aide also dismissed concerns that political coalitions could threaten the APC administration in the state, arguing that the AbdulRazaq government had sufficient structures to deliver the party’s candidates in 2027.
But the FCT Minister’s camp has rejected the interpretation that Wike is using the Rainbow Coalition to prepare for a presidential bid in 2031.
Lere Olayinka, Wike’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication and Social Media, dismissed Alaka’s claim, describing it as a misunderstanding of the politics of power rotation between northern and southern Nigeria.
Olayinka told Sunday PUNCH that if Tinubu secured a second term, the South would have spent eight years in power by 2031, making another immediate continuation of the presidency in the South difficult under the rotation arrangement he described.
“By 2031, the South would have finished its eight years, so how can the presidency remain in the South after 2031? This should show you that they don’t know what they are talking about,” Olayinka said.
He explained that one of the reasons Wike supported Tinubu in 2023 was to support the emergence of a Southern president and that his support for Tinubu’s 2027 re-election was intended to sustain that arrangement for eight years before power returns to the North.
Olayinka also dismissed Alaka’s argument that Wike’s support for Tinubu while remaining in the PDP could create problems for the President if the APC failed to secure a majority in the National Assembly.
He said the composition of the National Assembly and the emergence of its presiding officers would only be determined after the election, based on which party secured the required majority.
“It is the party that produces the majority in the Senate that will produce any President of the Senate, and we are yet to have an election,” he said.
According to him, discussions about who would emerge as Senate President were premature because the matter would ultimately be determined by elected senators and their political party.
At the heart of the dispute is therefore a deceptively simple question: can support for Tinubu be separated from support for the APC?
The APC governors say the two cannot be separated. Their position is that a presidential campaign cannot be divorced from the candidates the party has sponsored at other levels because the strength of the President’s political machinery is tied to the strength of the party itself. Their formal rejection of outside alliances reflects that position.
Wike sees the matter differently.
His Rainbow Coalition is premised on the idea that Tinubu can attract support from politicians and voters beyond the APC, even where those politicians continue to belong to, or support candidates from, other parties. That is why he has repeatedly said the coalition is for Tinubu’s re-election, not for the APC as an organisation.
That distinction is politically significant.
A governor seeking to retain control of a state naturally wants the party’s candidates to win at every level. A presidential campaigner, on the other hand, may be prepared to accept a more complicated electoral map if it produces a broader coalition around the presidential candidate.
The danger for Tinubu is that both strategies could begin working against each other.
If the President comes firmly down on the side of the governors, compelling Wike to bring the Rainbow Coalition under strict APC control or to soften his public attacks on the PGF, he risks alienating a minister who has been central to his political strategy in the South since 2023.
Wike has already demonstrated, through his role in the G5 during the 2023 election, that he is willing to pursue an independent political strategy when he feels his interests have not been adequately accommodated.
A sidelined Wike, denied the coalition project into which he has poured months of public effort, could become a far less predictable political ally than one working in step with the President.
But if Tinubu instead openly backs Wike and effectively gives the Rainbow Coalition political space despite the governors’ objections, he risks a different kind of fallout.
The PGF could feel that its authority over party discipline and electoral structure had been overruled in favour of a minister who remains a member of the PDP rather than the APC.
Since governors control much of the party machinery in their respective states, a bruised PGF could potentially reduce its enthusiasm on the ground as the election approaches.
That disengagement would not necessarily have to take the form of an open revolt. Political organisations can also weaken through silence, reduced mobilisation and a gradual withdrawal of energy.
The PCC’s description of the dispute as a disagreement between allies pursuing a common objective may offer a clue to the kind of solution Tinubu could seek.
Rather than choosing decisively between Wike and the governors, the President could seek a compromise that acknowledges the value of the Rainbow Coalition to his re-election effort while protecting the APC’s formal structures and candidates.
Such an arrangement could involve allowing Wike to maintain the coalition as a broader pro-Tinubu platform while ensuring that it does not directly undermine sitting APC officeholders or the party’s candidates.
That would give Wike room to maintain his political project while allowing the governors to protect their political territory.
Given Tinubu’s previous efforts to broker political settlements, including his attempts to mediate the conflict between Wike and Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara, a negotiated settlement rather than a blunt ruling remains one possible path.
But such a settlement would require both camps to climb down from positions they have already stated publicly and forcefully.
What Happens If The Rift Is Left Unresolved?
Perhaps the greater danger lies in the President continuing to say nothing.
Every day the confrontation remains unresolved, it becomes more deeply embedded in the public narrative of an APC divided against itself at a time when the party is preparing for a difficult national contest.
Wike’s increasingly sharp rhetoric, including his accusations against named governors over what he describes as greed and political laziness, has transformed what could once have been regarded as private political disagreements into a public confrontation.
The governors’ decision to formalise their rejection of the Rainbow Coalition through the PGF has done the same from their side. The issue is now firmly in the public domain and therefore available for opposition parties to exploit.
The disagreement could also damage cooperation between the FCT Minister and APC governors in states where their combined, even if uneasy, political efforts may be necessary to deliver results for the President.
That is the kind of structural damage that can remain invisible until a campaign begins and suddenly becomes difficult to repair. For Tinubu, therefore, the challenge is not simply deciding who is right between Wike and the governors.
It is managing two political networks that both claim to be working for him but increasingly disagree on what that support should look like.
Wike believes the President needs a wider coalition beyond the APC. The governors believe the President needs a stronger APC.
The aggrieved politicians moving towards Wike believe the coalition offers them an alternative route to political relevance. The governors believe such a route threatens the party structures through which they seek to retain their influence.
And the President sits at the centre of all these competing calculations.
For now, the political contest remains one between competing interpretations of loyalty: loyalty to the President, loyalty to the party, loyalty to individual political structures and, ultimately, loyalty to the interests of those who control them.
The onus is on Tinubu.