Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The tension that had simmered for months within the All Progressives Congress and the immediate circle of President Bola Tinubu has finally spilled into full public view, setting the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, against a bloc of governors elected on the party's ticket, and raising hard questions about how the president plans to keep his disciples intact heading into the 2027 election.
The governors staked out their position at a closed-door session of the Progressive Governors Forum in Abuja last Monday, presided over by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma. Accounts of that meeting indicate the forum resolved that the party would throw its weight behind official APC candidates alone, refusing to endorse anyone emerging from an outside coalition. Their reasoning centred on the fear that backing candidates beyond APC's own fold would dilute the party's strength, sow confusion among voters at the grassroots, and split loyalties within the ranks. Speaking on behalf of the group, Uzodimma warned that the party had no appetite for arrangements likely to fracture internal loyalty or put Tinubu's second-term ambitions at risk.
Wike has met the governors' position with open defiance rather than any attempt at reconciliation. Appearing on Arise Television, he flatly denied ever seeking the governors' endorsement for his Rainbow Coalition, a grouping that pulls together politicians from rival parties who, by his account, are mobilising for Tinubu's re-election rather than for the APC as an organisation. His pushback did not stop there. He went on to brand the governors as "politically lazy," and compared their handling of the matter to fraudsters who talk big but lack any real strategy for delivering the president votes. The minister has also worked to place himself beyond the governors' reach by 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.
This confrontation did not appear overnight. Political analysts trace its origins to the day Wike was named FCT minister, an appointment that unsettled long-standing power arrangements among Tinubu's southern allies. Wike is a PDP member who served as governor of Rivers State and later emerged as one of the most influential figures in the opposition party's internal politics. After losing the PDP presidential ticket to Atiku Abubakar in 2022 and subsequently falling out with Atiku, President Tinubu appointed Wike as FCT Minister in August 2023. The immediate tension centres on Wike's decision to support Tinubu's re-election bid while remaining outside the APC and retaining his PDP membership.
Wike has argued that his support for Tinubu does not require him to support APC candidates in governorship, National Assembly or other state-level contests. His position is that politics is essentially local and that politicians can support a presidential candidate while backing different candidates at the sub-national level. That position has brought him into direct conflict with APC governors, whose political survival and influence are tied to the success of APC candidates in their respective states. Nigeria currently has 31 APC governors, following a series of defections from opposition parties, giving the ruling party an unusually large network of elected state executives.
The confrontation became more pronounced when Uzodimma, who chairs the Progressives Governors Forum, made it clear that APC governors would not accept a parallel campaign structure operating outside the party but seeking to influence the presidential election. The governors' position is essentially that if Tinubu is contesting on the APC platform, the party's governors and structures should constitute the principal machinery for his presidential campaign. Wike, however, has rejected the argument that supporting Tinubu automatically obliges him to support APC candidates.
The APC South-East leadership has thrown its weight behind the governors. The leaders condemned recent attacks by the FCT minister on members of the Progressives Governors Forum, declaring that the APC is bigger than any individual. They also rejected Wike's Rainbow Coalition, insisting that all APC candidates must receive the party's support in the 2027 general elections. A former South-East spokesman to President Tinubu, Denge Onoh, attributed the face-off to what he described as Wike's long history of using political alliances to weaken established political structures. He noted that Wike's political platform had previously fielded 405 National Assembly candidates and 23 governorship candidates under the PDP, arguing that the minister's political network remained connected to the opposition party despite his membership of the APC-led Federal Executive Council.
President Tinubu is set to intervene in the growing face-off, with a senior presidential aide disclosing that the intervention was likely to take place abroad before the end of the week. President Tinubu is currently on vacation in France. The aide said Tinubu would engage the parties in a bid to resolve their differences and ensure that all parties work together ahead of the coming election. The planned intervention comes amid fresh tension over Wike's Rainbow Coalition and the decision of APC governors to distance themselves from any political arrangement capable of undermining Tinubu's re-election or weakening the party. The outcome of Tinubu's intervention will be closely watched, as it could determine whether the ruling party enters the 2027 election season united or fractured.
For now, the president faces a delicate balancing act. On one hand, Wike has proven to be a formidable political operator whose Rainbow Coalition has attracted aggrieved APC leaders and could help mobilise support for Tinubu in critical states. On the other hand, the 31 APC governors represent the party's most important grassroots structures and their loyalty is essential to any nationwide campaign. Choosing one over the other carries significant risks. Analysts say that if not meticulously handled by the President, the development could threaten his re-election bid. The coming days and weeks will reveal whether Tinubu can broker a truce that satisfies both sides, or whether the feud will deepen and become a defining issue of the 2027 campaign.
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