***Says President has experience to resolve crisis lWike should explain Rainbow Coalition to APC govs —APC chieftain

By Olasunkanmi Akoni & John Alechenu

TO stop the prevailing face-off between governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister, Nyesom Wike, from harming the ruling party at the 2027 elections, the APC Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, has urged President Bola Tinubu to intervene.

Speaking on the issue, yesterday, APC PCC spokesman, Ima Niboro, who made the call, said the political dispute between the FCT Minister and the Progressive Governors Forum, PGF, over Wike’s cross-party initiative, the Rainbow Coalition, would be resolved internally soon.

The governors are at daggers-drawn with Wike’s Rainbow Coalition that had fielded candidates from rival parties in many states, saying it would not only hurt APC candidates but also the re-election of President Tinubu

Wike had described governors of the APC as “politically lazy”and accused prominent ones among them, including Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, following their opposition to his Rainbow Coalition, ahead of the 2027 polls.

The governors, led by their chairman Senator Hope Uzodimma, had earlier said they would not participate, support or endorse any alliance that could undermine President Tinubu’s re-election bid or affect APC candidates at any level.

However, Wike, in an interview on Arise TV on Tuesday, dismissed the concerns, arguing that his decision to support Tinubu did not mean he had abandoned his political party or agreed that other parties should not field candidates.

“They are politically lazy. When you have your local problems, don’t use Mr President as your excuse,” Wike, a kingmaker in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said.

The minister maintained that the disagreements surrounding his political activities did not start with his decision to support Tinubu, recalling that he had faced opposition even when he was serving as governor of Rivers State and later as FCT minister.

“This thing did not start today. It started at my appointment as a minister. They were not happy that I was Minister of FCT. Also, they were unhappy when I was governor,” he said.

Wike said his knowledge of the political situation is greater than that of those criticising his activities, suggesting that his critics would understand his position better if they had access to the information available to him.

“If they know what I know, they would not come out to shout,” he said.

The former Rivers State governor also insisted that his support for Tinubu remains unchanged, arguing that supporting the President is separate from the activities of his political party.

APC-PCC reacts 

Reacting to the exchange on Arise TV, yesterday, Niboro described the dispute as an internal disagreement between allies who share the same top-line goal and will be resolved internally.

“I consider this a quarrel among political siblings. They are all working in the same direction, but there are differences in the details. Both camps agree that President Tinubu must return in 2027.”

Addressing criticisms regarding Wike’s influence and the governors’ anxieties over state-level elections, Niboro urged APC leaders to cease public media battles and focus on grassroots campaigning. 

“If you’re a political leader, stop talking, go and work. Go and establish authority in your political base,” he urged.

Despite concerns that the friction could fragment party structure ahead of the 2027 general elections, the PCC spokesman expressed confidence that the party’s machinery, particularly President Tinubu possesses the political experience required to reconcile the competing factions and manage the party’s expanding coalition.

His words: “The ultimate beneficiary of this entire process is the President. The quarrel we are talking about is a quarrel that is trickling down to states and local government areas. But both camps agreed on re-electing the President. I do not see it as a direct challenge to the President himself, beyond the fact that he is a leader and it’s in his interest to intervene for peace.

“If I were the President, for instance,you know, the President is an astute, very experienced politician, you cannot take that from him, I think he is networking these people. I know that. You see this kind of quarrel, you remember when we used to be in the PDP, sometimes the party gets so big, it becomes its own opposition.

‘’Those days, (Vincent Ogbulafor and) Ali Modu Sheriff used to say that PDP will rule for 60 years and there’s no opposition, but PDP itself became its opposition.

“That’s how you had the breakaways from PDP and all those issues that led to the demise of PDP governance in this country. So, these are the issues that happen when you have big parties. It is inevitable. So, they have to be managed.

‘’These things have to be managed, and we have a leader who I think is competent enough to manage these things, and he will. Take my word.”

Wike should meet APC governors, explain his Rainbow Coalition —  APC chieftain

Also reacting to the feud, a chieftain of  APC, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, urged Wike to meet with the party’s governors and explain his proposed Rainbow Coalition aimed at mobilising support for President Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.

Igbokwe said Wike remains an important political stakeholder whose influence could not simply be disregarded.

“Wike is a critical stakeholder You can ignore him to your own peril. He has a command. He has followers,” Igbokwe said.

However, he questioned the timing and approach of the Rainbow Coalition, saying Wike needed to consult the APC governors and explain his intentions to them.

“Coming at this time, to put this (Rainbow Coalition) on the table, it’s not… he has to listen to the majority, sit down with the governors and explain,” he said.

According to him, the disagreement should be resolved through conversations rather than public exchanges between the minister and the governors.

“No man is an island. Explain to your colleagues what you are trying to do,” he added.

Beware of pretentious govs, Osita urges Tinubu

Igbokwe spoke as former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu, cautioned President Tinubu to be wary of some APC governors pushing him to dump Wike.

He said yesterday in Abuja that the issue should have been handled within the party and not in the open.

The former VON boss said: “In my 48 years in party politics, I have never seen where such an elementary issue was pretentiously thrown open. May I ask the governors: don’t you have access to Mr. President, and what is the proverbial caucus meant for? My summation is simple: Mr. President, beware of pretenders.”

Okechukwu described those behind the call as “a few pretender governors, FPGs, ” who, according to him, have abandoned their people after using them.

“To the best of my knowledge, some of these FPGs have wittingly or unwittingly used their electorate and recklessly abandoned them, and now want Mr. President to dump Wike,” he said.

He further cautioned Tinubu not to fall into what he described as a booby trap linked to political inheritance in states where some governors had failed to deliver dividends of democracy.

The APC chieftain argued that it would be wrong to dump Wike after benefitting from his political structure in 2023.

He said: “Truly, it is improper for Mr. President to dump Wike after we harvested the Wike masquerade, which not only boosted our great party’s votes in 2023, but also denied Atiku Abubakar substantial votes, and will mobilise voters in states where the FPGs had alienated the electorate by personalising power.”

On the claim by the progressives governors that they would lead Tinubu’s campaign, Okechukwu said the President had never sidelined them, adding that what he needed was extra votes.

“Mr. President has never overlooked the governors. All he wants is supplementary votes from Wike, especially in states where the electorate is angry and where some of the FPGs have alienated the people.

‘’The governors should concentrate on strengthening their relationship with the electorate rather than asking Mr. President to abandon a political alliance that could broaden the APC’s electoral reach.”

Okechukwu who is also a foundation member of the APC, urged the President to keep his options open and sustain a broad coalition ahead of 2027.