‘APC Governors Against Wike’s Rainbow Coalition’

Powerful blocs within the All Progressives Congress (APC) are raising concerns over the National Rainbow Coalition associated with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, warning that the arrangement could hurt the party’s candidates and President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in the 2027 general elections.

Naija News reports that Wike, a prominent figure in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has maintained that the coalition is committed to Tinubu’s re-election. He has argued that his critics are opposing him because of his decision to support the President.

However, some APC figures and individuals close to the party’s governors are worried that the coalition’s decision to field candidates on other party platforms could confuse voters and split votes on election day.

The concern has reportedly become pronounced in states including Rivers, Kwara, Gombe and Cross River.

Speaking during a media chat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, last week, Wike accused Imo State Governor and Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, Hope Uzodimma, and Kwara State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, of spearheading opposition against him.

“Take for example, Kwara, he has been the one championing this campaign against me everywhere. Yes, I have confronted him too. I don’t talk about what I cannot defend,” Wike said.

The minister said AbdulRazaq had accused him of backing candidates opposed to his preferred choices in Kwara.

Wike argued that rather than criticising him, the governor should appreciate his role in providing a political platform for aggrieved APC members who left the party and joined the PDP instead of aligning with groups opposed to Tinubu.

He also recalled his disagreement with Uzodimma, saying the Imo governor had previously refused to support him despite the assistance he claimed to have given him.

Despite the disagreements, Wike insisted that his priority remained securing Tinubu’s return to office.

He said he had never hidden his political position and challenged those accusing him of working against the APC to identify the support they had given him during his own political struggles.

However, a senior source close to the APC governors who spoke with Vanguard said the coalition could confuse voters and ultimately reduce the votes Tinubu secured.

Sources close to the President also claimed Tinubu had been briefed that the coalition could affect his performance across several states.

According to the sources, governors raised the concerns during a recent meeting in Abuja.

The coalition has reportedly fielded candidates under the PDP for National Assembly seats that will be contested alongside the presidential election in 2027.

APC figures fear that the arrangement could create a situation where voters who support Tinubu at the presidential level vote for opposition candidates in legislative elections.

The sources argued that the coalition’s strategy could confuse voters, particularly in rural communities where voting patterns often follow a single political party across different ballot papers.

They said supporters could be encouraged privately to vote for PDP candidates while publicly maintaining support for Tinubu.

According to the sources, such a strategy could damage both the APC’s National Assembly candidates and the President.

They cited previous elections as examples of situations where voters supporting a presidential candidate ended up voting against the presidential candidate’s party at other levels.

In Oyo State during the 2023 election, for instance, the PDP, which controlled the state, reportedly lost National Assembly seats as voters supported Tinubu’s presidential bid.

A similar pattern occurred in the South-West in 2003 when supporters of then-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s re-election backed him while the Alliance for Democracy lost several governorship and National Assembly seats across the region.

The then Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, was reportedly among the major political figures who survived the trend.

The situation has also raised concerns over the strategy of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress.

Atiku has continued to campaign for voters to support the ADC at all levels, with his political strategy expected to focus heavily on the North-West and North-East.

An APC source warned that Tinubu could be vulnerable if he fails to secure strong support in other regions.

“This will hurt Tinubu badly if he does not get maximum votes from North-Central and South-East,” the source said.

The political alliance involving Wike has also become a source of concern in Kwara, where former Senate President Bukola Saraki is reportedly working with the FCT minister.

Saraki is a political rival of Governor AbdulRazaq, raising questions within APC circles over how a coalition claiming to support Tinubu could simultaneously work against the ruling party’s candidates at the state and legislative levels.

However, sources stressed that the issue was not restricted to Kwara. They said similar political alignments were developing in Gombe, Cross River, Zamfara and other states.

In Cross River, elements associated with the PDP, Labour Party and the Obi movement, as well as ADC supporters, have reportedly formed an alliance to challenge Governor Bassey Otu.

The development has reportedly unsettled some APC governors, who are said to be pushing for intervention by the party leadership.

The governors are concerned that the coalition could weaken the party’s candidates at different levels and create an unusual voting pattern in which a voter supports Tinubu for president but rejects APC candidates in other contests.

A source said the party leadership needed to act quickly to prevent the situation from worsening.

“The rainbow coalition poses more dangers to the president’s re-election and needs to be addressed urgently,” the source stated.