By: Ganiyu Olayinka
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has claimed that resistance from some All Progressives Congress governors to the proposed Rainbow Coalition is motivated by their own political calculations ahead of the 2027 elections.
Speaking on TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout on Monday, Wike said the coalition’s core purpose was to rally support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election, and that it would not stop politicians from contesting governorship and legislative races under their own party banners.
He specifically alleged that Imo State Governor and Progressive Governors Forum Chairman Hope Uzodimma was positioning himself to become Senate President once his term as governor ends.
Wike’s remarks come days after APC governors declared they would withhold support from any political alliance seen as capable of weakening the party or hurting its candidates in 2027. Uzodimma, who read out the forum’s communiqué on September 15, said the governors would back only APC candidates across the board.
Wike argued, however, that backing Tinubu for president does not mean abandoning candidates from other parties in governorship and legislative races. He pointed to the G-5 governors’ conduct in the 2023 elections, when members of the group supported Tinubu for president while their parties kept their own candidates in other races.
“In 2023, core leadership G5, we said we are going to support Mr President. But we never said that all our candidates in other elections will fail. We never said so,” Wike said. “Particularly in Rivers State, we supported Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; he won the presidential election. But in National Assembly election and the state election, PDP won.”
He suggested a similar split arrangement could play out in 2027, with politicians backing Tinubu for president while supporting their preferred parties’ candidates in other races. Dismissing concerns that this would confuse voters, he argued Nigerians have already shown they can vote across party lines. “Who will be more confused? Is it not my own candidates that will even be more confused when I’ve told them to support Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and then again, they now go back to support other candidates?” he said.
Wike alleged that some APC governors fear politicians denied party tickets could run on other platforms, win, and then refuse to back the governors’ preferred candidates. He claimed the governors were angling to shape the composition of the next National Assembly in order to control who becomes its presiding officers.
“APC in their ongoing party primaries, the governors, in their own wisdom, believe that they should be able now to put senators or House of Reps members who they will dictate to who will become the next Senate President or the Speaker,” he alleged, adding that lawmakers who lose APC tickets could defect to the PDP or other opposition parties, win, and then decline to support the governors’ choice for Senate President or Speaker. “The fear now is that, if they run and they win, it means that they’re not going to support him to be the Senate President,” he said.
Turning directly to Uzodimma’s reported ambitions, Wike said: “Mr. President will be inaugurated by May 29. This man’s office will expire by January, February 2028. Now, he wants to leave his office to run for Senate. Now, what does that mean? He wants to run for Senate President. Now, what he does is to say to his colleagues, ‘Look, let us, the governors, be the ones that will produce the senators that will produce members of the House of Representatives.’ And of course, some of the governors are not experienced. They buy in, thinking it’s going to make them powerful, not knowing that he has his own interests, his own agenda, to become Senate President.”
He was unequivocal about his opposition: “Life or death, I will never support a character of Hope Uzodimma to be the Senate President of Nigeria. Everybody knows that.” Wike insisted this wasn’t personal, saying the political calculations around 2027 should be judged on their merits rather than framed as a personal feud. He also alleged that some governors were pressuring him over his decision to remain in the PDP while backing Tinubu’s re-election, maintaining that his support for the president did not require the PDP to pull back its candidates elsewhere.
Wike also pushed back on reports that Tinubu had agreed to cede nine states to the PDP or the Rainbow Coalition as part of a political deal ahead of 2027, challenging those behind the claim to name the states involved. “The nine states, did they tell you the nine states?” he said. “Let us help Nigerians. Let’s get the facts. Who are… which are those states? Tell us. That they said the President agreed with me that he has conceded nine states.”
He said his main goal was securing Tinubu’s re-election and that he intended to campaign on the administration’s record, citing the president’s support for state police and what he called the devolution of resources and powers to sub-national governments. “Mr. President is showing his postcard. We are selling Mr. President what he’s been doing, why he should be re-elected,” he said.
Wike also said Tinubu was fully aware of the Rainbow Coalition and did not expect the president to step in and broker a truce between the coalition and APC governors, saying Tinubu understood his political activities and position on the matter. “As I speak to you here, Mr. President knows about my concept, of the rainbow coalition…. Mr. President understands me very well,” he said. He maintained the coalition was not meant to take over or weaken the APC, since politicians could back Tinubu for president while keeping their own party’s candidates in governorship and legislative races.
The disagreement follows the APC Governors Forum’s September 15 position that its members would not join, support or endorse any alliance capable of undermining Tinubu’s re-election, weakening the APC, or hurting its candidates and that they would back only APC candidates at every level in 2027.
Wike has previously accused Uzodimma and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of leading opposition to the coalition, while the APC governors have publicly framed their stance as protecting the party, its candidates and Tinubu’s re-election bid. Wike maintained that the Rainbow Coalition would keep working to mobilise cross-party support for Tinubu, arguing that the presidential race should not be conflated with governorship and legislative contests.
Attempts by this publication’s correspondent to reach APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka for comment were unsuccessful, as calls to his phone went unanswered. However, sources within the ruling party said the National Working Committee was working behind the scenes to broker peace between the two camps ahead of next year’s polls. The truce is expected to take shape once APC National Chairman Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda returns from vacation. “The party is leaving nothing to chance. Preparations are well underway, and once the national chairman returns at the beginning of the week, he will lead the NWC to meet with the President and discuss the best way to resolve the matter,” a party source said.
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